FIRST MATCH OF THE SEASON

By Brian Sanderson,

  Today 5th October Doghouse club from the Middlesbrough area played  their first match of the season at Arthington.Last week was the Michael Bourne match and I was able this afternoon to take a photograph of the seat in memory of him.

There were the usual spectators of about  fifteen people gathered for the match including Ian from Lancaster who has being coming to the cricket festival for thirty years and has seen over two hundred matches this season.The home side batted first on another sunny afternoon after the rain of yesterday.It was left up to Chris Binks to top score with 41 against a team consisted of players from Norton  and Normanby Hall in the North Yorkshire and South Durham League.However it was Lord and Barraclough who put on a excellent 6th wicket stand of 73.

As the photograph shows the trees are just starting to turn red whilst Arthington struggled to reach 193 with the help of 40 extras. It is the first time I have seen three wicket keepers for a side not wearing wicket keeping pads
.

At tea break it was a chance to have a cup of tea and a piece of cake awaiting Doghouse's side to start their innings.I was given some photographs that used to belong to Michael Bourne including a Lancashire side of 1950. So it was an interesting hour working out the name of the players whilst Fenby and Brown were putting a second wicket partnership of 98.Fenby was the top run scorer for Norton in 2013 with 1692 runs  and average of 41.33 so  he was too good for the Arthington weak bowling attack. He finished on 80 not out  and Doghouses winning easily.Hope they come back next year.


One more weekend to go before the festival finishes for another season. Photograph of Fenby coming off the pitch.