Glamorgan coach Jeff Hammond has been reflecting on the club`s early season form, which has seen the side, especially their batsmen, prosper in Championship cricket, end the first two rounds of the competition in third place of Divsion One, yet also lose all five of the zonal games in the Benson and Hedges Cup.

"I keep going back to last year, " said Hammond, "and I thought we would translate our good performances from 2000 into this season's Benson & Hedges Cup. But it hasn`t been the case, and losing the five zonal games has been a dampener to our ideals and objectives, especially as we thought we could do well in all four competitions this season. I'd be lying if I said that this hasn't affected the team's confidence"

"At least we have started well in the Championship and we can build on that in the next Championship match at Old Trafford against Lancashire"

Lancashire themselves had a modest campaign in the Benson and Hedges Cup and also failed to gain a place in the quarter-final stages of the competition. By next week`s game, Steve Watkin (groin) and Darren Thomas (side) should have recovered from their recent injuries, and with Owen Parkin continuing to recover from his foot injury, and Steve James fully fit after his knee operation, Glamorgan should soon be able to forget their early season injury worries.

Whilst it is true that Glamorgan have only once before lost all of their zonal games in the B&H competition, the start to the 2001 season is a long, long way from being the club`s worst start to the season.

That was back in 1922 when the county lost all twelve of their opening Championship games, including the first four all by the margin of an innings. The season began with defeats by an innings and 197 runs to Lancashire, by an innings and 258 runs to Yorkshire, by an innings and 205 runs to Nottinghamshire, and then by an innings and 48 runs to Sussex. In fact, it was not until July 7th that Glamorgan recorded their first draw of the summer, and then on August 1st they defeated Somerset at Weston-super-Mare by 117 runs.

As far as one-day cricket is concerned, Glamorgan are however quite close to one, rather unwanted record, as they have now lost 9 consecutive games in the limited overs competitions - the three at the end of the 2000 in the National League, as well as the opening game of the 2001 campaign and the five B&H games.

This equals their record in one day games, having twice before lost nine games in a row - in 1972/73 and 1980. Their longest ever run without a win was in 1972/73 when they went from July 19th, 1972 until May 8th, 1973 before recording another victory in limited overs games.

1972/73:

July 23rd       Lost to Leicestershire at Leicester by 10 wkts (SL)
July 30th       Lost to Lancashire at Ebbw Vale by 2 runs (SL)
Aug 2nd/3rd     Lost to Warwickshire at Edgbaston by 10 wkts (GC)
Aug 13th        Lost to Kent at Cardiff by 7 wkts (SL)
Aug 20th        Lost to Somerset at Glastonbury by 120 runs (SL)
Aug 27th        Lost to Surrey at Swansea by 3 wkts (SL)
Sept 3rd        Lost to Worcestershire at Colwyn Bay by 2 runs (SL)
April 29th      Lost to Yorkshire at Colwyn Bay by 24 runs (SL)
May 6th         Lost to Leicestershire at Leicester by 9 wkts (SL)


1980:

June 22nd       Lost to Somerset at Bath by 6 wkts (SL)
July 16th       Lost to Sussex at Hove by 104 runs (GC)
July 27th       Lost to Leicestershire at Ebbw Vale by 8 wkts (SL)
Aug 3rd         Lost to Kent at Canterbury by 55 runs (SL)
Aug 10th        Lost to Worcestershire at Worcester by 7 wkts (SL)
August 17th     Lost to Gloucestershire at Swansea on a slower scoring rate (SL)
August 24th     Lost to Warwickshire at Edgbaston by 4 wkts (SL)
August 31st     Lost to Middlesex at Cardiff by 11 runs (SL)
Sept 7th        Lost to Sussex at Cardiff by 5 wkts (SL)

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