Suffering from MND, Gloucestershire’s Lawrence emotional after Blast title win

Gloucestershire, who last won a trophy way back in 2015 when they lifted the Royal London Cup, got a taste of success once again on September 14 (Saturday) as they beat cross-county rivals Somerset in the final of the T20 Blast 2024. 

This led to wild celebrations throughout Gloucestershire county and Gloucester city in South West England. During one such celebration, club legend David Lawrence, popularly known as Syd, posed with the trophy, which was brought to him by the hero of the match, Miles Hammond. 

Lawrence, who played 185 First-Class games and represented England in five Tests, remained a one-club man and has been considered one of the biggest names of Gloucestershire. 

The fast bowler, who used to spit fire with the red cherry in hand, is struggling to even move himself properly, being wheelchair-bound. He is suffering from Motor Neurone Disease (MND). Even after that, he was there at Edgbaston to see his club play the final and got very emotional on receiving the trophy from Hammond. 

Lawrence played for the County from 1981 till 1997. He has 515 first-class wickets to his name. 

On the Finals day of the Blast at Edgbaston in Birmingham, the team from Gloucester first beat Sussex by eight wickets as Tom Smith and Matt Taylor took three wickets each to bowl the Sharks out for 106. James Bracey hit an unbeaten 49. 

Somerset, who beat Surrey in the first semi-final, met Jack Taylor-led Gloucestershire in the final. While the two semi-finals were one-sided, the final turned out to be the same as Matt Taylor and David Payne combined to divide equally among them, six of Somerset's 10 wickets to fall for just 124 runs on the board. 

The chase proved to be a cakewalk as Hammond (58*) and Cameron Bancroft (53) hit half-centuries, and Gloucestershire reached the target with eight wickets in hand to lift their first-ever T20 Blast season. They had made it to the semi-final of the tournament twice before, in 2003 and 2020, and they had lost to Kent in the final of the 2007 season. 

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