Rain thwarts Scotland

posted by John Winn

After a day catching up in the garden, my usual train when heading north, the 9:32 from York, conveyed me to Durham in under three quarters of an hour this morning for the third of three 50 over games being played at The Racecourse between Durham II and Scotland A. With Monday's and Tuesday's games having gone Durham's way this was a dead rubber and Durham's team was slightly under strength compared with the two previous days.

I always enjoy walking through the city centre in Durham with its magnificent cathedral standing proud and on the 20 or so minute walk I passed several nostalgic reminders of the year I spent there gaining a teaching qualification which the present Secretary of State would probably regard as superfluous. My feeling was that the day would brighten to something like yesterday but the forecast was for rain about tea time.

I arrived just in time for the 10:45 start and Scotland A had won the toss and elected to bat. They got off to a cracking start with Calum MacLeod, currently on trial with Durham, leading the way. No scorecards were available but I had copied the Scottish squad from their twitter feed and it reflected the ethnic mix of the squad with Alasdair and Hamish playing alongside Safyaan and Majid. The visitors were eventually all out for 253 with one ball to spare. Top scorer was Michael Leask with 56 and George Munsey hit 52. Durham could be pleased with their fielding and skipper Poynter had a good day behind the stumps.

During the lunch interval I walked over to the adjacent ground, the home of Durham City, which I had visited last year for the first time. Here an inter-collegiate match of a decent standard was being  played. Poynter and Singh opened for Durham but went cheaply and they soon fell behind the clock. The afternoon had grown cold and at 50 for 4 I decided to make my way back to the station and by the time I arrived there, breathless from the steep climb from the town, spots of rain were falling. This eventually brought the game to a halt at a most frustrating time, at least for Scotland for Durham were on 108 for 9 when the game was abandoned. Majid Haq took three wickets and the others were shared by Evans, Gossain and Burnett. Evans had been impressive in removing the two openers. Breeze top scored with 38. His presence today suggests he will make way for Sangakkara when Yorkshire visit The Riverside on Sunday.

So the forecast was right and as Brian has promised it doesn't look too good for tomorrow. I note that Johnny Bairstow played at Sedbergh today and his finger feels good. How long before we see him back for Yorkshire? And who would make room for him?

For connoisseurs of rollers this one at The Racecourse was made by George Pike