A difficult season

2014 – a difficult season - posted by Tony Hutton

For the past 21 seasons, since my enforced early retirement, I have spent nearly every day of the summer months watching cricket at all levels. Over that period I have watched cricket in every county of England and photographed some of the most beautiful grounds imaginable. My constant travelling companion, until her untimely death in June 2013, was my wife Diana.

Although not a cricket enthusiast herself, she enjoyed the travelling, the visits to National Trust properties and other places of interest. She was never happier than sitting in a deck chair in the sunshine reading her book and waiting for her pre-lunch gin and tonic at some delightful country ground.

However all this travelling came to an end and last season was very much spent close to home. The months of June and August involved two prolonged stays in hospital and reduced my normal number of cricket watching days from around 145 to only 108. Despite all this, I still saw a lot of very interesting cricket and greatly enjoyed the company of an ever increasing band of professional cricket watchers. I would like to give special thanks to Brian Sanderson and John Winn for their constant stream of information on the blog which helped keep me up to date during my stays in hospital. Also sincere thanks to Jennifer Ellison, Malcolm Sheasby and John Rex my regular companions at Weetwood, where we enjoyed an unusual number of warm days, and at Headingley.

John Rex and I were both greatly saddened by the loss during the season of Harry Jackson, former secretary of the Northern Cricket Society, and missed our days out with him at Stamford Bridge and Todmorden in particular. His cheerful presence will be missed by all who knew him.

Harry would have enjoyed Yorkshire’s performance in winning the county championship which was obviously the highlight of the season, particularly in view of so many players being away on England duty. It was very satisfying for those of us who have seen so many of the current Yorkshire side growing up with the Academy and watched them all from a young age.

The current Academy side also provided us with excellent entertainment all season, winning both the Yorkshire Premier League title and the League cup. Five Yorkshire players were involved with the England Under 19 side which played Yorkshire 2^nd XI in a memorable game at Sleaford in Lincolnshire. Will Rhodes who captained both the Academy and England Under 19s scored several centuries during the season and must be the next in line for promotion to the first team.                      

To my surprise I have now missed three whole seasons of blogging and feel that it is perhaps time for a comeback as we all look forward to the 2015 season.