FAVERSHAM EVENING LEAGUE AT ITS BEST

By Brian Sanderson,

While John was watching a thrilling finish in Durham , Myself and Ron Deaton set off to watch Gillamoor against Spout Houses in the Faversham league. The league has been to reduced to four village teams which included the two  this evening and Slingsby and High Farndale. Gillamoor village is about four miles from Pickering on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors.

When we arrived at just after six o,clock the ground had been cut yesterday and the wicket rolled. Ron sat next to the farmer who  established the ground in the 1950,s and used the roller that I photograph to level the ground. It was all done by hand and no horses were used so it must have been a massive job.

Near the changing room was an old scorebox which I was told that had been given to the club but they had never used it.The match started about 6.45 with Spout Houses batting with 10 men while Gillamoor had nine and the tenth man arrived after four overs to take over the wicket keeping making ten a side.

This is a photograph of Spout Houses going out to bat on a bright blue night and no problem with the light. Spout Houses had one supporter who comes from Thornley in Durham  and comes to every Spout Houses match on his own . He used to come with a friend but the quote from  the supporter was that " he likes his beer better " so tonight he would miss a great match.

I think that the estate agent shot was of the changing rooms next to a field of horses.Spout Houses started well scoring very quickly by sending the ball into the next field which had been cut by sheep so the ball could be found easily.Soon there was a score over 60 in ten overs in this eighteen over match. Thoughts of scores of over a hundred was mentioned however the score after the last ball was 97.

The Gillamoor innings started in a similar manner to Spout Houses by scoring 60 in eight overs and the home supporters were happy. By this time the crowd had grown to ten people sitting in the sunshine.Again wickets started to fall eventhough one over lasted nine balls due to wides.The match was slowed down by the ball lost in the hedge on numerous occassions.

As you can see from the photograph the edge of the field was covered in weeds and players struggled to find the ball. However it came down to the final over about 9.30 with the home side needed 2 runs to win. My thoughts went to Mick Bourne who has recently deid and was one of the founding P.C.W as he loved a tied match. Five balls gone no runs scored and one ball to ball with the batsman  threating to come down the wicket. The batsman missed the ball and was stumped leaving the sole Spout Houses supporter smiling and the home side supporters unhappy. However there is always another match and may this league keep going.