Match cancelled!

Posted by Peter Davies

Poor do at Augustinians where the Crossley Shield fixture was cancelled due (I found out later) to the home side only having three players. So we drowned our sorrows in the excellent clubhouse with a bacon sandwich and chips with extra ketchup. The bar was packed with loads of YMCA rugby guys watching the Giants play their 'Murrayfield Magic' fixture against the Celtic Crusaders. The tries seemed to be flowing!

From there to Warley for the game against Northowram Hedge Top. Paradise Lane is well named and the ground was looking wonderful in the May sun. Lots of undulations and curiousities but a very fine place to watch cricket. As you sit on the boundary edge you feel very close to the action because the playing area is small. Intimate venue is the phrase - you almost feel involved in the action. Club official Neil Lambert was dispensing fine cups of tea while freelance groundsman Mick Holroyde was wearing a dashing pink sweater for the second weekend in a row. Darren Gough had signed a bat that was now framed in the tearoom and veteran tea lady Michelle Oates - wife of club legend Andrew - told me the secrets behind the club's tea-making regime. By the scorebox Andrew's father John was in his usual viewing position - the scorebox, it seems, acts as a useful wind-break. Backing onto the ground are the local school and a church that has become a house - or, put more accurately, two houses.

At Copley the viaduct was looking its usual handsome self. The sun was shining and the buffet tea was very good value - sandwiches plus pasta and accessories and as many cakes as you could eat. On the boundary I met Peter Jowett, Southowram CC veteran and also the star of the 5th Pennine Cricket History Conference held at the University of Huddersfield in March. He was on superb form but regretting slightly his decision to hold a fundraising 'Pig Race' at the club's pavilion in June. The swine flu epidemic had come at exactly the wrong time! His son David - an obsessive darts player in his spare time - was in the Rams line-up. A BBQ got going in front of the Copley pavilion in mid-afternoon with a very charismatic guy drumming up business. When Copley came to bat, one of their batters had to use a runner - a relatively uncommon sight at this level of the game. On the veranda, Greetland stalwart and Huddersfield League umpire Les Forester was telling me about his computer problems and his plans to create a mini-archive of GCC cricket memorabilia. He was also very worried about the fate of his beloved Sunderland FC - due to play Everton that very afternoon as the Premier League season wended its way towards a climax. Not hopeful was his general state of mind.

We rounded things off at Blackley. The game there looked set for a decent ending but before we knew it the match was over. The ground was in full bloom and inside the newly refurbished pavilion, club officials were in good spirits having just been awarded the 2010 Parish Cup final. A great achievement - and the club are hoping to become regular hosts. They have a farmer's field ready for the massive parking requirements. They say they now just want a side that could plausibly win such a competition!