West Indians and Scots

Posted by Peter Davies

Tuesday 19 May

An invitation from Yorkshire CCC VIP Tony Bowry to attend a Clubmark ceremony at Gildersome CC near Leeds...with the promise of two celebrity guests! Managed to find a bus from Huddersfield to Leeds that stopped near the cricket ground. An adjourned cup game was in progress but the weather was poor - drab and drizzly - and that's why the tie hadn't yet finished after several days of trying to reach a conclusion! People were beginning to congregate in the pavilion and a local Indian restaurant entrepeneur seemed to be masterminding the catering operation. Around 7.30 Mr Bowry arrived with his guests: Messrs Chanderpaul and Sammy from the West Indies tour party, which had just arrived at their Leeds hotel after the disappointment of the Chester-le-Street Test match. They were attired in official tour polo shirts and both seemed to be playing with their Blackberries. They were also fascinated by the match that was going on in the rain - even though it was about 10 levels down from their standard of cricket! They watched intensely from inside and then outside the pavilion, posed for photos, signed autographs, and then took part in the presentation of the Clubmark award. I got chatting with YCCC development coach Steve Archer, who said he lived in Huddersfield and was happy to give me a lift back home. We talked about Clubmark, Kirklees and Calderdale clubs, and also his journey from being a painter and decorator to working with local cricket clubs on their future development. Steve said he was 45 but I thought he looked about 32! We grabbed a samosa and spring roll and then headed back to Huddersfield.

Friday 22 May

The East Bierley Cricket Heritage Exhibition...four years too late! We should have done this display in 2005 with the rest of our cricket club exhibitions but we didn't realise that the ground was 75 yards inside Kirklees! So we ignored it, got reminded about it, and then did the necessary research in 2008 and 2009. A great opportunity because East Bierley are a big Bradford League club with a beautiful ground. The launch went well with fantastic buffet food courtesy of the EB tea ladies and some VIP guests including Alan Birkenshaw, Mike Baker and Bob Shackleton from the Bradford League and Scotland skipper, England Test cricketer and East Bierley star all-rounder Gavin Hamilton. He said a few words at the start and then took part in the end-of-evening picture quiz. Some of my female friends were drooling over his good looks and sportsman's body! He said he was disappointed that Scotland had now been overtaken by Ireland in the world of international cricket and that he was happy to take on the captaincy. I had googled 'Gavin Hamilton Scotland' the night before and the articles all said he was determined to give Scottish cricket a kick up the backside so that the country could revisit its former glories. They'd just beaten Kent in the Friends Provident so he was reasonably happy! The winner of the picture quiz was Ian Ormondroyd - Bradford City footballing legend and East Bierley's Bradford League representative!