By Liam Blackburn
When Jack Shantry walked out to bat on day three of Worcestershire's clash against Surrey last month, he could scarcely have imagined that the next two days would remain etched in his memory forever.
At that point just after lunch, his team - who had lost their past two fixtures - were toiling in pursuit of the victory they needed to achieve promotion back to LV= County Championship Division One.
Seven wickets down and with their lead a meagre 37, Shantry wondered if the protagonists at New Road might be embracing a different sport 24 hours later.
"I think I asked (umpire) Nigel Cowley whether he was going to be playing golf the next day," he told ecb.co.uk.
"We were 37 for seven at the time and it was just after lunch on day three. The bookies would have said we'd have been home by tea-time."
The bookmakers do not always get it right, of course, and they certainly could not have predicted what happened next.
Batting at number nine Shantry compiled a 108-run stand with Joe Leach and moved past his previous-best score of 55 not out.
"Me and Joe Leach had a little chat together," Shantry explained.
"I knew that Stuart Meaker was going to bowl short at me because he'd hit me in the head and got me out in the first innings so I had a plan for that - I was going to give myself some room, get inside the ball and look to be aggressive in my reply to him.
"Leachy as well thought that he had better buy a ticket for the raffle and have a go, and it just came off for us."
Leach went immediately after bringing up his 50, but there was another milestone looming for the man at the other end - his maiden century.
"They took the second new ball and I think I went from 70 into the mid-80s in one over off Matt Dunn," Shantry added.
"I got hold of a few and when that happened I thought I'm seeing the ball really well here and I didn't want to miss out.
"It was special for me because the crowd responded so well. It was my first 100 this year - I probably would have thought a few years ago when I was averaging seven or eight in my second year for the club that I was never going to get there.
Delighted to have signed for another 3 years with @WorcsCCC . Love playing cricket here, going to enjoy it even more in Division One. #COYP
— Jack Shantry (@JackShantry) October 23, 2014
"But my batting's come on over the last few years and I'm averaging about 20 now, which is not bad for a bowling all-rounder.
"I had one eye on the fact that we might not win the game but to go from 37 for seven to a lead of 200 is a good turnaround and we had the momentum from then on."
The visitors were chasing 217, thanks largely to Shantry's unbeaten 101, and ended that penultimate day one down with 30 runs on the board.
And while a three-figure alliance between Zafar Ansari and Vikram Solanki seemed to have put Surrey in control, Shantry would not be denied during a match which also saw him pass 50 wickets for the campaign.
Four of his season's tally came in Surrey's second innings - to add to the six scalps he had accrued in the first - before the run out of Ansari clinched a thrilling 27-run victory which sealed promotion and sparked wild scenes among the hosts.
"Everyone went nuts," Shantry recalls.
"It was a massive release of energy. That whole day there had been nerves - it had been a fantastic game to watch, never mind play in.
"We dropped a catch about three overs before that final run-out and a few of us thought that might have been our one chance to do it.
"But we got the run-out and it was a release of energy after however many months of hard work and also vindication because we'd been written off before the start of the season."
That is likely to be the case again prior to next summer when Worcestershire once more take their seat at domestic cricket's top table.
However, Shantry, who is currently honing his skills out in Australia after signing a three-year deal at New Road this week, insists the Pears will ignore any negative pre-season predictions.
"We're under no illusions that next year is going to be a very, very difficult season but we shouldn't go into it thinking it's going to be difficult," he concluded.
"We've got good players at this club and there will be no one who thinks we can't succeed in Division One."
And if anyone needs proof that Worcestershire are capable of upsetting the odds, they only need to go back to what transpired on that afternoon in September.