Having decided that I would spend one day this last week at The Riverside for the county's match with its university neighbours Tuesday saw me back in the old routine of sandwich making, driving to Northallerton, train to Durham, bus to Chester le Street, all of which was accomplished in plenty of time to test out the new smart card system at Gate 3. The dull but dry weather I had left behind me in YO26 had turned to drizzle by the time I had reached DL7, drizzle that was to persist in varying degrees of intensity until mid afternoon, by which time play had been abandoned for the day, a day which had been spent in the company of several old friends in the Colin Milburn Lounge. This change of venue was caused by the refurbishment of the members' lounge, refurbishment due to be completed that day.
Amongst the cognoscenti gathered in 'Olly's Lounge' was our Hartlepool Correspondent, who wearing his chairman of Hartlepool CC Cricket Chairman hat told me that their NYSD Sunday Div 1 match was doubtful and that the grounds man was not even sanguine about next weekend's fixtures. More optimistically the DCC receptionist had predicted that we might see some play after lunch and on a couple of occasions the ground staff appeared from their den to reflect on their reflections in the sheets covering the bowlers' run ups but no attempt was made to dismantle the covers and lunch was taken at 12:30. This was followed by a conversation between the ground staff and the umpires; the upshot of which was an announcement that tea would be at 3:10. long before which the drizzle had stepped up a gear to a point where OHC and I, and many others, decided to call it quits and head for home. Not the sort of start I had hoped for for my 2015 watching.
The next entry in my diary was for The Betty Chadderton Cup, a curtain raiser for the Wetherby League season and which was due to be played at St Chad's this afternoon and which would have been umpired by two good friends of mine, Arthur Bartle and John Fisher, but which was called off on Friday afternoon which left me with my fall back position for today of a friendly between York CC and Cheshire visitors Hyde. A phone call to Clifton Park at 11:30 this morning was answered by 'the only person in the building' which did not bode well for a 12:00 start and a text to secretary Nick Kay confirmed my fears that the game had been called off as seems to be the case with most of today's matches and much of tomorrow's NYSD programme where late last night only two games were left standing, those at Barnard Castle and Yarm.
Undeterred I shall return to The Riverside tomorrow to for what cricinfo calls 'the real start' of the season. After overnight rain the sun has shone most of this morning and the forecast for tomorrow is encouraging. Durham will entertain Somerset, the two sides in a cricinfo poll* nobody thinks will win the championship.Proceedings to decide the wooden spoonists will begin at 10:30 when the captains and the umpires will walk out to the middle, exchange teams and Chris Rogers, newly appointed skipper of the West Country men will be given the choice to field but should he decline then the toss will take place. Blimey, you couldn't make it up. Who will be the first skipper to opt for the toss and then field? To be fair another cricinfo poll shows a majority in favour of this departure from centuries of tradition. 54% for, 46% against, which either side in the eu referendum would consider a crushing victory.
This view of the old scoreboard at The Riverside was available throughout the day on Tuesday. It served two purposes, firstly to indicate how gloomy it was and secondly to remind the faithful of a sunny day last September when Durham beat Worcestershire by three wickets in a thrilling finish.
*51% favoured Yorkshire and Surrey were second favourites.
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