Rising stars from East Yorkshire cut down Forest

posted by John Winn

Last Sunday, and after three days at The Riverside that seems a long time ago, I went to the Union Ground at Knaresborough to see local team Knaresborough Forest take on Patrington, a rising star from East Yorkshire. The visitors entered the York League in 2010 and after two successive promotions are playing this season in Division Two (South). The first round village cup game should have been played a week before but because KFCC had also entered the National Club KO competition where they had been drawn away to South Northumberland, it had been put back a week. In the event they had conceded this match for which action as far as I can gather there is no penalty.

When I arrived Patrington had reached 226 for1 off 30 overs against a young looking Forest side. The carnage continued until the 40 overs were up and the score 344 for 6. A task that was clearly going to be way beyond the home team. One local wag remarked that it was about 300 too many. Top scorer was Ian Buss with 118 and Callum McKinley had 82. I lost count of the number of sixes.

If 345 to win at over 8 an over seemed a distant prospect then the first ball of Forest's innings must have put it totally out of sight for it comprehensively bowled the opening bat. This did not induce caution however for the second ball was hit for  four and at the end of the over the score was 11 for 1, ahead of the run rate at least. Reasonable progress was made until a difficult catch was made easy, a rather dubious lbw was given and the inexperienced members of the team were exposed to some decent bowling. The shutters rather went up at this point and by the 36th over the innings had subsided to 182 all out, not a disgrace but not a contest and what carnage might have occurred had KFCC travelled to South North the week before does not merit consideration.

 

Patrington close in on victory

 

 

For a national competition with the final at Lords it was disappointing that although players were not used as umpires the officials were not properly dressed and the scoreboard rather lagged behind events on the field. The game was played in a good spirit however without the kind of excessive appealing that my own club Ouseburn CC had indulged in the day before. In the next round Patrington will visit the lovely ground at Studley Royal, a tougher test for this ambitious club. Even though the competition is regionalised it will be another long journey from the Holderness area.