Cricket Diary 2009 - Spoilt for choice

Posted by Tony Hutton

Living as I do in North Leeds the number of cricket grounds within a short distance of my home is almost beyond belief. Just around the corner is my local club Adel, who play in the Airedale and Wharfedale League, they also have a second ground used by their third team who play in the Dales Council League.

Another Airedale and Wharfedale club a few minutes walk down the road is New Rover, once the home of the Yorkshire Academy, which also stages many Yorkshire schools matches. The Academy have moved across the ring road to the Leeds University sports complex at Weetwood which has two cricket grounds. This is now the home ground of the Leeds/Bradford University Centre of Cricketing Excellence who play against all the major universites such as Oxford, Cambridge, Loughborough and Durham.

Most university matches are played mid-week and the Academy's Yorkshire league games are played on Saturdays. Leeds Metropolitain University do not have a ground of their own and play most of their matches at the ground of Kirkstall Educational cricket club, just a couple of miles away from Weetwood in Queenswood Drive. Leeds University have three mens cricket team and womens team. Leeds Met have two mens teams and a womens team.

So to illustrate the diversity available to professional cricket watchers in this area let me take you back to two recent Wednesdays.

Wednesday 13th May - four matches to choose from at the start of the day, but this does expand into five as the day goes on. This calls for difficult decisions to try and get the best of the action in all the games, but obviously this is not always possible.
So we make a start at Kirkstall where Leeds Met first team are taking on Manchester University who make a respectable 184 batting first, but are beaten fairly easily when we return later in the day.
Then on to Weetwood where two games are going on. On the main ground Leeds University rack up a very good total of 324 in 50 overs and then bowl out visitors Liverpool University for 149. A closer contest on the smaller second ground sees Leeds Met women beat their local rivals Leeds University by 40 runs.
However probably the best batting performance of the day comes at the other side of the ring road at New Rover where Leeds Met second team manage a huge 356-5 with the only century of the day from Greenwood who makes 113 not out with some powerful hitting. Opponents Newcastle University score a respectable 231 but are well beaten.
While we are watching the runs pile up here a mini bus pulls into the car park full of schoolboy cricketers already in their whites searching for the nearby Adel cricket ground. It proves to be a prep school team from near Malton who are playing a local school. So of course we call in later to see a few overs to make it our fifth match of the day.
So an exhausting and exciting day with lots of good cricket but I am sure many people would find this totally eccentric and ask why we just didn't stick with one match all day. Perhaps we should have done, but then you always have this feeling that something better might be going on round the corner !

Wednesday 27th May - A fortnight later, after a period of one match a day, we do it all over again. This time it is also a matter of dodging the showers on a cold wet day. Happily however all the matches not only start but are all played to a finish.
Two games at Weetwood see Leeds University first team comfortably beat Manchester after a stoppage due to rain. This brings protests from the York University second team playing Leeds thirds on the adjoining pitch where the umpires insist they play on through the rain. As York are bowled all out for 78 you can see their point, particularly when Leeds knock them off for the loss of only two wickets.
The big excitement of this day came elsewhere. We call in at Kirkstall out of curiousity, not expecting to stay long, to see Leeds Met women taking on Leeds University women yet again.
We had to stay to the end of the eventful Leeds Met innings as openers Petty and Briggs put on no less than 203 for the first wicket. Briggs made 62 but Rochelle Petty, who is a member of the Yorkshire cricket Academy, went on to an incredible 164 not out. She was exhausted by the end of her innings, but played superbly, using her feet to go down the wicket to the spinners in great style.
Not suprisingly Leeds university were rather deflated after all that and were bowled out for 145.
The excitement was not over though as the game at New Rover where we had called in earlier provided an amazing finish. Leeds Met 2nd team again batting well as they did two weeks ago, totalled 262-9 in their 50 overs. Despite the cold and drizzle opponents Sheffield Hallam came within one run only to loose off the last ball - drama indeed.

So there we are. So much action packed into two days of cricket, but well worth all the short distance commuting. Not to be recommended for every day of the week of course, so hopefully back to some semblance of normality next time.