The Steeler · https://thesteeler.news/history/gillette-cup-172816
'We never felt like underdogs': Northamptonshire's 1976 Gillette Cup triumph remembered
29.10.26, 20:50 Updated 30.10.26, 23:43
Fifty years before this year’s T20 Blast triumph, an unfancied Northamptonshire side defeated Lancashire, the kings of one-day cricket, at Lord’s to claim the club’s first-ever trophy.
While Peter Willey describes their opponents as the “Manchester City of cricket”, his fellow opener Roy Virgin asserts that the Northants dressing room remained quietly confident knowing they had a side that could compete.
A Lord’s final was new territory for Northamptonshire. Willey recalls: “We the players and the family got on the Wesley's coach, and it was a bit like going to the seaside, really. We'd never been in this position before, so we didn't know what to expect.”
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Jeremy Blackmore
Editoris the founder and editor of The Steeler. Jeremy is a freelance cricket writer and Wantage Road regular. He has written extensively for a host of publications including The Cricketer, The Cricket Paper, Wisden Cricket Monthly and ESPNcricinfo. He also covers Northamptonshire for the ECB Reporters Network.