He may have been voted player of the year by supporters, but in reality this was a curate’s egg of a season for Andy.

On the positive side, his performances in the Twenty/20 cup and Pro40 may signal he’s discovered the knack of turning attacking cameos into match winning one day innings – the way he led successful run chases against Derby and Notts in the Twenty/20 and the commanding 83 which set up the Pro40 victory against Durham being perfect examples.

But whilst he scored reasonably heavily in the championship overall, that final aggregate masked a season of great inconsistency, one where the majority of his runs (522 @ 65.25) came in a five match period between mid-June and the end of July. Earlier, a modest pre-season had foreshadowed an unproductive FP campaign and a series of championship innings where starts couldn’t be converted into something more substantial.  And if anything, the final championship run-in saw even more disappointing form, with only the obdurate first innings 60 at Hove making any meaningful contribution to Yorkshire’s fight for survival.

Yet despite that inconsistency, Gale’s contribution to Yorkshire’s championship campaign was significant, as his purple patch of mid-season form contained four innings whose worth can’t be measured in mere runs. Twice, Worcestershire away & Durham at home, he batted with the tail to take us to substantial first innings scores after the rest of the top order had been blown away cheaply. Twice, Nottinghamshire at home & Lancashire away, he played fluently on the final day, and under immense pressure, to see Yorkshire to safety. Without those innings, Yorkshire would have been defeated in a number of the games, sending a season already in crisis, spiralling out of control and towards probable relegation.

In the medium to long term, Yorkshire needs to find a successor to McGrath as the senior middle-order batsman. If Gale can address the issue of consistency throughout the season he seems a natural to take over the role, as he has already matured into an excellent team man and a versatile batsman capable of both attacking innings and long rearguard defence, depending on circumstance.

Championship – 16 matches, 828 runs @ 34.50

Friends Provident – 5 matches, 69 runs @ 13.80

Twenty/20 Cup – 10 matches, 383 runs @ 42.55

Pro40 – 7 matches, 245 runs @ 40.83

(Andy Gale photo: By kind permission of Dave Morton)