Not a heifer to be seen

posted by John Winn

The week's sunshine convinced me that my plan to visit grounds in The Craven and District League could finally be put into operation and yesterday saw me taking luncheon in The Masons'* Arms at Gargrave, near Skipton and then dropping in at the Skipton Road ground of Gargrave CC. The C&DL can trace its history back to 1888 although it did not settle on its current name until 1935. The excellent handbook details all the various comings and goings since 1976 when it was extended to 23 clubs and four divisions.

On its website the league is described as 'loosely based round Skipton', the 'loosely'  is a bit harsh for Skipton is very much at its heart even if one could base an afternoon visiting grounds without straying far from Keighley. The Gargrave ground may well be familiar to readers who have not watched cricket there for its pavilion featured in 'The Book of Pavilions' by Jonathan Rice, published more than twenty years ago. Yesterday's match was between Gargrave I and Bingley side, Elswick and Gilstead I, with the home team batting and after the loss of an early wicket they began to score freely before I left. The ground is shared with football and a match was in progress at the rear of the pavilion. Judging from the photograph in Rice's book some trees may have been cleared to create the football pitch.

The club was founded in 1852 and the earliest picture in the pavilion is from 1893. Walking round the ground I noticed a bench in memory of Fred Trueman, not surprising perhaps given that he spent his last years in a village just a couple of miles up the road. What did strike me about the ground was the profusion of seating, possibly for as many as 400. Most benches were unoccupied yesterday.

From Gargrave I drove 8 miles or so to Thornton in Craven where I discovered the Booth Bridge Lane ground and realised that what I consider 'cricket heaven' has more than one outlet. This was perfect, there were lovely views of the local hillsides and while in the neighbouring field a combine cornered the last of the season's corn, Thornton's batsmen made hay while the sun shone like it was making up for lost time. Climbing a stile to enter the small field where the boundary ran right up to the surrounding walls, I made for the neat modern pavilion and was served tea at 30 pence a cup. Heaven indeed. It almost made me feel that I should tear up my schedule of visits to other grounds and just enjoy this moment. Had I done so I would have seen Thornton beat opponents Airedale CC by nine runs.

After witnessing the end of a partnership of 101 for the third wicket  I did move on however, to another small town/large village and like Thornton still in N Yorks, but only a couple of miles from Lancashire, namely Cowling where the local club has its ground on Keighley Road, but which could equally well be called Colne Road. This ground was in sharp contrast to Thornton for although it too had splendid views the rest was rather disappointing. The first thing you see is an unattractive back of the pavilion and like Gargrave it shares its enclosure with football and I think these two rarely sit well together. The visitors were Wilsden who joined from the Bradford Central League in 2004 and although they have a BD 15 postcode are based only 15 miles from Skipton. The game had reached the stage where the Wilsden tenth wicket pair were putting together a  stand which irritated the fielding side and highly amused bystanders.. Their total of 125 was overhauled by Cowling for the loss of only 3 wickets.

Back towards Skipton a few minutes drive brought me to Cononley, where for latecomers like me the ground is approached by parking at the top of one side of the valley and then walking down a path to where the playing area shares the valley bottom with Cononley Sports FC. At the far side of the ground runs the rail line from Skipton to Leeds and Bradford  with up to four trains an hour passing by. Backing onto the line was shelter akin to a football dug out and titled 'old ans eat', which I worked out would provide me with an appropriate seat from which to watch play which had just resumed after tea.Visitors Sutton in Thornton were defending 116 but  Cononley reached the target for the loss of only three wickets.

My final stop of the day was at the village of Embsay, just out of Skipton towards Harrogate. Embsay is home to the Embsay and Bolton Abbey steam railway and from this gem of a ground I could see a locomotive in action. The game in progress was a Div 1 game between Embsay and Oakworth, last year's champions. Embsay CC was founded in 1901 and has a neat pavilion dating from 1975 from which there are views across the A59 to the hills beyond. Embsay had begun their reply to Oakworth's 158 and their opening pair had made a solid start which  set up a victory by six wickets, no doubt enjoyed by what was the largest crowd I saw on yesterday's travels.

As I left at half past five the sun still shone warmly but the length of the shadows it cast reminded me that it is now September and next Saturday for many leagues will be the last action of the 2012 summer. County cricket enters the last week of its season on Tuesday and except for games in a few leagues in this area on Saturday the 23rd there will only be Arthington to sustain us.

* the pub's literature omitted the apostrophe altogether so my placement is based on the notion that there was probably more than one mason.