A good afternoon among the hills.

posted by John Winn

Not for the first time this season Saturday morning saw me scrap a planned visit to The Craven and Ribblesdale Leagues. The heavy rain of Wednesday and Thursday had put serious doubt in my mind as to the chances of the selected matches being played and I was unable to contact any of the clubs involved for confirmation of play or no play.

Plan B was based on the knowledge that the Bradford League has a starting time for September matches of twelve noon and a phone call to Lightcliffe confirmed that there game was on. I arrived at this most attractive of grounds, until yesterday the only ground in the current first division that I had not visited, to find Pudsey St Lawrence batting and in the process of recovery from 0 for 2. Brian had promised me a friendly welcome and this I got from the gateman and the young women dispensing teas inside the 90 year old pavilion. A nonagenarian it may be , but still in very good shape.

Taking my tea and what I believe is known as a cup cake to a bench near the pavilion I enjoyed the lovely view from the ground and then took a stroll round to the scoreboard side where I was overtaken by a man with an upturned baseball cap collecting for 'Jim's Fifty', a tradition that I was not aware was still maintained. Had I known I would have walked faster.

Before leaving home I had also  contacted the eminence grise of Golcar CC, David Thorpe who was able to confirm that there would be cricket at Swallow Lane and just as I was leaving Lightcliffe  I received a text from David informing me that he would be watching the game against Clayton West. A 25 minute or so drive took me from HX3 to HD7 where Clayton,  the bottom team in the first division of the Huddersfield League and who I had seen on their own ground earlier in the season, were struggling with six down and still short of three figures. The first person I saw was David and while we took a circuit of the ground he filled me in on some of the  history of the club and its neighbourhood. A cup of tea followed and among the interesting photographs in the pavilion were two or three of teams which included one D. Thorpe. Clayton were all out for 107 and while David prepared the wicket for Golcar's innings I took my leave and headed for Linthwaite CC, just a couple of miles away but 300 feet lower.

Asking for directions in Linthwaite I duly arrived at 'the cricket club' only to find I was at Broad Oak CC, less than a mile apart but again a difference of almost 300 feet in altitude. At Broad Oak the players were just finishing tea and I took the opportunity to have yet another cup of tea this time accompanied by a couple of sandwiches. To my pleasant surprise Peter France, keen reader of the blog, was at the match and we chatted over tea. Armitage Bridge had hit almost two hundred and the loss of two early wickets suggested that this might be too much for the home side. All clubs have sorry tales to tell of the ravages of this summer's record rainfall but Broad Oak can feel more hard done by than most. There is an amusing picture on their web site of a club official using the outfield as a boating lake but the water has not gone away for parts of the ground are still very wet and just beyond the boundary there were small puddles yesterday.

Peter gave me precise instructions for finding Linthwaite CC, and I realised I had passed within 50 yards of it an hour before. Being charitable I would say it was a ground that had seen better days but the team were racing to victory in their 'Cedar Court Conference' game against visitors Kirkheaton who had been dismissed for 124. Linthwaite were eventual winners by six wickets  which keeps them well in the running for promotion.

Checking the website this morning I found that Lightcliffe had beaten  PStL by three wickets with the winning run coming off the last ball of the match. The decent crowd that had assembled while I was there must have had an enjoyable afternoon, although any who had made the journey from Pudsey might not agree. At Swallow Lane, Golcar won by 8 wickets.