By Neil Fissler

Gavin Haynes admits that he cannot hide his delight in denying Worcestershire’s arch rivals Warwickshire a clean sweep of trophies in 1994.

Warwickshire had already won the Championship and the AXA Equity & Law League, edging out Worcestershire by four points in the latter.

While Worcestershire also lost to them in the final of the Benson & Hedges Cup at Lord’s by six wickets, before they were due to meet again in the final of the NatWest Trophy.

But, unlike the July final when Warwickshire chased down 171 with more than 11 overs to spare, Worcestershire cruised home with eight wickets in hand.

He said: “We were clearly the two best one-day sides that season. And in the limited overs format I don’t think that there was an awful lot between us.

“If we played them ten times we would both probably win five games each, but they obviously had a better side in the Championship that year.

“Bowling sides out was more a problem in the Championship for us. We really struggled to bowl sides out twice.

“But we had Graeme Hick and Tom Moody and certainly with those two in one-day cricket we felt that we could beat anybody.”

Back at Lord’s for the NatWest final, Worcestershire won the toss and asked Warwickshire to bat first restricting them to223-9 from their 60 overs.

Haynes played a key part taking the wicket of West Indies superstar Lara for 81 just as he looked like he was starting to get going.

Haynes added: “Certainly at Lord’s in September with a 10.30 or a 10.45 start, it helped to win the toss. If you won the won the toss you inserted the opposition.

“I am certain that both sides would have bowled first and it was a big advantage to bowl first. That was a general thing in NatWest finals for a period of time.

“Lara got a lot of runs that season but in the NatWest final I got him out caught at deep square. I think he made an error rather than anything I did contributing to him getting out.

“You need to remember it was 1994 so we didn’t have plans for getting people out and certainly at the speed I bowled they wouldn’t have worked anyway.”

Poor weather took the match into the second day when Worcestershire were seen home by Hick and Moody with a third wicket stand of 198 with 10 overs and five balls to spare.

It came hot on the heels of Moody’s 309-run third wicket stand with Tim Curtis in the semi-final win over Surrey at the Oval.

Haynes continued: “I was the next man in so I watched Graeme and Tom knocking off the runs with my pads on. Getting out there to bat didn’t bother me I just wanted to win the game.

“It was all about winning the game, as long as we won the game it didn’t matter if we were one, two or nine down. We had to win that game.

“We had come so close in the other two games, we certainly didn’t want Warwickshire to win all four competitions that season.

“They were our major rivals so them not winning all four competitions was probably better than us winning just the one.”

BACK ROW (left-right):
Reuben Spiring: Batsman whose father Peter was a professional footballer. He ran RSH Airwear at Staverton Airport before becoming a fully qualified helicopter pilot.
Vikram Solanki: England ODI batsman is still playing county cricket for Surrey after spending 17 seasons at Worcestershire.
Parvaz Mirza: Bowler who was still on the books of Worcestershire when he died of a cardiac condition in 1995, aged 24.
Gavin Haynes: All rounder who is based in Kidderminster. Now running his own cricket coaching business.

MIDDLE ROW:
Jenny Smith: Left the county and started her own physio practice in Malvern Link until retiring in February 2014.
David Leatherdale: Batsman who stayed on at New Road and served Worcestershire as commercial director until becoming chief executive in October 2010.
Chris Eyers: Allrounder who is still based in Worcestershire and has been an account manager with First Milk for the last 15 years.
Adam Seymour: Batsman who is now a self-employed coach and works in ground maintenance while also training to be an umpire.
Phil Weston: Opening batsman is the son of England rugby international Mike. Based in Harrogate and is UK director for Elite Sports Properties.
James Brinkley: Scottish ODI bowler who became a school teacher and is now head of Boys Sport at Winterfold House School in the West Midlands.
Stuart Lampitt: The former seamer was Cricket Development Officer for the Worcestershire Cricket Board and is now working as a property developer.
David Houghton: Zimbabwe international batsman went into coaching and has held various jobs but is now the Middlesex batting coach.
Tim Edwards: Wicketkeeper who returned to his native Cornwall is now living and working in the county.

FRONT ROW:
Chris Tolley: Allrounder who became a PE teacher and since 2002 has been Academy Director at Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club.
Richard Illingworth: Slow left-armer was only the second Englishman to take a wicket with his first ball in a Test, West Indies’ Phil Simmons in 1991. He is now on the ICC elite umpire panel.
Neal Radford: Zambian-born pace bowler who played three Tests for England. Has run Radford Ezy Net, been a director of business development for Main Pointe and development director for Lexion.
Steve Rhodes: Keeper with 11 England Test caps. Became Worcestershire’s head coach and now director of cricket.
Tim Curtis: Opening batsman is now an English teacher and also acts as the director of sport at RGS Worcester. played five Tests for England.
Damian D’Oliveira: Middle-order batsman, son of New Road and England legend Basil. Was Worcestershire academy director when he died of cancer in June 2014, aged 53.
Graeme Hick: Zimbabwe-born England batsman who took up a coaching post at Malvern College. In January 2014 was appointed high performance coach at Cricket Australia’s academy.
Phil Newport: Swing bowler is currently a geography teacher and head of year at RGS Worcester where he also coaches cricket.
Tom Moody: Australian international batsman who has been coach of Sri Lanka and is now coaching SunRisers Hyderabad and who also works in the media.