A historic day at Stokesley

Posted by John Winn

My confidence that The Northern Echo would reveal the result of yesterday's Wilkinson cup game at Great Broughton was misplaced.Nowhere in their detailed coverage of the weekend's local cricket could I find any reference to the outcome. When I returned home this evening however, the Langbaurgh league website confirmed what I suspected yesterday, namely a comfortable win for The Durham Senior League: by eight wickets with almost half their forty allotted overs to spare.
This morning I drove back up the A19 excited by the prospect of seeing history made at Stokesley where the ambitious and progressive NYSD club were hosting the first professional cricket at their well appointed compact ground. Odd perhaps that it should not involve Yorkshire but it was Durham who were the home team with Derbyshire the visitors in a SET northern section game.Derbyshire won the toss and chose to bat against an experienced Durham attack with Mark Davies and Chris Rushworth opening the bowling and Ruel Brathwaite first change. Derbyshire soon found themselves two down but mounted a good recovery through Slater and Dale.In front of a decent crowd, between 100 and !50 at a rough estimate, and on an extremely warm morning, some big hitting by Derbyshire's middle order saw them to 195 for 6 off their 40 overs.
During the afternoon an explanation emerged for the absence of the Wilkinson Cup result in the local press. A Stokesley member to whom I got chatting was kind enough to approach Chris West who is the Echo's local cricket guru and he confirmed that the result had not been rung through. Chris must be a very busy a man on Sundays for in today's paper detailed accounts of the weekend's cricket in six different leagues appeared under his name.
In their reply Durham soon lost Mark Stoneman but Ben Raine and Gareth Breese pushed the rate up to five an over. Raine is not yet twenty and Durham must hope he can step up to first team cricket when veterans like Di Venuto and Benkenstein eventually retire.Raine brought up his fifty and Durham's hundred with a four but both batsmen were dismissed in quick succession leaving Harmison and Richardson at the crease. The target appeared a comfortable one but some spots of rain were enough to persuade me that a thunder storm was possible so I left for home when Durham were 124 for 5.