Posted by Tony Hutton
Last night saw the first meeting of the newly formed Pennine Cricket Society at Golcar cricket club, Huddersfield. Peter Davies, with the help of several willing helpers, has set up this new venture and it got off to the best possible start. This was despite the poor weather and the problems of finding the new venue, both for the speaker who was slightly delayed and for one potential member who gave up and turned round when approaching Saddleworth and returned to Leeds by a very roundabout route.
A real shame that, particularly in view of the excellent cricket tea laid on before the proceedings started. Good to see so many familiar faces, and some new ones, among the audience.
The star turn was of course the inimitable Alan Stuttard, who is fast becoming the Ken Dodd of the cricket speakers' world. His memories of a lifetime of cricket in the Central Lancashire League, and all the big names who have played there, was a real treat. His oft told story of the Everton Weekes cup final of 1954 improves with age.
His biggest claim to fame as a player was hitting the one and only Garfield Sobers for four sixes and for the benefit of those cynics who just could not believe it, brought along a press cutting to prove it.
So a great night for the cricket lovers who turned out to support this new venture and full marks to Peter and his helpers. The next meeting will be held on Thursday 17th November, again at Golcar cricket club, when David Cooper will have more tales of cricket on the 'wrong' side of the Pennines and his association with Royton cricket club.
Membership of the new society is available for the modest charge of £8 for the six meetings, or £2 per meeting, which includes the cost of the cricket tea.
Friday, 28 October 2011
Monday, 17 October 2011
Still More to read
Posted by Tony Hutton
Like John Winn my thoughts have turned to winter reading this week. Thanks John for your nice plug for 'Bloggers on the Boundary'. Sadly this volume does not contain any photographs due to the high price of colour printing, but I still think it is a good read at the bargain price of £5.
Anyone thinking of buying cricket books should always go to the Amazon website first as you can make considerable savings. Another book, to which I made a very minor contribution, is being published this Thursday. This is 'British Lost Cricket Grounds' by Chris Arnot, published by Aurum Press.
Chris, who is a freelance journalist for the Guardian, amongst other publications, contacted me earlier in the year for information on Fartown, Huddersfield. I was able to point him in the direction of the cricket heritage website and supplied one or two photographs. The book covers 40 lost grounds, at all levels of the game, and should make an interesting read.
More book news also arrived today when I was sent a copy of the Nottingham Post review of a book very close to my heart. 'The Boundary's Edge' by Lawrence Griffiths goes on sale nationwide from November 14th, priced at a hefty £25.
However you can already pre-order, somewhat cheaper, from Amazon. Griffiths is a full time sports photographer and works for Getty Images. He usually attends major sporting events, but like me has fallen under the spell of village cricket grounds.
He has spent the last six years compiling this book and visited 60 different grounds, as far apart as Cornwall, Flintshire, Northumberland and Fife. I am tempted to say only 60 in six years, but suppose the poor man has a full time job to do !
He sums it up by saying 'The people I met and stories I've heard have been phenomenal'. Many of us will know exactly what he means. One definately to look forward to.
Like John Winn my thoughts have turned to winter reading this week. Thanks John for your nice plug for 'Bloggers on the Boundary'. Sadly this volume does not contain any photographs due to the high price of colour printing, but I still think it is a good read at the bargain price of £5.
Anyone thinking of buying cricket books should always go to the Amazon website first as you can make considerable savings. Another book, to which I made a very minor contribution, is being published this Thursday. This is 'British Lost Cricket Grounds' by Chris Arnot, published by Aurum Press.
Chris, who is a freelance journalist for the Guardian, amongst other publications, contacted me earlier in the year for information on Fartown, Huddersfield. I was able to point him in the direction of the cricket heritage website and supplied one or two photographs. The book covers 40 lost grounds, at all levels of the game, and should make an interesting read.
More book news also arrived today when I was sent a copy of the Nottingham Post review of a book very close to my heart. 'The Boundary's Edge' by Lawrence Griffiths goes on sale nationwide from November 14th, priced at a hefty £25.
However you can already pre-order, somewhat cheaper, from Amazon. Griffiths is a full time sports photographer and works for Getty Images. He usually attends major sporting events, but like me has fallen under the spell of village cricket grounds.
He has spent the last six years compiling this book and visited 60 different grounds, as far apart as Cornwall, Flintshire, Northumberland and Fife. I am tempted to say only 60 in six years, but suppose the poor man has a full time job to do !
He sums it up by saying 'The people I met and stories I've heard have been phenomenal'. Many of us will know exactly what he means. One definately to look forward to.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Something to read
posted by John Winn
I learned this week that the typical WH Smith reader buys just three books a year. Having ordered three books in the last week alone this came as something of a surprise to me.
It will probably come as no surprise that now that the cricket season is over and withdrawal symptoms have set in, the three books on my shopping list were all cricket books.Two of the three have not yet arrived, the first the autobiography of Clive Van Ryneveld, from Stephen Chalke's excellent Fairfield Books, is still en route from South Africa and the second, a new biography of Fred Trueman by Yorkshire Post cricket writer Chris Waters should be with me this week. The latter has received a glowing review in November's Cricketer Magazine with the promise of 'insights from those closest to Trueman'.
The third book,which I have read, is also published by Chalke and will, I think, have particular appeal to pcws. It is 'Typhoon Tyson to Twenty /20.A lifetime of watching Northamptonshire cricket' by Tony Ward. A short read, just 95 pages, and in some way a rather sad one. Not that it lacks humorous moments, but they are at times the result of that rather sardonic sense of humour that followers of unsuccessful causes tend to develop about something they love deeply, and I speak as a follower of Darlington FC for almost 60 years. As Stephen Chalke, whose idea the book was, says in the foreword, humour that 'is essential if you are a Northamptonshire supporter'.
Admitted to the championship in 1905 Northants have been runners up three times and along with Gloucestershire and Somerset are part of that exclusive club who have never qualified to fly the championship pennant. They have of course had success in other competitions and Tony Ward descibes his great joy at witnessing their victory over Lancashire in The Gillette Cup Final of 1976.
As the title would suggest Frank Tyson features prominently in the book as does Colin Milburn,whose career and life both came to a sad end.For me though the greatest pleasure the book offers is its descriptions of the county's diehard, if pessimistic, supporters; their grumbling, their witticisms and the importance of county cricket in their lives.
An altogether different kind of book I would recommend and which I read earlier in the year is 'The Captains' by Malcolm Knox, a history of Australian cricket seen through the eyes of its 42 captains from Gregory to Ponting. At over four hundred pages this is a hefty tome but Amazon is offering a second hand copy at £3:59.Knox is an Australian and it is interesting to see how cricket appears to those at the other side of the world, for instance the 'chucking' controversy of the late 50s and early 60s. Over Charlie Griffith and Tony Lock the author leaves us in no doubt that as far as Australians were concerned these two 'chucked' but Ian Meckiff, whose action Wisden had no doubt was illegal, is treated with almost saintly reverence.
Finally, and I have saved the best to last, pcws will want to get hold of 'Bloggers on the boundary', a diary of the 2010 season by Messrs Sanderson, Hutton and Davies, names well known to you all!I received a copy by mail from Peter Davies yesterday and I am sure copies will be widely available shortly. Watch this space.
I learned this week that the typical WH Smith reader buys just three books a year. Having ordered three books in the last week alone this came as something of a surprise to me.
It will probably come as no surprise that now that the cricket season is over and withdrawal symptoms have set in, the three books on my shopping list were all cricket books.Two of the three have not yet arrived, the first the autobiography of Clive Van Ryneveld, from Stephen Chalke's excellent Fairfield Books, is still en route from South Africa and the second, a new biography of Fred Trueman by Yorkshire Post cricket writer Chris Waters should be with me this week. The latter has received a glowing review in November's Cricketer Magazine with the promise of 'insights from those closest to Trueman'.
The third book,which I have read, is also published by Chalke and will, I think, have particular appeal to pcws. It is 'Typhoon Tyson to Twenty /20.A lifetime of watching Northamptonshire cricket' by Tony Ward. A short read, just 95 pages, and in some way a rather sad one. Not that it lacks humorous moments, but they are at times the result of that rather sardonic sense of humour that followers of unsuccessful causes tend to develop about something they love deeply, and I speak as a follower of Darlington FC for almost 60 years. As Stephen Chalke, whose idea the book was, says in the foreword, humour that 'is essential if you are a Northamptonshire supporter'.
Admitted to the championship in 1905 Northants have been runners up three times and along with Gloucestershire and Somerset are part of that exclusive club who have never qualified to fly the championship pennant. They have of course had success in other competitions and Tony Ward descibes his great joy at witnessing their victory over Lancashire in The Gillette Cup Final of 1976.
As the title would suggest Frank Tyson features prominently in the book as does Colin Milburn,whose career and life both came to a sad end.For me though the greatest pleasure the book offers is its descriptions of the county's diehard, if pessimistic, supporters; their grumbling, their witticisms and the importance of county cricket in their lives.
An altogether different kind of book I would recommend and which I read earlier in the year is 'The Captains' by Malcolm Knox, a history of Australian cricket seen through the eyes of its 42 captains from Gregory to Ponting. At over four hundred pages this is a hefty tome but Amazon is offering a second hand copy at £3:59.Knox is an Australian and it is interesting to see how cricket appears to those at the other side of the world, for instance the 'chucking' controversy of the late 50s and early 60s. Over Charlie Griffith and Tony Lock the author leaves us in no doubt that as far as Australians were concerned these two 'chucked' but Ian Meckiff, whose action Wisden had no doubt was illegal, is treated with almost saintly reverence.
Finally, and I have saved the best to last, pcws will want to get hold of 'Bloggers on the boundary', a diary of the 2010 season by Messrs Sanderson, Hutton and Davies, names well known to you all!I received a copy by mail from Peter Davies yesterday and I am sure copies will be widely available shortly. Watch this space.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Lord's to Langbaurgh
Posted by John Winn
Tony has nicely rounded off the season in yesterday's posting and expressed his personal disappointment that ill health prevented him watching cricket for a large chunk of the summer. How good it has been to read his postings again this last few weeks with the added bonus of photographs.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my first season of contributing to the blog and can't really complain about the amount of cricket I have seen. Totting it all up I have seen exactly the same number of days 'representative' cricket (First Class, second eleven, under 17 etc),as in 2010 and about the same amount of league cricket too. The lovely weather of April and early May got things off to a flying start and I managed to tick off six of the seven 'listed matches' that were available to me without any serious interference from the weather. The various promotions and relegations in the county championship have thrown up a bumper crop of such matches for 2012, twelve in all, and mostly in the south of England which will test the bank balance, the rail network and my stamina, but the publication of the season's fixtures will ignite my passion and come April I will be raring to go.
Looking back over this season my highlights included a day at The Cheltenham Festival, visits to six of the test match grounds, and by contrast time spent at delightful places like Newburgh Priory, Escrick Park and Bolton Percy. There have, of course, to be disappointments, among them Yorkshire's relegation, Durham's poor August which cost them the championship and worst of all ringing up Marske CC to be told they were playing but to get there and find they weren't.But worse things happen at sea, never mind Marske by the Sea.
Writing for a blog is a strange experience, one has no idea how many, if any, read them, who they are and what they make of one's contributions. Except a few kind souls have been good enough to say they have enjoyed them, to them many thanks.Having started the season as an 'umpire from Lancashire', see Tony's posting of the April 11th, from which position things could only get better, I have enjoyed making some new friends. Those of you old enough to remember 'The Lone Ranger' will perhaps recall that at the end of every show as he rode away to the strains of William Tell, somebody would say 'Who was that man?' It would be nice to think that,on my departure from a cricket ground, fewer pcws ask that question than was the case in the spring.
One or two people have suggested that they would welcome occasional postings during the winter and to this end I have one or two ideas in mind so if 'Strictly' or 'The X Factor' are not your bag then it might (just) be worth checking out the blog. In the meantime may I recommend you go to You Tube and enter Cricket 1950 John Arlott into search and you will find a delightful film, lasting just over 15 minutes, narrated by Ralph Richardson and with contributions from Arlott, based round the Lord's test of 1948.It is a gem. Winter Well!
Tony has nicely rounded off the season in yesterday's posting and expressed his personal disappointment that ill health prevented him watching cricket for a large chunk of the summer. How good it has been to read his postings again this last few weeks with the added bonus of photographs.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my first season of contributing to the blog and can't really complain about the amount of cricket I have seen. Totting it all up I have seen exactly the same number of days 'representative' cricket (First Class, second eleven, under 17 etc),as in 2010 and about the same amount of league cricket too. The lovely weather of April and early May got things off to a flying start and I managed to tick off six of the seven 'listed matches' that were available to me without any serious interference from the weather. The various promotions and relegations in the county championship have thrown up a bumper crop of such matches for 2012, twelve in all, and mostly in the south of England which will test the bank balance, the rail network and my stamina, but the publication of the season's fixtures will ignite my passion and come April I will be raring to go.
Looking back over this season my highlights included a day at The Cheltenham Festival, visits to six of the test match grounds, and by contrast time spent at delightful places like Newburgh Priory, Escrick Park and Bolton Percy. There have, of course, to be disappointments, among them Yorkshire's relegation, Durham's poor August which cost them the championship and worst of all ringing up Marske CC to be told they were playing but to get there and find they weren't.But worse things happen at sea, never mind Marske by the Sea.
Writing for a blog is a strange experience, one has no idea how many, if any, read them, who they are and what they make of one's contributions. Except a few kind souls have been good enough to say they have enjoyed them, to them many thanks.Having started the season as an 'umpire from Lancashire', see Tony's posting of the April 11th, from which position things could only get better, I have enjoyed making some new friends. Those of you old enough to remember 'The Lone Ranger' will perhaps recall that at the end of every show as he rode away to the strains of William Tell, somebody would say 'Who was that man?' It would be nice to think that,on my departure from a cricket ground, fewer pcws ask that question than was the case in the spring.
One or two people have suggested that they would welcome occasional postings during the winter and to this end I have one or two ideas in mind so if 'Strictly' or 'The X Factor' are not your bag then it might (just) be worth checking out the blog. In the meantime may I recommend you go to You Tube and enter Cricket 1950 John Arlott into search and you will find a delightful film, lasting just over 15 minutes, narrated by Ralph Richardson and with contributions from Arlott, based round the Lord's test of 1948.It is a gem. Winter Well!
Sunday, 9 October 2011
After the heatwave - a damp squib
Nothing can replace experience
Posted by Tony Hutton
Saturday 1st October - Arthington v The Hawks
A wonderful day of hot sunshine brought out a good number of professional cricket watchers from far and wide, with some entertaining cricket which sadly finished early when the weather was still warm and sunny
I can do no more than quote from the excellent report of proceedings sent in by the visitors to the Wharfedale Observer, which reads as follows:-
The Hawks ended their season with a visit to the lovely ground at Arthington and found themselves playing in the very best conditions of the entire summer.
They also celebrated with an emphatic win in front of their biggest crowds of the season. Opting to bat first, the hosts never found the going easy against a varied Hawks attack and after their 40 overs reached 156-9.
Joe Nash made 26 as opener, a further 26 came from L. Barraclough, 27 from M. Barraclough and Andy Stoddart made a solid 29, as the Hawks bowled and fielded well.
Simon Armitage finished the season with 3-25 and there was a surprise 3-23 from veteran Kevin Woodley.
In reply the Hawks lost no time in claiming the game and reached 162-3 in just 27 overs. This was achieved with the help on an opening stand of 62 from Sam Wilkinson (26) and Tom Lester (50). Stu Cobbett (47) and Duncan Heath (27) added valuable runs before Micky Love-Peel swiped an enormous six to seal victory.
The Hawks extended their thanks to Arthington for a splendid day, the umpires for turning out and the tea lady for her fine fare.
That ends the Wharfedale Observer report and all I can add is the photo above showing the last wicket pair of Arthington returning undefeated at the end of the innings. Dennis Nash and Martin Binks combined ages must be in the region of 140.
Long may they continue to play !
Sunday 2nd October - Arthington v Doghouse.
Not quite as hot as yesterday but still very pleasant for the traditional visit of Doghouse, the team from the Teeside area which consists mainly of players from the North Yorkshire and South Durham league, who like to let their hair down on Sundays.
They have a full fixture list of friendlies at some of the most attractive grounds in the county.
Their name derives from the inevitable consequence of late night homecomings, sometimes the worse for wear, on Sunday evenings.
The cognoscenti voiced the opinion that Arthington should not bat first against a usually strong side and that this might result in yet another early finish. As so often the experts were proved wrong again as Arthington batted consistently throughout their 40 overs to amass a huge total of 244-4. The main man, as so often, was the immaculate Geoff Barker, who made 92 not out, but with good support from all his partners.
Doghouse soon showed that their batting was in a different league to their bowling and went for the runs from the word go, opener Sheppard (apparently from Great Ayton), made a rapid 50 before retiring and at half way the visitors were on target for victory.
Sadly the fine weather then took a turn for the worse as the rain swept down the Wharfe Valley from the direction of Ilkley. I left at this point and still do not know whether the game eventually reached its conclusion. No doubt someone can put me right on that.
We had hoped for another weekend of cricket on the 8th and 9th October, but again the weather had the last word. I doubt very much whether any play was possible on the Saturday and although it was somewhat better today (Sunday) I decided to give it a miss.
So that's it a damp squib to end the season, which for me personally has not been a very good one, having to miss a large part of it for health reasons. However there have been some excellent memories from the earlier part of the season which I hope have been reflected in these pages.
Already people are planning for next season - all I can hope for is good health and good weather for all our readers in 2012.
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