Monday 6 January 2014

Le Grand Depart

posted by John Winn

The weekend of July 5th and 6th sees the Tour de France come to Yorkshire with two stages of the event being held within the county. On Saturday July 5th,  after the ceremonial start at Leeds Town Hall, the official start from Harewood House will send the cavalcade off on a tour of North Yorkshire finishing with a sprint finish in Harrogate. It is estimated that the from first to last it will take some three and a half hours to pass with roads closed up to six hours before the first vehicle arrives. Such disruption will make it impossible for some cricket clubs to fulfil fixtures and I have trawled the websites of 16 local leagues to check their response to this historic event.

Leagues switching fixtures (no fixtures on July 5th)

Aire Wharfe, Wetherby, Nidderdale, Huddersfield, Craven

Business as usual

Bradford, York Senior, NYSD, Scarborough Beckett, Yorkshire Premier League

Fixtures not yet available

Langbaurgh, Dales Council, York Vale, Bradford Mutual, Darlington and District, Derwent Valley, Huddersfield Central

Some of the leagues who have not yet published their fixtures are unlikely to be affected by the cycling and so presumably will have a full programme on July 5th. I will update news about these as and when. For pcws not interested in the tour a bit of planning should offer plenty of cricket and there is the consolation that in some cases the matches which would have been played on July 5th will now be tagged on to the end of the season thus offering league cricket later than usual. The Wetherby League for example voted at its AGM to move the 5th July programme to September 20th en bloc*

Finally if the above has turned your thoughts towards the 2014 season (which is now less than three months away) then this Sunday offers an appetiser with the annual match between Appletreewick and Malhamdale with the former taking its turn to host. The start is 1:30 or thereabouts. Let's hope for a day like yesterday.

* As Le Tour passes within three miles of my house I thought I should start brushing up my French. Bonjour.

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