Nice people in Glasshouses

posted by John Winn

Before setting off on my excursion to Wales I had spent some time drawing up a list of matches that I might visit yesterday, the first day of league cricket. Reading Brian's posting from yesterday I realised I had had a lucky escape for my plan had been to visit four grounds in The Craven area, at two of which, as Brian has reported, there was no play. My late return from Cardiff had persuaded me that I should stay nearer to home and headed instead for the only two grounds in the Nidderdale League that I had not previously visited.

My first venue was the lovely ground at Glasshouses deep in the valley of the River Nidd. Parking the car at 1:45 I was surprised to hear the call of play for the scheduled start was 2:00. The visitors were Raskelf II, alas with only nine men due to the calls of football and the London Marathon, and having been given first use of a slow wicket they were soon in trouble at 5 for 4 off 6 overs.South African Paul Nel  finished with 5 for 5 and in 45 minutes play Raskelf were 'all out' for 28 with opener Baker hitting all but five of those. Extras came next with four.

During the innings I had visited the pavilion where there are some grand old photographs recalling Glasshouse's glory days. They were founder members of the league in 1894 and although they now run only one team and are in Division Six they still can lay claim to the highest number of league titles, 19 in all. In the pavilion there were copies of the Glasshouses Chronicle, the club newsletter published last September and giving a full account of the 2012 season when a couple of late victories kept them in the division. The newsletter also thanked Eileen for her 'world class teas' and sure enough there was Eileen,  preparing the day's fare. With the fall of wickets Eileen's buttering arm went into overdrive but she was given respite by the easy decision not to take tea at the end  of the first innings, it was only 2:30 after all.

For the duration of the home team's reply I sat with very long serving groundsman Ken Hainsworth who told me that so wet had been the wicket this morning that he had not been able to cut the wicket until 11:00. I very much enjoyed my chat with Ken, who filled me in on some of the history of the club but Glasshouses took only five overs to knock off the runs without loss and the winning hit was made at three o'clock by which time I hope Eileen was ready.

Too soon after lunch for me to tackle even a 'world class tea' I set off over the hills to Ripon and onto the village of Melmerby and a rarity these days, a new cricket ground, the home of Wath and Melmerby CC, who were entertaining Harrogate fourths in a Division 5 match. Plenty of history here too for Wath CC were in abeyance from 1995 until 2008 when they added Melmerby to their name and built the new ground on the edge of a trading estate in Melmerby, which lies a little west of the A1 on the Ripon to Thirsk road. I suppose the Witherick Lane ground will never have the charm of Glasshouses but it is a large playing area which looked in very good fettle yesterday, despite the cold spring. Promoted form Division 6 last year W and M got the new campaign off to a good start with an 8 wicket win over Harrogate.

Onto my local club Ouseburn where it was tea time and where visitors Spofforth had been bowled out for 134. Good to see plenty of old friends who had wintered well and despite losing early wickets to a very aggressive Spofforth team a fine 76 not out from Sam Dale, who had also taken 4 for 32, saw them home by three wickets with time to spare. Ouseburn are without an overseas player this year but Spofforth have New Zealander Will Long who took two wickets in his opening spell. Ouseburn begin the first season for as long as anyone can remember without 'club stalwart' Jeff Gill who died in December. Jeff would have been very pleased by the fast firm track prepared by groundsman Edward Pearson.

Finally a somewhat strange start in the Wetherby League. A few months ago I made a posting in response to an article in my local paper which suggested that Vale of York side Rufforth might go out of business. Down to a handful of players and missing key officials they had already decided that they could not run two teams and with the loss of players there was serious doubt that they could get eleven together. I was pleased therefore this morning to see  that Rufforth had turned out two teams both of which had won. A sad note, however was that in Division 6 Green Hammerton's second string had conceded. Let's hope that's down to football and marathon commitments and that next week they will be at full strength.