Not for the first time I am indebted to my neighbour. Mrs June Sanderson, for providing me with source material for a posting. In 2012 she kindly loaned me memorabilia connected with the Hessay and District League, long gone the way of many small cricket leagues, which gave me some inspiration and just last week in researching her family history June came across details of a match played in August 1797 between Wetherby and Scruton.
The match was played at York Gate in Leeming Lane. York Gate appears on today's maps adjacent to the A1*, a little north of its junction with the A61. Wetherby were under the patronage of the Hon George Motson while Scruton relied on the support of a mere commoner, Mr Millburn. The purse for the match was a hundred guineas aside, an astonishing sum of money to be waged on a cricket match at that time. 'The match continued two days, and the contest (which was a severe one) terminated in favour of the Wetherby Club by several notches.' The use of the term 'notches' refers of course to the practice of recording scores by carving notches in a piece of wood. A far cry from Total Cricket Scorer. Cricinfo's brief history of cricket records the first use of 'scorecards' at Sevenoaks Vine in 1776.
A further trip to Darlington has, I think, brought me to the end of the road in my research into the history of The Swaledale League for last week a morning spent going through back copies of The Darlington and Stockton Times for 1966 and 1967 has led me to conclude that the last matches in the league, which was founded in 1921, were played in July 1966. The league had begun the season with just seven clubs, an awkward number and five of the sides competing were 'works teams' from Darlington. The two village clubs were Barton II and Constable Burton. Barton who play today in The Darlington and District League, lies just south west of Darlington and can hardly considered part of Swaledale, and Constable Burton had for many years been stalwarts of The Wensleydale League, which geographically was their natural home. Here they are circa 1957, a year in which only Middleham kept them off the bottom of the league, Wensleydale that is.
Reports of the 1966 season cease in July but alas there is no final table. The difficulties presented by having seven teams had been solved when Darlington Corporation Transport dropped out in early July having conceded a number of fixtures. How one would love to say this was because of transport problems but the explanation lay in the shift patterns of employees making it difficult for them to raise an XI. There are no scores or fixtures recorded in 1967 so one can only assume that the matches played in late July 66 were the last. A further piece of evidence is that Constable Burton are back in Wensleydale action in 1967, this time only Gilling West denying them the wooden spoon.
Before I finally draw a line under this project there is one last source to explore and that is via phone numbers I have been given of two stalwarts of Barton CC who may, as very young men, just have played in that 'final season'. Here's hoping.
*Known as The Great North Road at the time of the match.
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