A couple of cups

posted by John Winn

Yesterday, for the second time this season, I drove to St George's Road, the home of Harrogate cc. My previous visit had been for the first day of what the club hoped would be a four day festival of cricket with Second Eleven Trophy and Championship matches between Yorkshire II and Leicestershire II. So wet was the ground on that day that it was hard to see any cricket being played, not just on that day but for the rest of the week. This indeed proved to be the case but yesterday provided a contrasting scene with clear skies, bright sunshine and reasonable temperatures.
The match in progress was a national ko cup first round group one tie between Harrogate and Beverley Town from the York and District Senior League Premier Division. The home team were batting and making good progress with Alexis Twigg and Vic Craven at the crease.  Scores of 80 and 53 respectively helped Harrogate to 247 all out, the tenth wicket falling in the last of their 45 overs with Matt Smith taking 6 for 56. An unusual  feature of the innings was an all run five and off the next ball an all run four wides.
Beverley's opening bat, Faisal Abid made 76 but received little support and the East Yorkshire men were all out for 185, losers by 62 runs. In the second round Harrogate will play either Marton or Driffield whose delayed tie will now be played next Sunday. This is a strong group with teams from Northumberland, County Durham and North and East Yorkshire competing. Second round matches were originally scheduled for next Sunday but the weather has severely disrupted the schedule. Let's hope things can be sorted out so that the group finals can be played on the appointed day, Sunday 17th June.
The competition this year is being sponsored by Kingfisher Beer.Group two covers teams from South Yorks, North Derbyshire, North Notts and Lincolnshire.
On my way to Harrogate I had spotted cricket being played at Whixley and calling in on my way home I found it was another cup match, albeit a little further down the hierarchy of club cricket with Whixley A taking on Great Preston A in a first round Hare Cup match, a competition for second teams in the Wetherby League. In this relatively low lying area on the edge of The Vale of York the ground commands fine views in all directions and in yesterday's sunshine it was possible to see the towers of York Minister to the east and The Kilburn White Horse near Sutton Bank to the north. Whixley had batted first and reached 154 for 6 and the league website this morning shows that Great Preston fell short of this total by 37 runs. Another result from yesterday's games in this competition: Headingley A 208, Kirk Deighton 27,. Ouch!