EARLY FINISH AT BARNSLEY

By Brian Sanderson,

On a warm Monday morning I set off down the M1 towards Barnsley were Yorkshire Seconds were playing Leicestershire in a one day 50 over match.The first job when I arrived was to start selling the scorecards when the Leicester side was known.There was a good crowd and the scorecards sold quickly and three extra runs were required. Looking at the Yorkshire side it was the same as yesterday,s academy side plus Wainman.

Leicester won the toss and decided to bat. Whilst walking round I had a chat with Andy Siddall who is the performance development coach for Leicester. I got to know Andy when he was with Leeds and Bradford University side and at Kirkstall Education club.Wainman  took some early wickets but it was the Leicester captain Robert Meadows Lombe Taylor who scored 90 that caused Yorkshire bowler problems . He could have been caught  two times but Yorkshire catching was not good enough. Leicester should have scored over 300 put they threw their wickets away and finished on 258.

The above photograph of Taylor walking off the pitch after his innings. Yorkshire required two batsmen to score some big runs but this did not happen. Callis allowed the ball to roll back on to his stumps and so one major batsman was lost. It then relied on Hodgson and Ryan Gibson but  neither could score enough runs.I left at 4.30 and Yorkshire had lost 9 wickets for just over 100 so suffering a heavy defeat.

Leicester are top of the division and were too strong for a young Yorkshire side. Tomorrow is York for a three day match with the two same sides playing..At the moment forecast for Wednesday is poor which might save Yorkshire from defeat.