Second time lucky at Ripon

posted by John Winn

On the last day of May I turned up at the ground of Ripon Grammar School expecting to see cricket between Studley Royal V and Wath and Melmerby II only to find, ten minutes before wickets were due to be pitched, an empty field, an empty car park and a fenced off square. The website informs me that the home team scored 0 for 0 of 0.0 overs and that the visitors achieved exactly the same. In other words one or both teams could not raise an  XI and I had had a wasted trip, albeit not a very long one for I had other business in the cathedral city.

On Saturday another game was listed to take place at Clotherholme Road but with a different home team, this time Ripon III and Whixley II as visitors. Wickets pitched 14:00 but when I arrived ten minutes before that to my relief play was underway. The afternoon was warm but very windy, somewhere about force six on the Blofeld Scale, causes damage to canvas sight screens, and Ripon had got off to a good start. I felt sorry for a young lad bowling in to the gale which clearly affected his balance and resulted in some very erratic deliveries.

 

Ripon Grammar School a little slow.

 

The playing area at the school is a large one but with a fixed boundary and with the wickets pitched towards the pavilion there was a vast space on one side. The usual circuit completed I moved on but the website tells me I missed a thriller with Ripon III getting home by seven runs. Meanwhile Studley Royal V were on the wrong end of a mauling at Burton Leonard whose third eleven knocked up 307 for 6 to which nine man Studley replied with 41 for 8. I have praised Studley as an example of a well run club but it looks as though five is a team too many at the moment.

 

Battling the wind at Ripon

From Ripon I travelled on to Harrogate for the match of the day in the Yorkshire League, first against second with Rotherham the visitors. The wind had risen to force seven, pcws watch from behind glass, and supporting the description I found Malcolm and Jennifer upstairs in the pavilion tucked away from the gale. Rotherham had batted steadily led by Dell Barello, one of the West Australian Dell Barellos, who scored 69 before being run out and opener Moorhouse who made 73. The points system in this league is as clear to me as problems about the probability of picking particular sweets from a bag are to most GCSE students but when Rotherham's number eleven holed out at long on in the 54th over it set off some grumbling in their camp. 'Two points thrown away' and 'Why did he have to do that?' were two of the more repeatable phrases.

With the interval upon us Jennifer and Malcolm decided enough was enough and turned towards the 36 bus, I retreated to the car and watched Harrogate  begin their reply, in which early wickets were lost, a recovery mounted by Tattersall and Ross but which subsided to 154 all out, a deficit of 94. On my way home I called at Whixley where the field was deserted, but only because, sensibly, all players were taking tea inside away from the wind, force eight, umpires may be blown over. Whixley were reasonably pleased with their 205 for 7 but wary of Raskelf whose reputation is that of a decent batting side and so it proved for the Vale of Yorksters, despite being 0 for 1, lost only one more wicket and finished on 208 for 2.

After their switch from the Wetherby League Whixley began life with three straight wins but are now on a losing sequence of five and only four points above the relegation places. Next week it is leaders Thornton le Moor, eight wins out of eight, at Rudgate Fields, gulp.