Yorkshire Gentlemen v Free Foresters (team picture) and Ampleforth College
Posted by Tony Hutton
Is it really a month since I last contributed to this blog ? Sadly real life, in it's various guises, together with a spell of monsoon like weather at the end of last month have stopped the flow of cricket reports. However today's amazing Ashes victory has prompted me to resume action.
Friday 24th July - County Under 15 competition at Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire.
One of the highlights of any cricket season is a visit to Ampleforth set in marvellous countryside with great facilities for sport of all descriptions, notably four cricket grounds. During this Under 15 week, eight county sides do battle with four matches being played simultaneously each day.
It is so enjoyable that it is hard to criticise the organisers, the London Schools Cricket Association, but there always seem to be a communication problem with the large number of parents, grandparents, friends and professional cricket watchers.
Only very few programmes are printed and unless you are there on the Monday morning little chance of getting one, as we discovered on arrival on the very last day of the week. However we managed to find a rather battered and written on copy at the refreshment stall manned by two girl students, who had made copious notes about the charms or otherwise of some of the young cricketers in the margins.
Some having found out what was going on (in more ways than one) we discovered Durham were playing Notts in the final on the main ground. Notts have a good track record here but this time they were outplayed by Durham who won comfortably by seven wickets with five overs to spare.
The other most competitive match was between London Schools and Cambridgshire, appearing for the first time. This was a low scoring game but fluctuated one way and then the other before London schools tailenders took them to 131-8 to win by two wickets.
The other two games were between Yorkshire's B side and Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan and Cheshire against Cleveland, but we were unable to stay long enough to get the results of these two games.
The luncheon interval brought a bonus with a drive down the hill through the veritable forest of rugby posts (no idea how many pitches there must be) to the nearby village of Gilling East.
The first attraction was the village pub which provided an excellent and importantly a quickly served lunch, despite the large number of diners.
We then crossed the road to the attractive church to enable my travelling companions to see the story about Prince Ranjitsinhji amd his connection with Gilling Castle, now the Ampleforth prep school, which I reported on earlier in the season.
By the middle of the following week the monsoons had set in, so nothing at all to report until Saturday 1st August - Adel v Green Lane (Airedale and Wharfedale League)
It rained so heavily that by early afternoon I had given up all hope of seeing any cricket. However it did stop briefly about three o'clock so I set off to collect some things from the cleaners. As I passed my local club the players emerged in whites to remove the covers.
So of course I pulled in and to my amazement saw them start to play. Just as I did, of course, it started to rain again, so I watched one over with the windscreen wipers on and saw Green Lane progress to seven for no wicket. After that one over they all left the field never to return!
So I went about my business and spent the remainder of the day indoors. Later press reports stated match abandoned, but I and one or two others are claiming this as a one over match, which we saw in it's entirity.
Sunday 2nd August - St Chad's v Barwick in Elmet (Fred Fleetwood Cup semi-final)
Fortunately the weather took a turn for the better and we had a full match, although it must be said not of a very high quality. That didn't matter the weather was good and we were entertained by Michael Bourne for most of the afternoon.
For the record Barwick made 184 and St Chad's subsided to 99 all out. Shame about the cricket, but a friendly and hospitable club made for a nice atmosphere under the shadow of the church, with the clock striking the hours and a village green sort of feel about the whole occasion.
Monday 3rd August - Yorkshire Gentlemen v Free Foresters day 2 (Escrick Park) and Pontefract Under 15s v York Under 15s at Fishlake.
A rather strange day wandering around the byways north and south of Selby to find a match between two teams of gentlemen in hooped caps and striped blazers already into it's second day.
A lovely ground, but cricket not of the best although the game did produce some unusual scores.
Both team in fact declared their first innings at 194-4. The home side were then dismissed for 194 in their second innings.
Unfortunately the perfect tie did not ensue as the Free Forester were all out for 175 to lose by 19 runs. The final details were obtained from the Yorkshire Gentlemen's excellent website, which revealed yet another eccentricity. The full scores and bowling analysis of each player were given, but only of the home side. So no mention was made of the opposition performances at all except for the total scores. A very strange method of doing things, but perhaps it is just one of those old traditions.
Then for something rather different through the old mining village of Askern to the rather remote flatlands village of Fishlake, a place I had not visited before. One of series of games going on throughout Yorkshire all week in the local Lord's Taverners Tropy under 15 competition was taking place. The visitors York put up a good score of 207-8 in their 45 overs, hitting powerfully at the end, but the home side, Pontefract, then subsided for only 118. Good cricket and great enthusiasm all round make this a compeition well worth watching.
One of the many parents attending told me he had two sons playing, one a pace bowler and the other a spinner. Great rivalry between the two of course, the quickie having to bowl against the best batsman not getting too many wickets and the spinner getting a few by bowling against the tailenders.
No comments:
Post a Comment