QUARTER FINALS

By Brian Sanderson,

Looking at the weather forecast I decided to go to see two Yorkshire Council Championships Quarter Finals.The first one was Whitley Hall against Methley,The ground is situated in Ecclesfield which is on the outskirts of Sheffield.There a new pavilion and the ground slopes down to the carpark.There are trees at the back of the carpark with excellent houses overlooking the ground.

The match was a forty-five over match and started at twelve.Methley won the toss and decided to bowl.A quick fell and then the best stand of the match between Siddall and Longhurst brought the score up to 56.Then Purdy, Rickers and Connolly stopped the scoring and started to take wickets. They bowled twenty-one overs and only conceed forty-one runs.So Whitley were bowled out for 104 with twelve overs to spare.

During the interval children were playing cricket on the pitch instead of football. Good to see.

When Methley batted they also lost a quick wicket but Khan and Holliday steady the ship.Holliday looks a good keeper and a good bat.The only downside was the programme did not have the names of the players.

Moving on to Elsecar and Streethouses match.Elsecar club was established in 1854 and is near the Heritage Centre.Streethouses had scored 162 before we arrived. Elsecar was batting with Ainsley Swallow scoring a good 37 in the score of just over 40.During the innings Bob Procter had a excellent strawberry trifle and I had a slice of peach flan.Excellent fare.Elsecar looked like they were struggling until Afzal came in to score a quick thirty.Elsecar won the match and move on to the semi-final next week.

We were very lucky with the weather as there was no rain with the occassional sunshine.Back to the stadium to-day.Oh-dear.