McGrath shows form and fitness.

Posted by John Winn

I went to Clifton Park, York yesterday where Yorkshire II were playing MCC Universities in the SEC. When I arrived Yorkshire were approaching 100. with two wickets down, Root(J) and Geldart back in the pavilion and McGrath and Lees making slow progress in the middle. There was a good crowd in attendance,not Stamford Bridge size, but much above average for second team cricket.There were plenty of familiar faces, including fellow blogger Brian Sanderson who was justifiably excited by a scrap book donated to the county archive by the family of the late Frank Smailes.
Progress after lunch resumed at the morning's tempo, somewhere between largo and adagio. In other words 'less than riveting'. Fortunately I was in the company of two of my regular comrades from Headingley and the conversation covered a variety of topics including the Wetherby bomb scare, which went national today, and the bus wars, also in Wetherby, featured on 'Look North,,but unlikely to go national and Darlington's forthcoming encounter with Braintree Town, definitely not going national.
More seriously, at least from a cricketing point of view, we remarked that it was eight weeks since we had last had the opportunity to watch YCC in championship action at Headingley since when Yorkshire have played at Liverpool,Taunton,Hove and Chester le Street. In some ways following the championship this year has been like watching a character in a play who dominates the first act, April to mid-May, disappears except for brief appearances in the second act, mid June and mid-July at which times he is competing with a rowdy chorus for our attention,and then returns to dominate the third act in August and September.
Of course many will be looking forward to Scarborough next week,myself included, a Monday start just to keep us on our toes, but for many members championship cricket at HQ is the bread and butter of the summer and it will be another two weeks before Lancashire come to call, ten weeks since Hampshire left town.
In 2012 there will be fewer 20/20 matches which should one hopes, make for a more balanced programme of home and away games.As for Clifton Park, Yorkshire did up the tempo to allegro and Lees will be black and blue from self inflicted kicks after holing out to a long hop when on 79. Patchy rain arrived exactly as forecast at tea-time but McGrath went on to make 186 and Yorkshire declared on 403 for 6.MCCU used nine bowlers which suggests they were not at their strongest.