Ethan Bamber may be an adopted Brummie but it’s fair to say he has the city’s self-effacing nature down to a tee. After sealing Warwickshire’s ninth County Championship with one final explosion of bails, and watching captain Ed Barnard lift the trophy to cheers of “You Bears” from the stands, Bamber tried to credit anyone but himself and even claimed to be an “average cricketer”.
Average? Not so fast. No bowler in Division One has sent down more than Bamber’s 445.3 overs this year, nor can top the 69 wickets that he finished on after rattling Tom Scriven’s timbers to wrap up a comprehensive innings and 79-run victory over Leicestershire. The 27-year-old ploughed through all 14 games of the campaign, with his waspish brand of wobble-seam and swing consistently undermining batting line-ups in this slow-burn triumph.
And it was a slow burn. Nottinghamshire had the trophy, while Somerset had the alluring narrative of perennial runners-up potentially breaking the curse. But Warwickshire had the clinical edge it took to claim the prize, holding firm at the start of the season and moving into position to strike at the back end, winning five of their last six – seven overall – and suffering just one defeat. Their reward for staying the course was a golden celebration with loved ones on a sun-drenched outfield in September.
A calming influence as captain whose contributions with bat and ball have been myriad, Barnard was buzzing about a squad he took charge of in March when Alex Davies surprisingly stood down as captain. Bamber was “the nicest man in county cricket” and had gone up “four levels” since joining last year, while Sam Hain was “the most underrated” after another stellar season.
Hain’s 1,048 runs at 74.85 in a summer dominated by the Dukes ball underlined his seasoned quality, with Barnard grateful – if slightly confused – that England have not stolen his services in recent times.
Bamber was simply in a state of disbelief as the Warwickshire supporters who had sung his name to the tune of La Bamba by Los Lobos queued up for selfies. There were doubts in the past, with the move from Middlesex for Edgbaston a case of looking to discover his “ceiling”.
For Chris Woakes, who got things moving on the third morning when he pinged Sol Budinger’s middle stump from his beloved City End, that ceiling could be higher still. “Ethan may be the nicest guy you’ll ever meet,” said Woakes, who has earned similar praise during his own career. “But he gets the bit between his teeth on the field. He really gets in the battle and demands high standards of himself. That’s off the field as well. The hard yards he puts in. I’ve never seen anyone work as hard.
“He’s probably the fittest guy in our squad. He’s played all 14 games and it looks like he’d go for another 14. I feel like he deserves further honours. What that is at the minute, I don’t know. But I feel like he should definitely be in the conversation.”
Woakes was another of Barnard’s standouts, his experience coming to the fore during a number of clutch moments. And not least when he and Olly Hannon-Dalby – another club stalwart and the world’s most obdurate No 11 – guided the Bears to a nerve-shredding one-wicket victory over Sussex at the start of August and sent confidence coursing through the dressing room.
At 37, Woakes could easily have called time on first-class cricket when his Test career ended with that eye-watering dislocated shoulder at the Oval last summer; perhaps he could have cashed in on the franchise circuit before retirement. Instead, he chose to return to the grind and give something back to his boyhood club.
“I came into the game playing county cricket and I wanted to go out of the game playing county cricket,” explained Woakes, celebrating his third title after wins in 2012 and 2021. “It’s a bit of a pinch-me moment, standing here now.
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“After what happened last year, it was a case of ‘What’s my Everest? What’s going to get me out of bed in the morning?’ A trophy for Warwickshire was always the priority and it’s really nice to get it over the line. For the club to have won it nine times and to have three in my back pocket, that is pretty sweet.”
There was, of course, plenty more to this triumph beyond the headliners. A move to more result-oriented pitches at home helped, as did the adhesive hands of Rob Yates at second slip by claiming a record 39 catches across the season.
Two-day wins at Glamorgan and Essex during the run-in earned precious rest for the players – though plenty still came in to train – while the late-summer signing of Manav Suthar was inspired. The India Test spinner winkled out 27 wickets in just six outings, even with the quicks dominating.
And while Graeme “Pop” Welch again underlined his status as one of the leading seam-bowling gurus in the country, this campaign was also masterminded by an up-and-coming English head coach: Ian Westwood. Driven, methodical and imbued with the club’s DNA, the 44-year-old has been tactically simpatico with Barnard and overseen a set-up that has ticked off all the one-percenters.
They tend not to talk themselves up in this part of the world, but they really should.
