Barnsley became the centre of the Yorkshire sporting universe for one day at least when the county second XI came to town for two T20 games with Northants and in the evening the local football ground at Oakwell hosted England under 21s against Belarus. Apparently the overseas visitors bus was delayed by traffic, possibly the result of the cricket supporters leaving in disgust after two defeats on the Shaw Lane ground.
The morning started brightly with a good crowd basking in the sunshine and the car parking facilities stretched to breaking point. The catering facilities in the well appointed pavilion were as good as ever and the crowd were kept well supplied by two young men selling ice cream from a wheelbarrow - it could only happen in Barnsley! It was also good to meet up with the Broad Oak brigade again. Free scorecards went down well with the locals, without the well known question of 'Ow much' in evidence. The only problem was that the batsmen's numbers on the scoreboard bore no relation to the numbers on the scorecard. The scoreboard just stuck to the order they came in. So the spectators were unaware of the identity of the opening batsman for Northants who scored a splendid 91 not out.
When the match report from scorer Howard Clayton appeared on the website in due course it was revealed that the man with the runs was a trialist, Aaron West, a young man from Essex who has been the rounds of several counties at second team level.
His innings today may have persuaded cash-strapped Northants to persevere with him. He was unlucky not to get a hundred and would have done had he not lost the strike towards the end.
The big news was the re-appearance of another Aaron, Finch the Australian, who has been out of the game with injury but has just rejoined Yorkshire in the hope that his big hitting ability can bring the first team some success in the T20 competition.
Yorkshire were chasing 172 to win, but never really looked like getting them after Finch was bowled by Burton for only 13. Gibson, very much the man in form, and Hodgson briefly got things moving well, but then wickets fell at regular intervals mainly to catches in the outfield. It was left to the beneficiary, Pyrah, to look for glory at the end and although he hit three sixes and ended on 40 not out Yorkshire fell just ten runs short.
Pyrah hits a six in the last over
That was enough for me and I did not stay for the second game, which Yorkshire also lost, against a team they had beaten yesterday by an innings quite comfortably. I was aware that a few miles down the M1 Notts second XI were playing Lancashire in the same competition and that I should arrive there just in time for the second game at the very pleasant Worksop College venue.
Worksop College
What I hadn't allowed for was the fact that their first game had finished early and the second game started quarter of an hour before the scheduled start of 3 p.m. However it was a pleasure to reacquaint myself with Worksop College, a delightful ground, which sadly does not get many second XI games these days. Lancashire had won the first game by bowling out Notts for under a hundred and were batting first in the second match.
The mainstay of the Lancashire innings was a young man from Bolton, Joshua James Bohannon, of whom I have had good reports. He made 35 before being run out by a direct hit. Livingstone, who captained the team, was already out when I arrived and the tail folded very quickly against the tidy left arm spin of Tillcock. He had good figures of 3-23 in his four overs and Lancashire were all out with one ball remaining for 118.
Notts opened with Michael Lumb, another back in action after injury, but he did not last long out for seven and soon Notts were struggling on 28-3. Enter the ubiquitous Billy Root, who always seems to be playing either for Leeds/Bradford University or Notts seconds whenever I watch them. He usually scores plenty of runs as well. Today was no exception and he won the match with only two balls remaining with an innings of 57 not out, which included seven fours and one six. He was well supported by captain Brett Hutton (no relation) and Tillcock at the end.
Billy Root fielding at Worksop College
So yet another good day in the sun in pleasant surroundings with good company (Brighouse Dave at Worksop) and plenty of action. I still prefer proper cricket of course and T20 with its coloured clothing is perhaps the last resort when all else fails.
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