Unicorns were a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

team in England that was formed in 2010 specifically to play in the

Clydesdale Bank 40 The ECB40, last known as the Yorkshire Bank 40 (YB40) for sponsorship reasons, was a forty-over limited overs cricket competition for the English first-class counties. It began in the 2010 English cricket season as a replacement for the Pro40 a ...

limited overs Limited overs cricket, also known as white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed within one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty20 cricket (3-h ...

competition. They played in that competition until 2013 and from 2014 to 2018 the Unicorns team competed in the Second XI one-day and Twenty20 competitions. The 2014 season also included a 50-over match against Sri Lanka A.
Unicorns / Fixtures
' ESPN Cricinfo, Retrieved on 15 March 2014 Members of the squad were all players without current full-time contracts with one of the regular first-class counties. In only their sixth competitive game, Unicorns entered the record books for scoring the highest total in the second innings of a 40-over game, beating

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

by successfully chasing 325.
Durston ton sets up Unicorns' record chase
' Cricinfo, 23 May 2010, Retrieved on 25 May 2010 The team was wound up at the end of the 2018 season for financial and logistical reasons.

Formation

Provisionally called the ECB Recreation XI,Bolton, Paul

' Telegraph, 8 April 2010, Retrieved on 2 May 2010 the squad was selected by coach Philip Oliver,

Mark Alleyne Mark Wayne Alleyne (born 23 May 1968) is an English cricket coach and former first-class cricketer who made ten One Day International appearances for England between 1998/99 and 2000/01. He is the head coach at Gloucestershire County Cricket Cl ...

and

Min Patel Minal Mahesh Patel (born 7 July 1970) is a retired Indian-born English cricketer who made two appearances in Test cricket for the England cricket team. He was a right-handed batsman and a slow left arm bowler, who primarily played for Kent Coun ...

Parsons to captain Unicorns
' AOL Sport, 14 April 2010, Retrieved on 2 May 2010 from a pool of 200 players recommended to the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board, aka ECB, is the Sports governing body, national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test ...

in December 2009; the pool was reduced to 40 and 21 following training sessions over the winter.Cricinfo staff
Unicorns name squad for Clydesdale Bank 40

Cricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

, 13 April 2010, Retrieved on 2 May 2010 15 members of the squad are former county cricket professionals. Team Manager Gordon Child said, "The Unicorns squad is a balance of youth and experience...For the younger players aspiring to play first-class cricket this is an opportunity to learn from their more experienced team mates and really test themselves and understand the attributes needed to succeed at this level." The squad was captained by experienced professional Keith Parsons, the former

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

, who was playing

Minor Counties cricket The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

for

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

.
Unicorns in shop window
' BBC Sport, 27 April 2010, Retrieved on 2 May 2010

2010 Clydesdale Bank 40

Unicorns played in Group A of the

2010 Clydesdale Bank 40 The 2010 Clydesdale Bank 40 tournament was the inaugural ECB 40 limited overs cricket competition for the English and Welsh first-class counties. In addition to the 18 counties, Scotland and the Netherlands took part, as well as the Unicorns, a ...

, along with

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

and

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

; The competition was created for the 18 first-class counties, plus

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and a Recreational XI based on players from the

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

. Ireland declined to compete, thus leaving the competition one team short for the proposed three groups of seven format; and

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

took their place. Unicorns were created to play representing the Minor Counties, thus giving a new opportunity for younger players to gain experience and to learn from experienced professionals. Unicorns had no fixed stadium and played their home games at six different outgrounds (stadiums with occasional use by first-class counties). Their first competitive game was due to be against Surrey on 2 May 2010, but was abandoned without any play, due to rain. Both teams received one point. After a promising start in reply to

's 255/8 at

Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

, Unicorns collapsed from 207/4 to 211 all out, to lose their first full competitive game by 44 runs. Former

England international England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It shares a land border with Scotland to the north and anoth ...

bowler

James Kirtley Robert James Kirtley (born 10 January 1975) is a former English Test cricketer. He is a right arm fast medium bowler and a right hand batsman. After prep school at St. Andrews School, Eastbourne, he was educated at Clifton College. Kirtley is p ...

led the collapse, with four wickets in eight balls. Unicorns then lost by seven wickets to

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

. In their fourth group game, on 16 May, Unicorns recorded their first win. Batting first against

at Dean Park,

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

, Unicorns scored 231/8, including a

stand Stand or The Stand may refer to: Other * To assume the upright position of standing * Forest stand, a group of trees * Area of seating in a stadium, such as bleachers * Stand (cricket), a relationship between two players * Stand (drill pipe) ...

of 126 between Parsons and Knappett. Glamorgan were then restricted to 173. Unicorns then went on to hit the record books when they stunned Sussex, in complete contrast to their batting collapse against them earlier in the competition.

Wes Durston Wesley John Durston (born 6 October 1980) is an English cricketer who most recently played for Derbyshire, having represented Somerset between 1999 and 2009, and the Unicorns during the 2010 season. He learnt his cricket at Millfield School and ...

smashed 117 from 68 balls as they chased down a target of 325 to set the highest score (327/4) for a team batting second in the history of 40-over cricket. The third-wicket partnership between Durston and Josh Knappett, both making their highest List A scores, made 165 in just 18 overs. On resumption of the competition following the two-month break for

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

matches, Unicorns suffered a nine-wicket defeat to

, before chasing another large total (277 runs), this time set by

to win with two balls to spare; Michael O'Shea hit 90 from 62 balls.

Demise

The Unicorns team was scrapped after the 2018 season. The Minor Counties Cricket Association had reintroduced a T20 competition in 2018 and decided that the money spent on the Unicorns team would be better used to fund that T20 competition. There were also concerns about selection and whether the team was properly representative of leisure cricket.

Notes

References

* Lyles, Christopher, "Unicorns for real", ''The Wisden Cricketer'' May 2010, 95 {{DEFAULTSORT:Unicorns (Cricket Team) Cricket clubs established in 2010 Cricket clubs disestablished in 2018 Former senior cricket clubs of England 2010 establishments in England 2018 disestablishments in England

Formation

2010 Clydesdale Bank 40

Demise

See also

Notes

References