Great to be Back

Thursday 5 April

Posted by Peter Davies

Headingley

Snow round and about but the first day of the new first-class season was perfect - bright and beautiful in lots of ways. Kent were the visitors and Yorkshire were determined to get off on the right foot. Massive expectations on them re. returning to the top division.

I had stayed over the night before in the Headingley Lodge hotel and I've got to say I was mightily impressed. I'd stayed before at the Old Trafford Lodge hotel, and visited my dad when he was staying at the Headingley hotel, but this was my first overnight stay in Leeds.

Really very impressive. Spacious rooms - every one with a view of the pitch - and £55 I thought was extremely reasonable. So you could lie on your bed and watch the game - a real treat.

Yorkshire got off to a poorish start, unable to take a wicket before lunch. Rob Key and Scott Newman looked very solid at the top of the Kent order and they built the foundations for a big total. Yorkshire picked up some wickets late on but they had the worse of the day.

I bumped into fellow blogger John Wynn and we had a good chat about cricket in York and other associated matters. We're planning a cricket-watching day in York soon. Also bumped into Gerald from Gomersal and a few others. Great to be back.

So nice to be in the hotel and to be able to pop into my room whenever I wanted. Perfect. Heaven in fact. Late on I felt ill and went back to my room for a sleep - again, perfect.

Before the start of play I had wandered into Headingley village and visited the local library to check my emails. Like the village a lot. Also had a cup of tea and bought some books in the Oxfam bookshop.

The season has started and it's a great feeling.