Back from the borders

posted by John Winn

We travelled back from the Northumberland Scotland border this morning after a week's holiday in which we only had one poor day's weather which in 2012 marks us down as very fortunate, but not fortunate enough to see any cricket.
Travelling up last Saturday I had hoped we might pick up one or two games in the Alnwick and District League which is sponsored by Johnny Johnson Housing. Pleasing to see that Johnny has found alternative work after the decline of his bandwagon. The weather had improved and the afternoon itself was warm and sunny but the sunshine had come too late to dry out the grounds and the excellent Newcastle daily paper 'The Journal' confirmed on Monday that with one exception all games in the league had been abandoned. Just about all the clubs in the league are north of Alnwick and cover an area up to Berwick and the River Tweed. Results from the league are printed in The Journal which covers cricket 'twixt Tweed and Tees'
After Saturday's good drying conditions I had high hopes of Sunday and action in The Border Sunday league. The  nine teams in the league are mainly second elevens and the league was reconstituted after a number of teams left to join the Eden Valley league or the East of Scotland League during the winter of 2011. Kelso II were scheduled to play Penicuik II at Shedden Park which is in the centre of Kelso but on arrival, whilst there were plenty of youngsters milling about, the square was taped off and there were a number of stalls and sideshows on the outfield and cries of 'one, two, testing' only enhanced my suspicion that this was not the prelude to a cricket match.
A very helpful young man cemented these fears and explained that because of 'family fun day', an oxymoron if I ever heard one, the match had been switched to Penicuik, but their ground was unplayable. One down, two to go and next stop St. Boswell's, close to Melrose and due to play in the same league against Langholm II. The ground was easy to find but was deserted and a walk on the outfield confirmed why. Oooze, squelch, ooze, squelch and in the window of the pavilion there was a photograph of the club secretary taken earlier in the week standing in the middle but between two lakes. Onwards to the pretty town on Melrose where we asked at a garage for directions to the ground but despite 'phoning a friend' the young man could offer nothing more definite than 'behind the rugby ground'.Asking another Melrosian we were told 'behind the hospital' but despite finding that institution could not find the cricket ground and so  called it a day.It was a relief to find on Monday that this game ( against Gala II) had also been cancelled.
Despite these disappointments in a better summer I would recommend this area to pcws who might fancy a cricket watching holiday. There are lots of clubs and most seem to have junior sections offering midweek cricket. On our last day we passed through the very pretty village of Etal and stopped to have look at the attractive ground of Tillside CC which is on the outskirts of the village. The club's name comes from the ground's proximity to the River Till, the only tributary of the Tweed which flows entirely in England and which provides excellent fishing. Here too the outfield was very wet and much work needed to be done if this weekend's game was to go ahead.
A busy week of cricket lies ahead and with the weather more settled there ought to be plenty to talk about, especially when you consider that this outsize posting is based solely on abandoned matches.