THE LAST MATCH

Posted by Brian Sanderson,

I woke to another cloudy day but dry.We planned to go watch Ermysted,s Grammar School v M.C.C however we did not know which ground in Skipton it would be played on.Brian Senior very kindly rang the school to find out. He was told it was the Sandylands ground. Brian thought it was a ground he had not been to however after talking to Tony he found out it was Skipton Cricket Club which he had visited numerous times.Dash!
On parking the car next to the Rugby club a man asked us who was playing cricket. I replied M.C.C V Grammar School . The man replied who is M.C.C.At first I thought he was taking the mickey but it turn he did not know. He was a Rugby Union supporter .
Ermysted is the seventh oldest state school in Britain and was founded by Peter Toller in the 15th century.It has 750 boys and 50 staff.
Skipton Cricket Club was founded in 1853.Recent famous player is James Whittaker who played for Leicestershire and England. The ground is situated next to the Rugby Union ground with the Pavilion next to a main road.
Soon as we entered the ground we saw Ian from Lancaster who had been to Kendal before arriving here.
As usual M.C.C were batting and we found out there were three Irish players in the team.Two had just arrived to play this match and would fly back to Dublin to-night.They were playing in a Cup match to-morrow against Cork.
One of the Umpires was Glen Pearson our old umpiring friend.
During lunch me and Peter had a walk across the fields to Skipton Church Institute Cricket club which was formed in 1882.Walking in to the Skipton pavilion I found a old newspaper cutting saying that Bosanquet who played for England in 1903 had scored a century on this ground.
Before lunch John Taplin arrived and after lunch Tony Hutton arrived.The M.C.C declared at 201 after 50 overs.The School had played a total of 5 match so far and this would be it,s last one.When I was at school I played every Saturday morning till July.
We left at tea-time 3.40 and made a comment to Glen that tea was early to-day.