Williams and Wood

Posted by Peter Davies

Sunday 9 May

First up, Stones v Old Town, high above Ripponden, where my Dad and I were ball sponsors for the day. Stones are a very organised club and only had one, sort of, vacancy when I rang up a couple of weeks ago. They re-jigged their schedule and me and my Dad were in.

We arrived mid-afternoon. Things were pretty low-key but we were given two cups of tea on the house and a nice welcome from one of the Stones cricketers. We even had our name on the sponsors board, which was nice given that it was an eleventh-hour decision.

The tea lady was a very interesting person. She said it was her first afternoon doing teas at Stones, but she had 35 years' experience at SBCI, just up the road. 35 years! A safe pair of hands, I'd say. I had some egg and cheese sandwiches, bits of salad and some mini-sausage rolls, and also a purple J2O. My Dad was enjoying his tea - he seemed to be eating lots of cakes and actually saved some of his food for the car journey back to Oldham.

We headed for Barkisland, having seen that a game was in motion in mid-afternoon, as we traveled in the direction of Stones, but unfortunately it was now over - this fact was confirmed by two blokes still hovering by the seats on the church side of the ground.

So we travelled in the direction of Elland, but again no can do. An empty ground. But, when times are tough, we can always rely on Blackley, and so it proved yet again.

Lots of spectators there and we had our customary cup of tea. Club secretary Julie Pearson said that our mutual friend, Steve Williams, 'was playing today', even though he'd retired many years ago and many times also. So we had a sit outside the pavilion and Steve came marching into bat almost immediately. He looked good, particularly in his swings to leg, and I think his daughter was sat next to me, so she was naturally very excited.

It was the last Sunday of the Premiership season, so the TV was blaring out with latest scores, interviews and suchlike. Chelsea were racking up a massive total against Wigan and the locals kept on shouting out things like, 'Chelsea have got four', 'Wigan have got six'. In the end, Chelsea won 8-0 and claimed the Premiership title in so doing.

We headed home, fully intending to do no more cricket, but we could not resist the lure of Kirkburton. They were at home in the Heavy Woollen Cup second round and chasing a 200+ total. The main point of interest was ex-Yorkshire and Glamorgan batter Matthew Wood, who was in the process of constructing a major innings. His team were a wicket down but he was looking good. Dare I say it, he looked slightly tubbier than he did when he was a county pro, but that's understandable isn't it? He was carressing the ball square of the wicket, and his partner was scampering between the wickets. They looked good for victory.