Wrong call

posted by John Winn

On Sunday I arrived at St George's Road, Harrogate to find Yorkshire Under 15 A struggling against Notts. The visitors had been bowled out for 149 with Mustafa Rafique taking four for nine but in their reply Yorkshire had lost two wickets for just four runs. A good size crowd was in attendance and I took the last parking place on the raised bank which offers such good viewing at the ground. It was a pleasure to sit in the sunshine and watch captain Yassar Imtiaz and James Brown put on a splendid display to bring Yorkshire home with an undefeated stand of 146.

The early recovery was led by Imtiaz who hit twelve fours in his 83 but Brown later picked up the pace to finish on 54 not out with nine fours. The driving of both boys was particularly impressive and Notts' body language showed an acceptance of defeat long before the winning runs were hit.

Monday offered me my only other chance to watch cricket this week and having contrived to be away for the four days of Yorkshire's championship match with Warwickshire I was reluctant to pass up any opportunity so despite a poor forecast I drove to Masham. This time it was the turn of Yorkshire Under 15 B and their opponents were Lancashire. I had passed through one heavy shower en route and there was rain in the air when I arrived at the ground. Yorkshire were batting and there was a steady procession of unhappy looking batsmen making their way  back to the pavilion. When the rain finally became too heavy for play to continue the score stood at thirty for six off 19 overs. The half hour break did the home side little good for a run out interrupted a modest recovery and  49 for 7 quickly became 63 all out in the 30th over .Individual batsmen returned to the dressing rooms looking suitably dismayed but the feeling amongst those watching was that there was insufficient application to the task and that the response to a calamitous situation was to try and force the pace which almost inevitably brought about the loss of another wicket.

As the players left the field the rain returned and intensified to the point that I felt it unlikely there would be any resumption of play in the near future and decided to return home. Of course by the time I reached Ripon the roads were dry and when I arrived home my wife was sitting in the garden enjoying watching the  butterflies  which have been plentiful in recent days. Reading Brian's report of his visit yesterday I see that Monday's game did restart and resulted in an easy win for Lancs. I also see that Yorkshire had made changes for the second meeting between the teams. These may have reflected the coach's disappointment with Monday's poor batting.

Brian comments on the difficulties of identifying p[layers in these matches which I echo. It is also disappointing that whilst on the YCB play cricket website there are full details of Sunday's match which retrospectively at least overcomes this problem neither Monday's or Tuesday's games have made it on to the site.

 

 

This league table recalls Masham's days in the Vale of Mowbray League probably in the late 1950s or early 1960s.