When Lilley bowled to Lees at 11:00 on Tuesday first class cricket returned to Headingley after its winter break. Somehow it didn't seem six months since the Somerset tail denied the Yorkshire attack a victory that would have added an extra cherry to the championship cake that had been won at Trent Bridge two weeks before. As Brian has described the sun shone, just as it had done in September, and shone on old friends who had turned up in goodly numbers to check how each other had wintered. Even Peter Hartley, who had umpired against Somerset,. was back, this time accompanied by former Derbyshire player, Tom Lungley.
The Yorkshire top order looked unfamiliar, not that we didn't know their names but with Lyth, Root, Bairstow, Ballance, Rashid and Plunkett busy crossing swords with the might of St Kitts and Nevis, the top six were a bit short on experience, and remember Gale will not be there when they face Somerset on Sunday. Away from the cricket much interest centred on the new floodlights with three in place and the fourth under construction and listed among 'Key Events in 2015' on the back of the scorecard is Friday May 15th Yorkshire v Derbyshire First T20 under lights. Let's hope they are ready, just five weeks to go.
Leaving Headingley at tea on arrival at home the colour of my nose left me open to questions about what protection I had used against the sun and having left my hat at home and my sun cream in my bag I put up a fairly poor defence. Better prepared on Wednesday I got back into the routine for visiting The Riverside, the drive to Northallerton, the train from there to Durham and the bus to Chester le Street. During the bus journey I picked up a leaflet notifying passengers that until at least mid May the main street in Chester is in the hands of Northumbria Water and closed to traffic. The upshot of this was that despite passing within a hundred metres of the ground the bus dropped me in a totally unfamiliar part of town from where it took me 25 minutes to walk to The Riverside. Not a good start and things worsened when I strayed into a 'sterile area' and was admonished by a steward for so doing. Like Yorkshire Durham are in the process of constructing floodlights and as a result much of the ground is 'sterile' and for those who like to stretch their legs at the lunch interval sadly it is not possible to do a circuit.
As at Headingley plenty of familiar faces were in evidence at The Riverside including Tony Hutton who had,wise man, driven up from Leeds. Our Hartlepool correspondent had used his charms in reception and procured lists of Durham's Second XI, Academy and Emerging Players' fixtures with all venues confirmed. including that for Durham II v Scotland on April 22/23/24 which will be at Seaton Carew. For those who the requirements of the corporal stove are paramount it is but a short walk from this seaside ground. to some excellent fish and chips at The Almighty Cod. Leaving shortly before tea I had an uneventful journey home, the 21 bus seems to run as normal on its return journey to Durham, and exchanging texts later in the evening with Alan Pinkney who had been part of our small group for much of the day, we agreed that the season's conversation had got off to a good start.
Next cricket for me is on Saturday with a relatively short trip to Sheriff Hutton Bridge to see them play Yorkshire Academy. By then alas, the temperatures will be back to their April norm and there is the possibility of some showers: hardly seems possible after the lovely week we've had but looking ahead things don't look too bad for Worcester next week.
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