Ripon is a town of over 15000 people and given its size I feel it rather punches below its weight in cricketing circles with its first team playing in the Second Division (North) of The York Senior League. Yesterday I made the short journey to its attractive Studley Road ground, a venue I had not visited for many years. Promptly on 1:30 play began in a local derby with Harrogate II the visitors. The ground has a large playing area, an attractive traditional style pavilion and is surrounded by trees with a specially planted line separating it from the local rugby club and beyond that Ripon City FC.
Inside the pavilion there are the usual honours boards and photographs but one item in particular caught my eye, the programme for a match between Yorkshire and The Royal Artillery played at the ground in August 1918. The Yorkshire XI contained such names as Hirst, Rhodes, Drake and Denton and the post match dinner offered mutton cutlets as the main course, a delicacy rarely served today.
The game began slowly with only a wide to show for the first three overs but the Ripon openers began to play some shots before I left. The league website shows they made 196 for 8 which Harrogate got for the loss of five wickets. Studley Road leads, not surprisingly, to Studley, the home of ambitious club Studley Royal and one of my favourite grounds. Here we were still in York League action but this time a Premier Division game with Studley hosting York side Dunnington. The journey from Ripon CC takes no more than five minutes but the ground is beyond the city limits and has a fine raised bank from which on a day when the wind blew cold it was a pleasure to watch from the car. Studley were two down when I arrived and quickly slipped to 25 for 3 but mounted a recovery while I watched and went on to total 198 for 7, the website shows Dunnington hung for the draw at 149 for 9 which divided the points 26 to 6 in favour of the hosts.
My last call of the day meant another short journey, this time to Sharow, a village east of Ripon on the Dishforth Road but for a change of leagues with Raskelf the visitors for a Nidderdale league Division Three game, seventh against second. Sharow were batting and at drinks were 75 for 4. A word with the scorers, a couple of circuits and I was on my way. The rather fiddly league website told me this morning that Raskelf had had an easy win by nine wickets and after five weeks find themselves second in the division while Sharow lie eighth.
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