Headingley and beyond

Posted by Tony Hutton

Saturday 16th April

After a morning at Headingley, watching Yorkshire struggle against Durham, in common with many others I left the ground at lunchtime in search of pastures new to celebrate the opening of the league cricket season.

We are fortunate indeed to have such a diversity not only of clubs, but of different leagues, within a short distance of each other in north-west Leeds. My first port of call was at the end of my road, the home of Adel cricket club of the Airedale and Wharfedale League. The second team were at home to Burley seconds on the main ground and the third team, who play in the Dales Council league, were playing Hepworth Idle on the junior ground.

In attendance as ever was Reg Parker, the sage of Adel, casting his eye over both matches in search of new young talent coming through. A new player from Warwickshire had played with Reg's nephew Luke, who captained Oxford University and Warwickshire seconds, scored a good looking fifty and looks a useful acquisition.

The thirds, with their mixture of youth and old men were losing wickets rapidly, so it was time to move on down the road to New Rover. The home side who play in division three of the Aire/Wharfe Lane were entertaining Bardsey, who seem to have some very useful new players.

Most notable is veteran West Indian fast bowler John 'The Dentist' Maynard. He apparently got his nickname for his habit, when younger, of rearranging opponents teeth ! He had already taken two wickets when I arrived and New Rover were struggling. Another new arrival Amjid Ali, an off spinner from Clayton, of the now defunct Bradford Central league, looked even more impressive.

Later I learned that New Rover were bowled out for 116 with Amjid Ali taking 5-42. He then proceeded to win the match with 32 not out batting at number nine after Bardsey were struggling at 67-7. So a mile or so back towards Headingley I came to Glen Road, where the club formerly known as Yorkshire Post have been renamed Headingley cricket club. They won promotion from Division five of the Wetherby League last season and seem to be very well sponsored with new fancy shirts, squad numbers etc and were doing pretty well on the field when I called in.

They were already over 100 for the loss of one wicket and going well against modest opposition in Bramhope second team. Thanks to the clubs excellent website, I found full details later. They scored a massive 337-6 in 45 overs and proceeded to bowl out their opponents for only 54. Star of the show with the ball was Ifti Hussain.
Coming on as first change he had one of the openers out lbw with his first ball and proceeded to clean bowl the next two batsman. Not bad a hat trick with his first three balls of the season !

Just across the main road here is the ground of St Chads Broomfield, a much higher rated Wetherby League club. In fact they were first division champions last season.
However today they came a bit unstuck after batting well for 210-7 and taking a couple of early wickets, they were hit to all parts by opponents Church Fenton and lost by seven wickets. Such is the unpredictability of cricket with suprises round every corner.

After tea back to Headingley where Durham captain Dale Benkenstein had just been out for 150 and declared to set Yorkshire the daunting task of 490 runs to win. Lyth and Root started off well scoring at well over the required rate of four runs an over until Lyth was out at 64-1, McGrath followed soon after and the shutters went up for the day, with Yorkshire facing inevitable defeat tomorrow, but as we all know miracles sometimes do happen.