The joyous memories of 2013 finals day helped Alex Wakely return from an injury he feared could have been career-ending, and the Northamptonshire Steelbacks captain is now targeting more Twenty20 moments to cherish at Edgbaston.
Seven months after lifting his county's first trophy in 21 years, Wakely ruptured an Achilles tendon at the start of 2014 and missed the entire season with a problem he thought might even prevent him from walking again.
"2013 was a brilliant year for me and a brilliant year for the club, and then it all got knocked back for me personally," the 26-year-old revealed to Press Association Sport.
"Missing a whole year and going through the emotions of potentially finishing your career and everything that goes with that; I did go through some really low points, some tough times.
"You start asking yourself a lot of questions about what you're going to, whether you're going to play again, whether you're ever going to be fit, whether you're ever going to walk again at one point."
It was during those ebbs that the batsman found solace in a DVD the club had packaged of Northamptonshire's 2013 campaign, when they won promotion back to the LV= County Championship's upper tier and won the Twenty20 title by thrashing Surrey in the final.
"I watched that a couple of times and used that as a motivation," Wakely revealed.
"The way I treat things now is I'll never taken anything for granted again. Every final, every quarter-final, every game I play in from now on I'll try and take absolutely everything I can and try and enjoy it as much as I can rather than let the nerves take over."
There will be another DVD in the Wantage Road shop if Northamptonshire can emerge victorious from this Saturday's NatWest T20 Blast, with the 2013 winners being joined by three finalists from 12 months ago - Birmingham, Lancashire and Hampshire.
The leading weapon in the Steelbacks' armoury is David Willey, an England international who clubbed the fastest century in the sprint format by an Englishman in the quarter-final success over Sussex.
However, just one week after that 40-ball 100 it was confirmed he would be leaving Northants for Yorkshire in 2016 and Wakely wants to see him bow out of limited-overs cricket with the Steelbacks as a champion.
"We've grown up through the ages at Northants together and I completely support his decision," he stressed.
"As much as a captain I hate to lose him as a player, it's the right time for him. He's got a chance to go and play for England, put his name out there at a big club; it's a chance to earn a lot more money and I'd never hold that against him. I support him all the way.
"It will be a great chance to send him off and I know as a Northamptonshire boy he'd love nothing more than to leave with that trophy."
Willey, Chris Woakes, Jos Buttler and James Vince will all be available for their respective counties prior to linking up with the England squad ahead of the Twenty20 international against Australia on Monday.
Any celebrations are therefore likely to be kept to a minimum for that quartet, although international commitments will not prevent Birmingham's Ian Bell from cutting loose this time around.
Bell has not been named in either of the limited-overs squads to face Australia and confirmed in his Metro column that he would be taking himself out of one-day consideration to focus on his Test career.
Last year he and Woakes travelled to Bristol for a one-day game against India the day after the Bears clinched their first sprint-format title but England duty only calls for the latter this weekend.
"Obviously you want to be part of England teams," Woakes said.
"Hopefully we can win on Finals Day, lift the trophy again, then it'll be a quiet beer and down to Cardiff, I suppose!"
Source: PA
