KEEPING OUT OF THE RAIN

By Brian Sanderson,

The weather forecast was rain in Leeds in the afternoon so decided to go round the Wetherby area. However I started off at Weetwood were Yorkshire Academy were playing Appleby Frodingham in the Yorkshire E.C.B League.A surprise visitor was Karl Carver who had hurt his wrist at Harrogate on Friday playing football. He said he should be fit for Barnsley on Monday which is good news.

Yorkshire won the toss and put Appleby in to bat. The opening bowlers been Waite anad Warner. I left after twenty minutes and no wickets had fallen . The score is not on total scorer so I will have to wait till tomorrow for the result.

After  picking Ron Stansfield we travelled to Collingham were their seconds were playing Colton Seconds in the Airewharfe Cricket league.I had watched Collingham first team recently beat Adel to get to the Cup Final. Colton is my first league club I played for  , fifty years ago, there must have been a number of players  played since then. The home side was batting  against some easy bowling and poor fielding.As we left Collingham opener had scored 50 and they look as though they would score a large score.In the distance there was dark clound in the Leeds area.

Moving on a couple of miles we visited Wetherby,s ground were their seconds were playing  Long Marston seconds. As we arrived at the  ground the  rain started but the two teams were still playing. I had visited this ground about four years ago and the major problem is that  the ground is next to the new A1.

I had  planned to go to the Bramhope ground but the rain was very heavy so I   will have to go there so other time. The clouds looked lighter towards York so we arrived at Acomb just as the rain started to fall. Their seconds were playing Driffield thirds in the York and District League.However it was just a shower and they were soon out just losing four overs.In the corner of the ground was a graveyard for the old equipment including the roller as shown by the photograph at the begining of the blog.

Moving on to York ground were their seconds were playing Clifton Alliance  and their fourth,s were playing Castleford seconds. It is always good to see two matches in a short distance. Castleford were batting well before the rain came again forcing a early tea.

Going back towards Leeds I noticed that there was a match at Bilton in Ainsley who were playing Shadwell in the Wetherby League. It is very neat ground just of a minor road from York to Wetherby.The shadwell fielder said they had been off for rain but the conditions were not bad. Also you could see cows in the next field which helps the rural views.

Retracing our route back to Leeds were called in again to Collingham and the home side did not get a big score and Colton looked like they could win the match.

I hope the weather is fine tomorrow,