A few weeks ago I was asked by Ouseburn's regular first team scorer, Tricia Bryant, if I would stand in for her at yesterday's Nidderdale League fixture at Hampsthwaite. Despite the fact that I had last scored for a complete match in 1975 on a cricket tour to the Isle of Wight, I said 'yes'. As Saturday grew nearer I became more nervous and increasingly found myself between the hard place of having to shout 'bowler's name' for ones own team and the rock of hoping that Friday's awful weather would have left the Hampsthwaite ground underwater.
My preparation to avoid the first of these had been thwarted by last weekend's rain which caused the abandonment of Ouseburn's home match and with it my plan to watch the game primarily as an exercise in player identification. I was to some extent reassured by an email this week from Tricia informing me that Hampsthwaite's scorer was very experienced and would keep me right. And how. Dorothy Thwaite has carried out scoring duties at Church Lane for over 60 years and in 2006 was made a life member of the Nidderdale league in recognition of her services to cricket in the area which extend far beyond scoring, for Dorothy had an outstanding career as a player including representing Yorkshire Ladies. I was in safe hands.
On a beautiful afternoon Ouseburn won the toss and Tom (green helmet) and Sam (blue helmet) Parker set about Hampsthwaite's bowling with obvious enjoyment and I was grateful that my duties were restricted to operating the 'wickets' rather than 'total'. Dorothy cheerfully multitasked away and even threw in the odd yorker in the form of questions about current affairs, the state of play in the test match and the draw for the Atkinson Swires cup.* Anyone of these would have been enough to deal with for a man struggling to remember how to record five wides.
Exactly three hours after it began, Ouseburn's innings finished on 282 for 7 with Sam Parker having contributed 145, the great majority in fours and sixes. Dorothy lamented that he had been dropped on ten and felt sure that the total would be too many for the home team. Hampsthwaite were champions last year for the first time since 1952 but they are missing some players from that successful XI and after losing two early wickets never looked like batting out time, let alone threatening Ouseburn's formidable score. Four wickets for skipper Chris Morrison (red boots) and four for Sam Dale (left arm slow) saw the innings close in the thirtieth over with Hampsthwaite all out for 75.
To my relief the two score books were in agreement with each other and the umpires. An interesting and enjoyable afternoon but it was with some relief that I handed the book to Jamie Bryant for safe return to his mother. Clubs who can rely on the dedication of people like Dorothy and Tricia are indeed lucky, for although I enjoyed the afternoon next Saturday will see Ouseburn's book back in its proper hands and next Sunday's posting will be more representative of my typical weekend ramblings, and that's not just the prose.
*the KO cup for the top 16 teams in the previous season's Nidderdale League. First round today.
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