By Brian Sanderson,
Waking up on Saturday morning the rain was falling but the weather forecast said it would clear by 11.00.
I was picking up John Fuller ,of Cricket Yorkshire fame , to go to the Central Yorkshire League.On the motorway to Castleford the rain was still falling and as we arrived at Townvlle there was sight of players looking at the covers.After a walk round the ground , they rain started again so decided to go to Methley.
As we arrived the players were coming out of the pavilion ,with Methley batting.They were playing Birstall who were ninth in the table whilst were top with Wakefield Thornes second. Methley had to get four points to become champions.The two Methley opening batsmen were Richard Foster who had scores over 1000 runs in all competitions and Marcus Warmsley.They both started off quickly against a limited bowling attack.
After a few over a heavy shower of rained forced the players off the field and we sheltered under the scoreboard. When the rain finished the Methley players and ground staff mopped up the rain. A comment by one helper was that if the match was not so important they would have abandon the match.However with the agreement of the umpires and saw dust the match restarted. Birstall found it very hard to contain the batsmen and the wet ball did not help.
Richard Foster hit five sixes and some into the nearby bowling green. During this time a ball was hit towards the boundary and Birstall player was hit in the face trying to catch the ball and had to go to hospital.Foster was out for 76 with the total on 157 . Marcus Warmsley was joined by his brother Edward and both carried on scoring quickly. Marcus reached his hundred .
At this stage Methley declared on 214 for 1 in the thirty four overs. This gave them 50 overs to bowl out Birstall and at tea time the time was 4.45 which did not give them much time to bowl them out before it would get to dark to play.
At this stage we had to leave but looking at the web site they bowled Birstall out for 128 for 9 in the forty ninth over as Birstall had only ten men at this stage Methley got the four points to win the League. Wakefield Thornes bowled Hunslet Nelson out for 107 and won the match by eight wickets so collecting six points.
Wrenthorpe did start and had a winning draw against Wrenthorpe.
Today is Yorkshire Academy against Methley at Elscar for the Black Sheep Cup starting at 12.00 so I just getting the car.
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