Twelve months ago, Yorkshire were being tipped by many to if not win the County Championship, then certainly to go close. It didn't quite work out like that.
With a side light on experience, games were lost from seemingly impregnable positions. The home game against Nottinghamshire early in the season saw them go into day four looking to wrap up an innings victory. Six hours, a battling knock from Chris Read and a collapse of epic proportions later, they'd lost. It wasn't the first time that would happen either. Tim Bresnan spent more time on motorways after being surplus to requirements for England's Test summer and Jacques Rudolph's return to the side came too late to affect anything.
While results were poor, performances occasionally hinted at brighter things to come. A lot of the side were relatively young and showed plenty of promise, Joe Root and Jonathan Bairstow in particular. Other, more established players simply fell below their career standards, but had built up enough credit over the years to be given the benefit of large amounts of doubt. The feeling was that they'd bounce straight back and with some comfort.
The opening game of the county season saw Kent go to Headingley and thanks to a century stand for the last wicket, forced Yorkshire into following on before a battling second innings guided the Tykes to a draw. This was followed by a university game against the combined colleges of the Leeds and Bradford area where the students skittled the professionals for 135, a deficit of 76 on first innings. Oh dear.
This felt something like karma. There was an awful lot of bollocks spoken in regard to the relegation season. The supposed youth of the side, the invocation of bad luck and the presumption that they'd bounce back at the first attempt were all seen across the media and social networks. The side wasn't that young and it's not bad luck when the same things keep happening over and over again. Those first two games showed that bouncing back was not the foregone conclusion many seemed to think it would be.
And so to the game last week against Essex. With new signing Phil Jaques carrying the batting with 126 out of 246 first innings runs, the bowlers joined the party with Ryan Sidebottom - 5-30 in 24 overs - and Steve Patterson - three wickets in one over at one stage - impressing. The second innings saw runs from Root, Joe Sayers and the captain Andrew Gale who tried to set something up with a challenging declaration. Unfortunately, with day one a total washout and more rain on day four, there wasn't time to finish the job.
It's often said that you have to hit the bottom before you can start moving in the right direction - just see the national team for an example - and the games against Kent and Leeds/Bradford MCCU were if not the very bottom, certainly a wake-up call. With Jaques on board, the batting looks a lot better. A previously pop-gun attack stood up against Essex and the impending arrival of Mitchell Starc will do much to improve the bowling as a unit. There's now a real feeling that a corner has been turned. Positivity - never an attribute too closely associated with the average Yorkshireman - is suddenly an abundant commodity. The darkness of relegation was made worse by 'them from over the hills' becoming county champions, but now there's a real sense that dawn is breaking.
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