The Cherwell Cricket League

posted by John Winn

In an item posted  last September I described a visit to the ground of Great and Little Tew CC in
North Oxfordshire where cricket in the Cherwell** League was being played with a match between the home team's fourth XI and visitors Cropredy III. The match was a Division 9 cup match won by the Tews. Earlier today I logged on to the Oxfordshire Cricket Board website which has a link to the Cherwell site and whilst just as one shouldn't judge a book by its cover and it is perhaps equally unwise to judge a league by its website, first impressions are of a well organised and progressive outfit.

The league describes itself as 'exciting' and 'forward thinking' and has 37 member clubs across five counties, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Northants. They are organised into nine* divisions and last year Great and Little Tew IV were champions of the last of these. As a result they will start this year's campaign in Division 8 on 7th May with a visit from Kimble II, who will travel from near Aylesbury, a journey of about 40 miles. The Tews also have teams in Divisions 2 and 6 and their first XI, having topped Division 2 of The Home Counties League, will begin the new season also on the first Saturday in May when they will entertain Henley, traditionally one of the strongest teams in the league and who finished third last year.

No need for me to list all the clubs in the Cherwell, just go to the excellent website and click on clubs. The archive section shows the league as having begun in 1994 and records the steady growth in membership since, even though it lists 18 clubs under former members. Last year's champions were Thame Town, a club that was formed in 1884, and they have taken the step up to the Home Counties. They start with a home fixture against Gerrards Cross in Div 2 and there is a picture of Thame's attractive ground on their new league's website.

Finally today is February 29th and just five weeks tomorrow the first class season begins. Where will you be? And just in case you can't wait quite that long Durham II are taking on their Worcestershire counterparts at Richmondshire CC the day before, April 4th.

** the league takes its name from the River Cherwell which rises in North Oxfordshire and flows south for 40 miles before joining the Thames at Oxford
*For the 2016 season Div 9 has been divided into north and south sections thus increasing the number of divisions to ten.

Threlkekd CC

Threlkeld suffered extreme damage from flooding in June 2012 when an overflowing culvert deposited tons of rocks and silt across their ground, the George Hutton Oval, which lies by the A66 just east of Keswick. They play in the Eden Valley Cricket League and will begin their Div 1 campaign at home  against Longtown CC on Saturday April 30th.

WINTER CRICKET IN THE DALES

By Steve Bindman

The domestic playing calendar started on Sunday ,January 10, with the traditional match up in the Dales with this year Appletreewick the home side against Malhamdale. This match (known as the winter tour ) has been going every year since 1984 when Malhamdale were invited by Ap'trick skipper Matt Mason  to raise a side and Michael Briggs accepted the challenge and the first match took place.Since then the venue has alternated between these picturesque and in mid-winter quite wild locations .Appletreewick - in the foothills of the village and surrounded on all sides by mountains some of which had a thin snow coverings-is the more picturesque of the two venues.

Even though the match didn't last long , the weather  kept changing - but there was quite a bit of sunshine and the rain -by and large - held off.

A Leeds contingent of cricket-watchers has regularly supported the fixture and of the original crew only Brian Senior-courageously risking going despite bad health  at the time - was there to represent the city. I was privileged to play for the second year running for Malham as a guest player and to bowl the first over. There was actually more than 22 players and in the end what was normally a ten over match became 12 overs per side .Runs were hard to come by on a surface of total mud interspersed by complete squelch but a late rally by Ian Walker 9, and Paul Langdale  8* ( himself a Leeds man who used to play for Old Leodensians ) and then Tom Walker 9* took Ap'trick to score of 53 for 6 which must have been beyond their wildest dreams . No bowler was allowed more than one over but Bev Bolland managed 2 wickets.

It was Bev with 11 who made the largest and significant attempt in the run chase but after 8  of the twelve overs the score had not advanced beyond 20 and Malham wickets were falling regularly. I was pleased to be accredited with 6 runs and a red-inker ( not out, that is ) and the appearance on the scorecard of being the second top scorer for Malham but this was because byes were in turn ran runs from balls that should have been called wides. Malham score reached 30 and I was thus with the losers for the second year running. Paul Langdale and young Callum Mc Pherson both took 2 for 1 and Laura Langdale took 1 for 2.

Man of the match went to Ap'trick Mark Throup for reasons which was though they were explained several times I have yet to fully grasp. He scored 4 and played one genuinely good shot and one piece of good fielding-was that it ?! Few players wore whites or anything resembling sporting attire. There were frequent interruptions from other activities on the field of play which were definitely " not cricket ".Chaos pevailed over order. And yet somewhere underneath all that ,a somehow serious game of cricket was going on.

The folk who subscribe to this total madness are the most heartwarming ,kind and generous a bunch of lunatics as one could ever wish to meet and I certainly hope to  back next year.

Typing with one figure by Brian Sanderson.

MUTINEERS CC

By Brian Sanderson,

Last night I was at The Northern Cricket Society and met Andy Stoddart, see above,who runs the Mutineers Cricket Club and recieved a copy of the fixture list for 2016.

SUN 26 th JUNE  V  HALIFAX NOMADS @ ARTHINGTON

SUN 10 th JULY  V BEN RHYDDING  @ BRCC

SUN 17 th JULY  V CAMBRIDGE METHODISTS @ CLARION SPORTS GROUND

SUN 24 th JULY  V  PUNJAB CC  @ MENSTON CC

SUN 31 th JULY   V  HALIFAX NOMADS @ ARTHINGTON

SUN 7 th AUG   V ST. GEORGES CC TBC

SUN 14 th AUG  V ADEL  @ ADEL TBC

SUN 4 th SEPT  V BOLTON VILLAS @ BVCC

SAT 17 th SEPT V  ARTHINGTON @ ARTHINGTON FESTIVAL

Let s hope is it is warm and dry summer.

Cut backs at Scruton

posted by John Winn

In October 2012 I reported on a visit I had made to the home of Trevor Howe, chairman of Scruton CC, a village near Northallerton. The stimulus for my call on Trevor was my interest in the history of the Wensleydale League which had been formed in 1947 with just four clubs and was to last for over 50 years until it closed in 1998. On that October day Trevor had laid out for me a display of club memorabilia including a fixture card showing Scruton's membership of the league in 1957. The club has a splendid pavilion, opened in 2000, its construction very much inspired by Trevor, with the bonus of a small museum in the loft which Trevor was very pleased to show me round.

When the Wensleydale League pulled up stumps for the last time  Scruton moved to the Langbaurgh League becoming its most westerly outpost and they have remained members of that league until now but sadly tendered their resignation at last night's league agm. Seeing from the agenda that this was to happen I phoned Trevor last week concerned that yet another village club was to be lost. In the event things are not quite so bad as I had feared for while the club is giving up Saturday cricket they will continue their membership of The Wensleydale Evening League. Trevor outlined the reasons for Scruton having to reduce their commitments. 2014 was a very difficult season for the club with a number of matches being forfeited due to a shortage of players. Since its formation in 1920 the league's centre of gravity has shifted north towards Teesside, a  trend that will continue in 2016 assuming Smith's Dock were admitted at the agm, thus increasing  the travelling for clubs like Scruton and Kirby Sigston and with its proximity to Northallerton and Richmond Scruton has found it difficult to prevent a diaspora of players to these larger clubs.

Whilst some comfort can be drawn from Scruton's continuance as an evening league club there is still a concern that it might only be the thin end of the wedge and that another village club might eventually be lost. Here are the twelve clubs that made up the Wensleydale League in 1957:

Bellerby, Constable Burton, Cover Bridge, Crakehall, Hudswell, Kirklington, Leyburn, Middleham, Newton-le Willows, Scruton, Spennithorne, Wensley. Just four of those continue to play Saturday cricket, Crakehall, Middleham, Newton le Willows and Spennithorne. Leyburn and now Scruton play evening cricket only and the other six are all gone, let's hope Scruton don't join them. The photograph below shows them in happier times.