Cricket gets underway

Posted by Tony Hutton

Cricket at Trent Bridge yesterday despite a chilling westerly wind blowing across the ground,  but the sun shone and the small crowd of hardy souls enjoyed some enterprising batting. Notts were taking on Northants in a two day warm-up game and most of those present certainly needed warming up.

Trent Bridge

The home side batted first with Greg Smith, who has joined from Leicester, and Steve Mullaney. They scored at a steady four an over with Smith looking the more fluent until he was becalmed in the late forties. Both players reached their fifties before lunch and then retired to let the others have a go. Taylor and Patel also retired after reaching fifty and Notts declared at 312-1 with only one player actually dismissed.

The Northants side included a few new faces such as Ben Sanderson, the former Yorkshire player and Joe Ellis-Grewell, a man with more clubs than Jack Nicklaus,  among many others Harrogate and Broad Oak, as well as Leeds/Bradford University, whose smart yellow trimmed sweater he was wearing. He bowled a few overs of left arm spin before lunch, but the pitch looked very batsman friendly with a very short boundary on one side. Another former Leeds/Bradford man is Germaal Hussain who has been around the county circuit, but settled at Northants last season.

Joe Ellis-Grewell leads Northants in at lunch

After lunch in an effort to get my circulation going, I made the short journey down the road to Loughborough University who were playing Leicestershire in a one day 50 over game. The Leicester innings was coming to an end as I arrived just in time to see Aadil Ali and Jigar Niak make some lusty blows to make a final score of 197-7 in their 50 overs. Angus Robson, younger brother of Sam of Middlesex, had top scored with 54. (Yet another Australian of course).

It was my first visit to the main ground at Loughborough, known as the Haslegrave ground. My previous visit, with Brian Senior, was eight years ago when we saw England Under 15s play Australia Under 15s on the junior ground. Amongst those playing that day were Joe Root and a very small James Taylor. Come to think of it he's not much bigger now. The England captain that day was Azeem Rafiq who spent some time with pre-season training at Sussex. Nothing seems to have come of that and I understand he is now setting up his own coaching business in Barnsley.

However back to today's events and both games were eventually curtailed by the late afternoon rain, which had been forecast. Northants were 42-1 at Trent Bridge, and hope to continue today and at Loughborough the University were going well on 66-2 when the rains came and the game was abandoned as a draw.

Loughborough University Haslegrave ground

County cricket's movers and shakers (part 2)

Posted by Tony Hutton

Some of you may recall that I did an early list of players changing counties about the middle of last month. Since then the list has increased substantially, with lots of new overseas mercenaries joining counties on short term contracts. Now that John Winn has whetted our appetites with next week's fixtures, it seems appropriate to update the list of changes. There are so many, I will do half the counties today and the rest sometime next week.

Derbyshire have been very busy in the overseas market signing New Zealand's batsman Martin Guptill until early June, when he will be replaced by Sri Lanka's Dilshan. In addition they have signed Australian bowler Nathan Rimmington for T20. Tim Groenewald, the opening bowler, has left for Somerset and Wayne White, not to be confused with Wainwright, has joined from Lancashire. Shiv Thakor has joined from Leicester and will hopefully develope his early promise as an all rounder.

Durham have no new signings and will continue with Australian John Hastings as their very useful overseas player. Gareth Breese has retired.

Essex will continue with New Zealander Jesse Ryder as their overseas player, with Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait joining for T20. They have lost Ben Foakes to Surrey and Tymal Mills to Sussex. Darren Gough's son Liam has joined the staff from MCC Young Cricketers.

Glamorgan have appointed existing overseas player Jacques Rudolph as captain in all forms of the game and have recruited batsman James Kettleborough (no relation to the umpire) from Northants. Jim Allenby has left to join Somerset.

Gloucester will suffer from the loss of the Gidman brothers to Notts and Worcester respectively, but Geraint Jones from Kent takes over as captain. Michael Klinger, the Australian batsman, will return in June. The ex-Yorkshire pair of Richard Dawson and Ian Harvey take over as coach and assistant coach.

Hampshire have recruited Australian fast bowler Jason Bird for the first three months of the season and Yasar Arafat from Sussex for one day cricket. Matt Coles has returned to his native county of Kent and David Balcombe has joined Surrey.

Lancashire have added to their fast bowling strength by signing Australian Peter Siddle until July. They have also added to the batting with Alviro Peterson from Somerset.

Leicester seem to have undergone an Australian takeover. Andrew McDonald has taken over as coach and Mark Cosgrove as captain. Another Australian, bowler Clint Mackay will join at the end of April and New Zealander Grant Elliott will be worth watching in the T20 competition.

More news next week.

Just a week ahead

Posted by John Winn

With Yorkshire having despatched MCC inside three days and Adam Lyth reinforced his already strong claims to be the next England debutant opener the first class season can tick off its first match. After a slight pause the season continues next Thursday with six matches, designated first class and featuring the six university sides entitled to put the letters MCCU after their names. These are all against county opposition and are as follows

Cambridge* v Northants at Fenner's 

Glamorgan v Cardiff* at Cardiff

Hants v Loughborough* at The Ageas Bowl

Oxford* v Worcestershire at The Parks 

Somerset v Durham* at Taunton

Sussex v Leeds/Bradford* at  Hove

Sadly for Northern pcws nothing further north than Cambridge but given reports of snow in Harrogate this morning perhaps I should lay this grizzle of mine to rest for a while. A friend from Sussex telephoned yesterday to tell me that 'they say' we will have to wait until July for summer this year which seemed at odds with a forecast for cracked flags in Huddersfield over Easter that was made at the Thoroughbreds lunch on Tuesday.

*university sides

One for your shelves

posted by John Winn

Apart from Wisden,  books from Fairfield Books of Bath take up more space on my 'cricket shelves' than those by any other publisher. The publishing company is owned by Stephen Chalke who took up writing about cricket in 1997 with Runs in the Memory, a book about the domestic game in the 1950s,  a time when championship cricket was the only game in town apart from visits by touring teams. Based on interviews with players of the era it is  fascinating stuff and a book I can go to time and time again and the only surprise is that I did not purchase my copy until five years after publication.

It is fitting and a nice coincidence that Tony should have mentioned Stephen's  biography of Bob Appleyard in his tribute to the great Yorkshire bowler posted yesterday. If you are seeking a copy of this then you will probably have to go second hand for it is not on the latest list from Fairfield Books. My own favourite among Stephen's books, at least until last week, is 'One More Run', a slim volume describing Yorkshire's visit to Cheltenham in 1957 a thrilling match described through the eyes and memories of Bryan 'Bomber' Wells and as the title suggests resulting in victory by a single run. To which side went the spoils I will not reveal.

 

About 18 months ago in a newsletter from Fairfield Books, Stephen warned his readers that there would be an unusually long gap before his next publication and that this was because he had been invited to write a history of the county championship. My copy of the magnum opus arrived last week and what a splendid record it is, a book that feels good in your hands before you even look inside its 352 pages . With many lovely photographs the book is a record of a competition that is just about recognisable today compared with its beginnings in the nineteenth century. How much longer that is likely to be the case was a topic of discussion at The Thoroughbreds lunch yesterday. 'Not much longer' once Colin Graves slides back the bolt on  the new broom cupboard at the ECB, seemed to be the consensus.

For those of a certain age, reading books like 'Runs in the memory' and 'One more run' can be chastening for it leaves you wondering why it can't still be like that and longing for a time when for a little over four months each year every Wednesday and Saturday saw the start of seven or more three day championship grounds with lots of 'out ground' cricket and festivals at places like Bath, Maidstone, Folkestone and many more.

I suggested earlier that 'Summer's Crown', the title of the new book, might usurp 'Just one Run' in my affections but whilst essentially they have the same subject matter they are very different kinds of books and will sit proudly side by side, filed under Chalke, and each will continue to give me great pleasure. 'Summer's Crown' retails at £20 post free in the UK from Fairfield Books 17 George's Road, Bath, BA1 6EYwith £2 postage for overseas delivery. If you wish to check availability ring 01225 335813.

Three former Yorkshire cricketers die within last two weeks

Posted by Tony Hutton

A very sad period for long time Yorkshire followers, with the deaths of Ken Smales, Bob Appleyard and now Ted Lester within the last two weeks.

Ken Smales, not to be confused with Frank Smailes, many years his senior, made his first class debut in May 1948 for Yorkshire v Northants at Fartown, Huddersfield. He was a 20 year old off spinner, who could also bat, going in at number six in his first game. This was also the first county cricket match I ever saw, at the age of 10.
Strangely enough the Yorkshire captain that day was the aforementioned Frank Smailes, a professional, which was very rare in those days of amateur captains. Norman Yardley was absent at a meeting of England selectors.

Young Smales did well taking the wickets of three top order batsmen for 51 in 26 overs in the first innings. His most notable scalp that of Northants best player Dennis Brookes, another Yorkshireman. Yorkshire won the game by ten wickets with Hutton and Halliday knocking off  the 167 runs on the last afternoon. Strangely enough I have only this week come across the Yorkshire Post report by the eminent cricket correspondent J.M. Kilburn. Despite the game being a real highlight for me, he was rather scathing of the last day's events. After Hutton reached 80, Kilburn's comments were as follows:- 'Thereafter the proceedings were uncommonly dull. Hutton was near enough his century for Halliday to limit his own run getting. In the end Hutton had need of the last 13 runs, he made them and our departure was thankful, for this was on the whole, a match of small merit.' How different from my schoolboy enthusiasm.

However Smales could not get a regular place in the strong Yorkshire line up and moved to Notts in 1951 where he played with distinction until 1958 when he retired to become secretary of Notts Forest football club for thirty years, which included their great triumphs under Brian Clough. He wrote a very good book on the history of the club. His outstanding cricket performance was figures of 10-66 against Gloucester at Stroud in 1956, still the only Notts bowler to take all ten. His best season was 1955 when he took 117 wickets.

Ken Smales

Appleyard's story is much more well known with the publication of Stephen Chalke's marvellous book 'No Coward Soul' in 2008 telling of not only Appleyard's struggle with illness, but his very difficult family background. Not only did he take 200 wickets in his first season in 1951, but he became a valuable Test cricketer for England, not only at home, but in Australia and New Zealand too. He just wanted to bowl all the time and it became very difficult for any captain to get the ball off him. His many years of devotion to the Bradford Park Avenue ground, the formation of the Yorkshire Academy and his work for cricketing charities are well known. He was a great man and will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

Bob Appleyard

Ted Lester who died yesterday at his home in Scarborough was Yorkshire's senior living player. Here was a man who made an immediate impact in the 1947 season, finishing third in the first class averages behind Compton and Edrich in their great year. He was in some ways a breath of fresh air, not in the normal Yorkshire cautious mood, but willing to take risks and score quickly. He was once reprimanded by skipper Brian Sellars for wearing his cap at a jaunty angle, being called into the middle from the boundary and immediately sent back with a flea in his ear. Another coincidence was the fact that he was awarded his county cap during the game with Northants in 1948.

His relatively short career in the first team came to an end in 1956, but he continued to serve Yorkshire for many years to come, first as second eleven captain, then as scorer for thirty years, during which time his wise counsel and knowledge were passed on not only to the younger players coming through but to the travelling press men. Yorkshire cricket was his life and although never really in consideration for higher honours he was a good and faithful servant remembered with affection by many.

Mike Cowan, Ted Lester, Willie Watson and Bob Appleyard

APRIL CRICKET FIXTURES

By Brian Sanderson,

After eating my jam roly poly sweet , I agreed to start my contribution to the blog with the fixtures for April.


APRIL 3  NOTTINGHAM V DERBYSHIRE FRIENDLY TWO DAYS        TRENT BRIDGE


APRIL 4   NEW ROVER V  ST. CHADS        1.00PM

           SOUTHPORT V  LANCASHIRE   U 19

APRIL 5  BURNLEY  V  LANCASHIRE U 19

APRIL 7  YORKSHIRE  V  LEEDS AND BRADFORD  MCCU 3 DAYS     HEADINGLEY

               NOTTINGHAM  V  LOUGHBROUGH        3 DAYS

             DURHAM  V  DURHAM  UCCCE        3DAYS RIVERSIDE

APRIL 11   SHERIFF HUTTON BRIDGE   V  YORKSHIRE  ACADEMY  12.00 PM

            NEW ROVER    V  CAMBRIDGE STREET GILES CC      1.00 PM

          OLICANIANS     V   BEN RHYDDING                            1.00 PM
         
           YORK CC V PUDSEY SL 12:00 45 overs

             ACOMB V YORK CC II 12:30 45 overs

             NYSD Sunday Leagues start




APRIL  12    WORCESTERSHIRE   V   YORKSHIRE   4 DAYS LVCC

                    LANCASHIRE   V   LEEDS AND BRADFORD  MCCU 3 DAYS  OLD TAFFORD

                NEW ROVER   V  CAMBRIDGE  STREET GILES CC     1.00 PM

                   YORK V THE GRANGE EDINBURGH 11:30 T20 (x2)

APRIL 14  YORKSHIRE SECONDS  V   GLAMORGAN    3 DAYS  HEADINGLEY


APRIL  15   DURHAM  V  YORKSHIRE ACADEMY   2 DAYS  RICHMOND

APRIL 18  LEAGUE FIXTURES BEGIN

APRIL  19  NOTTINGHAM  V   YORKSHIRE   4 DAYS  TRENT BRIDGE.

                 LINCOLNSHIRE   V   CHESHIRE   GRANTHAM   11.00  AM

APRIL 20   LEICESTER SECONDS  V   NOTTINGHAM    1 DAY  KIBWORTH

APRIL 21   LEEDS AND  BRADFORD   V OXFORD  2 DAYS  WEETWOOD

APRIL  22   LEEDS BECKETTS   WOMEN  V  DURHAM  KIRKSTALL EDUCATION   1.00 PM

DURHAM SECONDS  V  SCOTLAND A

APRIL 26   YORKSHIRE  V  WARWICK  4 DAYS HEADINGLEY

APRIL 27  LEICESTER SECONDS  V  YORKSHIRE   1 DAY   LEICESTER INVANHOE

APRIL  28  LEICESTER SECONDS  V   YORKSHIRE   3 DAYS   HICKLEY TOWN

                  LINCOLNSHIRE  V  NOTTINGHAM    SECONDS  3 DAYS SLEAFORD
           
LEEDS AND BRADFORD  V  CAMBRIDGE   2 DAYS  WEETWOOD

          DEBYSHIRE SECONDS  V  GLAMORGAN   3 DAYS   DERBY

APRIL 29  LEEDS BECKETT V LOUGHBOROUGH KIRKSTALL   11.00 AM

                UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   V   LEEDS BECKETT WOMEN   WEETWOOD   12.30

               SEDBERGH  V   YORKSHIRE ACADEMY      12.00

There will be some fixtures I have missed out but enjoy your cricket. Let it stay dry.

 

Harmy takes the Colliers' reins

It may not be widely known outside the North East that former England and Durham fast bowler and occasional media pundit, Steve Harmison is now the manager of Ashington FC. The Colliers, briefly members of the Football League in the nineteen twenties, play their football in the Northern League, a stronghold of the semi pro game with its member clubs stretching form Northumberland to North Yorkshire and with a couple of out posts in Cumbria.

 

Last week Ashington visited Dean Street, the home of Shildon FC and close friend, fellow Durham member, Sunderland devotee and resident of Shildon, Peter Sixsmith attended the match as well as writing a column for the programme.

Peter's column's theme of cricketing footballers was sparked by Harmison's tie up with his home town club, for whom he played as a teenager. Steve took up the manager's position in early February, since when the Colliers have shown improvement and made progress up the Division 1 Table, the ninth tier of English football. The blog has previously touched on cricketers who made the grade as footballers and the article included names like Willie Watson, Chris Balderstone, Arnold Sidebottom, Ken Taylor, Brian Close and  Jim Standen. Pcws may well be able to name their cricketing counties, their football clubs might be a little more taxing. Something for the Thoroughbreds to chew over between mouthfuls of jam roly poly when they meet for the last of this winter's lunches later today.

With Peter's permission I reproduce the final two paragraphs of his article which are devoted to former Sussex, Hampshire and England cricketer C B Fry.

'The ultimate all-rounder was C B Fry, who won an FA Cup runners up medal with Southampton in 1902, played 26 test matches for England in the days when there were maybe 15 in a three year cycle, held the world long jump record with a leap of 26' 3.5'', had a trial for the England Rugby Union team and had a party piece where he would 'leap from a stationary position on the floor and do a back flip and land on a mantelpiece. He would perform this trick at country houses much to the interest of the guests. He was also asked by a newly independent Albania to become King of that country ( he refused, presumably because of the lack of net facilities in Tirana) and was almost elected as Liberal MP for Banbury, losing by 829 votes.

Steve Harmison may not have done all these things but C B Fry was  never asked to be manager of Ashington. Should Harmy's boys win tonight, he may want to do a backward leap onto the bar.'

For the record Ashington were 4-3 winners thus denting Shildon's hopes of a first championship in 75 years. Whether Harmy tried to emulate Fry's party trick is not recorded. Readers wanting to know how Fry filled his afternoons might like to search for CB The Life of Charles Burgess Fry by Clive Ellis.

They don't write cricket reports like this any more

Posted by Tony Hutton

Having recently become a client of the British Newspaper Archive, I need to acknowledge that the following article from the Yorkshire Post on 1st August 1949, which may still be copyright of the Yorkshire Post and the author Derrick Boothroyd, is reproduced from their archive.

However, I feel it is worth risking prosecution, by the fact that this is such a well written and fascinating account of the first day's play in the Roses match at Headingley. All the more so as I was there as an eleven year old schoolboy.

The article is headed 'In the crowd at Headingley - Weary cricket spectators' by Derrick Bothroyd.

Yorkshire copied the railwaymen in their match against Lancashire at Headingley on Saturday and went slow. Occasionally they went one better and stopped altogether. Five hours' batting produced 211 runs - 42 an hour.

The crowd of 16,000 clapped slowly, cheered ironically and swore they would never go again. Perhaps they had not realised that it was the centenary of these Roses duels. To ask Yorkshire, or for that matter Lancashire, to score at more than 40 an hour on such an occasion would have been asking them to ignore a grand tradition. It would have been like asking the organist to play ragtime at the Harvest Festival.

That's Hutton - that was
The day started tragically. Before we had got our score cards from the little man with the white hair a dejected Hutton was walking back to the pavilion, run out from the third ball. Gloom struck the Yorkshire ranks. There was not a single small boy to clap him on the back as he walked up the gangway and only the Lancastrians to applaud. They enjoyed it immensely, of course. One of them was so excited that he lost his return ticket to Manchester and its discovery later had to be announced over the loud-speakers.

 But Lowson and Halliday came gallantly to the rescue and it was half past two before another wicket fell. it was a grand partnership between sharply contrasting personalities -  the serious Lowson, who always looks ashamed of himself whether he has scored a duck or a hundred, and the happy Halliday, who can smile broadly at a bowler when he spreadeagles his wickets with his score at 96.

Crosswords and cross words
It was the afternoon that dragged interminably. The only time Wilson swung his bat was when he was practising at the bowler's end, and Halliday did not even do that. He merely leaned on it and thought about the Theory of Relativity or something.

The women did their crosswords and discussed Princess Elizabeth's dresses and the men argued fiercely about who should be dropped from the Yorkshire team. Only Hutton, apparently, was worth his place - and even he will have to do something in the second innings.

The tea interval arrived without anyone noticing that the players had left the field, and then, at 4.20, a boy reading a detective story looked up and said. 'Somethings happening, Dad.' It was. It was raining. So 12,000 people got up gratefully and went home.

24 runs a day
It stopped about five o'clock, and we martyrs who were left gathered in front of the pavilion to inform the umpires and players that they could start again. But we had to wait until twenty five to six before they made a reluctant reappearance. 'Why haven't you all gone home?' they seemed to say.

Watson came in a five to six and showed his annoyance at being disturbed by getting two in the final half hour. 'He's scoring at the rate of 24 a day,' a statistician announced. 'He should just reach his 50 before close of play on Tuesday.'

And so we homeward plodded our weary way. And the funny thing about it is that we shall all be there again today. These English.


How does that compare with the bland quotes from captain and coach which summarise a day's play in the papers of today? Answers on a postcard, but mind your language!

It has begun

posted by John Winn

Writing from Abu Dhabi for today's Observer,correspondent Ali Martin has no doubt that 'The English cricket summer officially begins...today'. Even amongst those who would describe themselves as cricket followers there will be some who will not be aware that the traditional season curtain raiser between MCC and the previous season's championship winners for the fifth time is being played thousands of miles away under floodlights and with a pink ball. As I type (11:37) drinks are being taken with MCC 65 for 2 after 16 overs, Compton (more of whom later) is nursing a golden duck and Cook has gone for three, an event  which may well gain the match some coverage in tomorrow's papers.

The Yorkshire website has no doubt that the match has first class status for in a posting made yesterday it declared 'Rhodes set to make first-class debut for Yorkshire' and sure enough there is the former England under 19 skipper in the Yorkshire line up. With six Yorkshire players on England duty and skipper Gale suspended from the championship opener at New Road in a little over three weeks Rhodes will have to do very badly in Abu Dhabi not to be part of the Yorkshire XI that begins its defence of the title against The Pears on April 12th. Who might be with Rhodes that day engaged a number of us watching Harrogate Town against Colwyn Bay yesterday for in the game's less compelling moments, and there was no shortage of those, we tried to come up with a Yorkshire top six without Root, Lyth, Bairstow, Ballance, Rashid and Gale. Try it for yourself and bear in mind that the situation will not just affect the game at Worcester but also the trip to Trent Bridge the following week and  the visit of Warwickshire to Headingley on April 26th. Furthermore the third test in Bridgetown is not scheduled to finish until five days before Hampshire come to town on May 10th.

The Observer column very quickly moves on from  the MCC v Yorkshire game for the rest of the article, which occupies two columns, centres on what I fear is going to be a much discussed topic in the media this summer, namely that Colin Graves and new ECB chief executive Tom Harrison, both of whom are in Abu Dhabi, are 'steadfast in their determination to reboot cricket' at which point my heart sinks into my size tens. Martin says that this reboot will begin 'with the domestic structure...which they believe has become too bloated' and you all know what is coming, some cricket that will not be contested by the 18 county sides. He (Martin) suggests this will take the form of an 'English Premier League tournament for T20 with 8 or 10 teams competing'. The journalist claims that 'the players at least are crying out for it' and to support his case he has interviewed two of them who are out in the desert, Messrs Compton and Carberry. Compton, who has proved adept at changing sides, seems unconcerned that such a competition might cut the number of players, 'If you're not good enough, you're not good enough'. He will have time today to consider those remarks in more detail and whether all his fellow professionals, especially those who will not be in the 8 or 10 teams in the 'high-intensity competition that gets the tills ringing and the broadcasters willing to shell out more', will agree with him is another matter.

The other of Martin's interviewees is Michael Carberry who apparently has been 'an advocate of it for years'. Carberry who may have some justification  in feeling he was not well treated by England after last winter's tour in Australia and as recently as December talked about quitting the game, can now add Big Bash winner to his cv and should the Graves Harrison duo get their way in 2016 then the Hampshire opener would probably not be short of suitors when it came to 'pick up time' for the EPL.


 The new regime is to mount a  full review of English cricket with a minimum six month consultation period but in the meantime this season will be similar to last year's, creeping up on us fairly quietly by playing the opener in Abu Dhabi  rather than St John's Wood, putting on a few mismatches between county sides and the universities with none of the first week played further north than Cambridge and when what many of us still regard as the jewel in the summer's crown  begins on April 12th  the country's best players, at least as judged by the selectors, will be in the Caribbean.

By way of contrast the major league baseball season begins this year on April 6th with just one game played the day before and has an almost religious significance throughout the nation. You might not like the game but they sure know how to put a show on the road.

More about this lovely book next time

More news from down under

posted by Tony Hutton

Although hardly worth a mention, due to the overwhelming publicity machine of the cricket world cup, the Australian Sheffield Shield competition is nearing a completion. This long running four day series between the six Australian states will stage the final between the teams finishing first and second on Saturday. Victoria won the league with Western Australia taking second place.

As a result Victoria had the choice of venue, but because of the cricket world cup, the Melbourne cricket ground is not available and their other ground at St Kilda is being renovated. So they have selected their home venue to be the Blundstone Arena (previously the Bellerive Oval) at Hobart, Tasmania. Western Australia originally threatened legal action over this decision, saying that they should have been able to choose a home venue (the WACA in Perth) if Victoria could not stage the match at home.

Bellerive Oval, Hobart

However despite various problems with accomodation and travel, W.A. have now relented and the match will go ahead in Hobart on Saturday. The men from Perth achieved second place thanks to a draw with New South Wales this week. They passed NSW's total of 407 with ease, thanks to a huge second wicket partnership of 324 between young wicketkeeper batsman, Cameron Bancroft (211) and Michael Klinger (161). Captain Adam Voges then scored 83 and the innings finished on 483-4.

In matches elsewhere this week I am indebted to my Paris correspondent for information about a young Yorkshireman scoring a century for Queensland in Brisbane. Charlie Hemphrey, born in Doncaster but went to school in Kent, had played for Kent, Essex and Derbyshire second elevens before going to Australia. His first innings score of 118 was his maiden century in first class cricket. He did in fact play his only game for Derbyshire II against Yorkshire II at Derby in 2010. Yorkshire's opening batsman were Root and Ballance, but Hemphrey seems to have taken a little longer than his contemporaries to develop. However good luck to him, another small step towards Yorkshire ruling the cricketing world!

South Coast Memories

posted by John Winn with thanks to Tony Hutton for the photographs

Having spent almost thirty years living on the south coast it is a little surprising that only in 2014 did I complete seeing Hampshire in championship action against all other counties, the final tick on the list not being made until September last year when I saw them win in Cardiff. My records show that I saw Hants play home matches on four grounds, all grounds I enjoyed visiting and sadly on which they no longer play.

Dean Park, Bournemouth staged its last championship cricket in August 1992, when Middlesex were the visitors and I was there on the opening day to see Mark Nicholas make 95 in a game which petered out to a draw, thanks to some 'obdurate' final day batting by Middlesex, with John Carr the leading blocker. This was not however my first visit to this attractive ground for in the glorious summer of 1959 my parents strayed from their usual practice of taking a holiday at the Scarborough Festival and after the nine hour journey from Darlington to Bournemouth we were blessed with two weeks sunshine. Whether by chance or not, I suspect not, Hampshire were entertaining the Indian tourists and a day of our holiday was spent at the cricket. Hampshire batted first and opener Roy Marshall's first eight scoring shots were fours. A nice one for the memory bank.

Dean Park, Bournemouth

In 1993 I made my first visit to May's Bounty, the ground in Basingstoke where Hampshire had first staged cricket in 1906. Kent were the opposition but the game was spoilt by rain. Wisden recalls that when the weather allowed, spectators enjoyed (Carl) Hooper at 'his elegant best'. It was another six years before I saw cricket in Basingstoke but worth the wait for a Yorkshire win in a low scoring match which afforded me my first sighting of Matthew Hoggard. I was present on the second day when the homesters slumped to 59 for 8 in their second innings with Hoggard leading the way with four wickets. Man of the match for Yorkshire was skipper Byas, with four slip catches and 95 as his team got home by six wickets. Peter Hartley took 11 wickets against his old county.

May's Bounty, Basingstoke

In between these two trips to North Hampshire I experienced a surprisingly rare event in my pursuit of seeing all counties play each other, namely a washout. On a day when after great work by the ground staff and volunteers it was announced that play would begin at three o'clock but just as the umpires took the field the rain returned and play was abandoned for the day. Had there been any cricket I would have Derbyshire batting; had I gone back the next day I would have seen a Robin Smith hundred. The year, 1998.

The United Services Sports Ground Portsmouth was the nearest of the Hampshire grounds to my home in East Sussex, about a two hour drive and another ground I enjoyed visiting. My first trip was in 1993 to see Worcestershire, another rain blighted affair but I was lucky enough to be there for a full day's play on the Saturday when Damien D'Oliveira hit 94. 1994 saw me driving along the A27 again, this time to see Durham and the feature of the match was a maiden century for 20 year old Jimmy Daly when after being 1 for 2 in their second innings Durham dug in to finish on 283 for 7.My third and last trip to 'Pompey' came in 1998 and this time I did see a Robin Smith hundred. After Essex had been bowled out for 141 on the first day Keith Fletcher said that the pitch was unfit for four day cricket. What he said when Hampshire replied with 490, Smith 138, is not recorded.

Leaving the best to last Southampton was my favourite Hampshire ground and one where Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Somerset were their opponents on visits I made during the 1990s. Northlands Road had it all for me, not too big, a traditional pavilion with a lovely ship's bell to start play and where on my visits the sun always shone. So sad that Hampshire finished playing there in 2000. Now a housing development and replaced by a bowl which formerly held roses. I have not visited the new ground but I am still waiting for somebody to tell me that is a much pleasanter place to watch cricket than Northlands Road or come to that Dean Court, May's Bounty or United Services Sports. When they do I'll go.

Northlands Road, Southampton

We need more than four letter words

Posted by Tony Hutton

John Winn's ingenious selection of an England team which could appear on twitter has one main problem. They are unlikely to win any more matches than their predecessors.
I have tried to avoid all reference to the sad events on the other side of the world, other than to quote, also on twitter, from a sign displayed in the crowd at the India v Ireland game which read - 'Best team in the world beats the best team in Europe'.

Surely the answer lies in a solution which could have been put into place in the 1960s if Yorkshire had applied for Test playing status ahead of the likes of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Then you could have something like a team, which would read Lyth, Lees, Root, Ballance, Gale (capt), Bairstow, Rashid, Plunkett, Bresnan, Brooks and Sidebottom. Coach - Jason Gillespie, plus the only man allowed to give press and TV interviews - Dickie Bird. This of course includes Ballance as the compulsory overseas player.

Some might argue that the team from the 1960s might have been even better, given a line up of - Boycott, Taylor, Sharpe, Padgett, Hampshire, Close, Illingworth, Binks, Trueman, Don Wilson and Nicholson. However I suppose it's no good living in the past. We must look to the future and immediately begin a concentrated programme to look for players with four letter word names who could be assimilated into the England system almost from birth. All training could then be conducted by the successful England women's team.

This may all seem rather far fetched, but can it be any worse than the strange selection policies of recent years?

blog uses four letter words

posted by John Winn

Even among pcws there may have been a few four letter words in the air after England's disappointing defeat to Bangladesh although I still think we might have won had not Jordan's bat left the ground. Twitter got plenty of steam up with the usual 'make them row home' kind of knee jerk responses. There seems little point in 'sack the lot' however unless the tweeter has some replacements in mind and The Cricket Paper invited their followers to suggest who would be in their XI for future ODIs. Twitter does pose one problem for amateur selectors and that is the restriction to 140 characters including spaces, hyphens etc. Too many Ingleby Mackenzies and Hamilton Browns and you are in trouble so why not restrict your selection to people with no more than four letters in their last names. After all many Yorkshire supporters would not look further than Lyth and Lees for their openers so let's continue in the same vein: here's my XI

Lyth, Lees, Lumb, Root, Gale (capt), Ali, Read (wk), Wood (Durham), Coad, Beer, Finn. The bowling is a bit weak but I was reluctant to recall Swan in the light of his desertion from the last Ashes tour. And of course it would leave Yorkshire a bit short but that is something the Headingley faithful may be need to get used to when the party to tour the West Indies is  an announced  next week. Under Lower Ure Valley rules there is a bit of room for manoeuvre for the selection of Ali frees up a character which could be used to bring Broad into the attack. Not sure how good an idea that is so let's have Pyrah. Finding a replacement for Peter Moores is proving beyond me at the moment, I'll have to look at the stats.

 

Lyth and Lees

ps there is cricket at Taunton on Monday week, there's a thought.

Handle with care

posted by John Winn

In a posting I made in December, under the heading 'Swaledale dries up' I suggested that my research into cricket in that lovely dale seemed to have come to an end with the almost certain conclusion that 1966 marked the last season of the league of that name's existence. Such is still my belief but I have in my temporary possession two scorebooks which have filled in gaps in my knowledge of the league's member clubs and given me insight into the kind of cricket that was played in the league.

The two scorebooks have been loaned to me by Barningham CC, members of the league until transferring to the Darlington and District League in 1964. Barningham* is a small village lying between Richmond and Barnard Castle and I am grateful to Sid Lowes, an old rival on the cricket field, for taking the trouble to dig out the two books and to an old work colleague and cricket team mate, Terry Yarrow, for acting as the conduit between Sid and me in the transfer of the books

Barningham cricket ground

One of the books is in a particularly fragile condition having lost its covers and is marked 1st XI Swaledale League 1962 but was not, when first used, the property of Barningham CC, for the first match recorded is between Ravensworth and Hutton Magna on the 12th May 1962, or at least half recorded for the details of Ravensworth's innings are missing, and it is clear that the book began life as the property of Ravensworth and covers that club's matches until the end of July when on the 28th they were involved in a play off for the title with Barningham at the ground of Forcett Park. Barningham batted first and made 64 to which Ravensworth replied with just 13, extras top scorer with 6 and one F Watson taking five for one and that one came off his fifth over. The next entry is for a match played in June 1967 between Barningham and Gainford, who were not members of the league. Were Ravensworth so disgusted with their lamentable showing in the play off that they left the book recording the horrors they suffered at the hand and arm of F Watson that they left the evidence at the scene of the crime? Whatever the case the book seems to have become the property of Barningham but after the Gainford match is not used again until 1979 by which time Barningham's opponents include Raby Castle, Middleton Tyas and Cockerton, all members of the Darlington and District league, then and now.

Raby Castle cricket ground

The other book is in much better condition, its covers intact and appears to have been used by the Barningham scorer for seasons 1958, 59 and 60, indeed the same neat handwriting in pencil has recorded runs and wickets for the three years. This book was particularly useful to me in my research because I had no record of the league for 1960. In that year the league appears to have had only six clubs, Barningham, Gilling West, Scorton, Forcett Park, Hutton Magna and the Darlington work's team Brown's who played at Catterick. The paucity of league fixtures was supplemented by
 a number of cup competitions, the Roxby Surtees, the Christie, the Maude and the League Cup. In addition Barningham appeared to have played friendlies against Dalton Young Farmers, who had been members of the league for a short time in the early 50s, Friesian CC, the SOS Stragglers and the 4th Training Regiment based at Catterick.

Gilling West

Going through the books the thing that most strikes one is the prevalence of low scores. The two books record the scores of seventy matches in which on only twelve occasions did teams reach three figures.  As Sid says, bat first, get sixty or seventy and you had a good chance of winning. Given that some of the grounds were very small one can only wince at the state of the wickets, of if as in the blogger's case you were a seam bowler, lick one's lips.

*For a picture of Barningham's team in 1950 go to barninghamvillage.co.uk and click on old pictures

Yorkshire Post tells it straight

Posted by Tony Hutton

For those of you who only read the sports pages, a rather curious item appeared in the centre page of the Yorkshire Post at the weekend. A large picture of Geoffrey Boycott, in trade mark hat, was shown alongside the following story which has more than a grain of truth about it. It does however seem to contain a slight element of bias against people from Lancashire, the midlands and the south of England. Judge for yourselves.

Listening to the peerless punditry of Geoffrey Boycott on Test Match Special, it's a shame his late mother Jane is not available for slection to England's misfiring World Cup squad. Evidently, she could bat like a demon with a stick of rhubarb, bowl in 'the corridor of undertainty' and pocket catches in her pinny. The Yorkshire cricket legend has taken sporting analysis to new levels because of his straight-talking. No wonder football fans switch off when Match of the Day is broadcast - bland panellists like Jermain Jenas and Phil Neville, together with Gary Lineker's lame smugness, epitomise BBC sport at its very worst.

I wonder if Geoffrey's agent wrote it.