Another windy weekend

Posted by Tony Hutton

The dreadful windy conditions, which seem to have gone on for weeks, continued to persist making cricket watching conditions very difficult.

On Saturday I decided to stay close to home and watched most of the local derby game between Adel and Kirkstall Educational in the company of Dave Hodgson and Reg Parker as we circled the ground without really finding anywhere out of the wind.

After the loss of early wickets Adel were rescued by a good partnership between Joe Coley, a new recruit from Warwickshire, with 56 and Tim Grey, whose batting has blossomed recently, with 43. However Kirkstall's opening bowler Matthew Webb who bowled splendidly throughout, finished off the tail with final figures of 8-52 and Adel were all out 190.

There were conflicting views on this total. Reg feeling that Adel were perhaps twenty or so runs short and Dave worrying that Kirkstall had not yet won a match this season. The problem was that Adel were without two of their regular bowlers, as well as captain and wicketkeeper Paddy Coughlin.

The lack of pace bowlers to support Aussie Brad Robertson proved too much for Adel and despite some good bowling from their battery of three spinners, including slow left armer Thorpe, promoted from the second team, they could not contain some consistent batting from the visitors.

Good innings from Steve Harrison with 55 and Joe Gibson with 57, set the scene for skiper Josh Siddall to finish things off with an over to spare. Robertson finished with 3-53, but on the day Kirkstall were worthy winners by five wickets.

During the interval I had taken a short trip in the car (mainly to get warm again) down the road to Far Headingley were St Chads were entertaining old rivals Shadwell and just round the corner in Glen Road, Headingley were at home to Thorner Mexborough second team.

St Chads were batting and captain and very consistent batsman Mark Bailey was piling up the runs. He finished with 68 not out out in a total of 213-7, perhaps not quite enough on the small and fast scoring ground. As I was to find out later Shadwell edged a very close contest by number 11 Joe Burke hitting a six off the fourth ball of the final over. Shadwell winning by one wicket.

A more one sided contest at Glen Road as the powerful home side racked up yet another big score, this time 301-7. Thorner however made a game of it and finished on 171-7 in reply.

No improvement in the weather on Sunday, although early morning rain had subsided by the time I arrived at Walton's attractive ground near Wetherby. The problem was that the wind here, on the edge of the flatlands of the Vale of York, was even stronger than ever and watching was only really possible by sitting in the car.

The game here was an inter league match in the Leeds Area Council Knock Out competition. This is a very old competition, but sadly not many leagues now take part and it is rumoured this could be the last year of the competition.
Wetherby League were playing Nidderdale League, in a forty over a side game, following the slightly delayed start.

Wetherby batted and despite runs from two of yesterday's opponents, Grogan of Shadwell with 35 and Bailey of St Chads with 25, they only managed to finish on 139-7
with spinner Brennand the best bowler, taking 4-31.

It was good to see the cricketing family Oliver there to support the St Chads contingent. Barry Oliver is a Bradford League umpire, who I had seen in action in the ECB KO at Harrogate last week, and wife Hilary is the St Chads scorer. They were happy with the performance of their son Callum Oliver, who is captain of Pudsey Congs second team in the Bradford League.

His side had beaten Brighouse by ten wickets yesterday and Callum finished on 50 not out, which meant that Yorkshire prodigy Barnie Gibson, due to bat at number three did not get an innings.

The Nidderdale League made short work of the rather modest total and knocked them off in only 30 overs, winning by four wickets. Dave Leather of Dacre Banks top scoring with exactly fifty.

Two questions remained - will this competition continue in future seasons and when will these strong winds abate. Forecasts suggest a return to summer weather may be imminent for the later part of this week. Let's hope so !