Captains Courageous

posted by John Winn

Today I ventured into what is, for me, rarely visited territory,namely the Central Yorkshire League, for the final of the league's KO cup, aka the Jack Hampshire Trophy, to be played on the ground of last year's winners Methley CC. This year's finalists were Wrenthorpe, last year's losers, current league leaders and favourites, and mid table Townville.
A large crowd gathered on a warm and initially cloudy afternoon, but which later turned to lovely sunshine,to see Wrenthorpe put into bat and make 213 for 9 off their 40 overs. I reported on a match featuring Townville in April when they defeated New Farnley in an early round of the National Club Championship. On that occasion I described their behaviour in the field as 'boisterous'and to avoid digging further into the barrel of euphemisms suffice to say the decibels have not declined over the intervening four months.
Wrenthorpe's innings was dominated by skipper Gary Fellows, tersely descibed in the match programme as '(Right Hand Bat/Right Arm Medium) Capt', who scored 110 before he was dismissed in the penultimate over at which point he had scored 60% of his team's runs. This left just ten balls in which number nine Joe Ellis tried very hard to emulate Praveen Kumar's feat at Edgbaston yesterday of hitting a six into a pint of beer (now there's an idea that might brighten up Saturday evening TV, I'm sure Charles Colville could be persuaded to compere). Ellis's hitting resulted in 25 off the last ten balls and a total that a sizeable gathering of Townville supporters seated near me thought was achievable if the openers made a good start.
Alas such a start was not forthcoming for 'big dog {John Trower}..a solid opener who loves a cover drive' was caught behind first ball off Ellis and with a highest partnership of only 47 Townville's innings never really threatened to match that of Wrenthorpe. Top scorer for Townville was skipper Tim Walton with 61 but when he was out in the 31st over the game was up,in spite of a last wicket stand of 28 between Liam Booth and Dean Woolsey.370 runs had been scored in the afternoon of which the two captains contributed almost half.
Countryfile's 'all important weather forecast' this evening suggests a better week lies ahead and don't be surprised if the word 'coast' appears at least once in the titles of my postings for both Blackpool and Scarborough feature in my itinerary.
You have been warned.