On Wednesday 3rd of August made a trip to Market Harborough for the second day of the county second XI match between Northants and Yorkshire at the appropriately named Fairfield Road ground. No play had been possible on the first day and a rather understrength Northants side batted first. The only player known to us was Moin Ashraf the former Yorkshire and Leeds/Bradford University opening bowler.
Market Harborough pavilion
A pleasant ground, with a rather pronounced slope to the far boundary, but with an attractive pavilion bedecked with flower baskets, coffee and scorecards readily available and all in all a very pleasant atmosphere. Still a little puzzling that Northants were staging a home match just over the county border in Leicestershire. Several former players in attendance, including to our surprise Jim Love acting as assistant coach with Ian Dews for Yorkshire. Also present were Jack Birkenshaw, former Yorkshire and Leicestershire spin bowler and George Sharp former Northants wicketkeeper and first class umpire.
Market Harborough - view from the boundary
Some tidy bowling by Yorkshire enabled them to dismiss the home side for 176, somewhat below par, with Jack Shutt the off spinner having the best figures of 3-19 continuing his recent good performances for the Yorkshire Academy side.
Attacking field for Jack Shutt
The day was full of interest first of all trying to identify the collection of club players and trialists appearing for Northants and then my efforts to find the elusive blogger 'Backwatersman' on his home turf. I was first of all directed towards a gentleman who turned out to be a cricket and racing journalist for the Leicester Mercury and we had a most interesting conversation for some time. He pointed me to the area where 'Backwatersman' normally sits and suggested that a man in a white cap might be my target.
However, although quite friendly despite being interrupted while eating his sandwiches, this gentleman was also not my target. However two or three places along the same bench was the man himself who overheard our conversation and assumed he was the man I was looking for. Indeed he was and I was able to congratulate him on his recent piece on second eleven cricket at Desborough.
A nice walk round this pleasant market town during the lunch interval only confirmed our pleasure with this new venue for us and the only downside was the rather strong breeze which blew throughout the day. When Yorkshire batted Brook and Ainsley took their time but built a useful response of 100-2.
The following day we were off to Northampton to see England Under 19s take on Sri Lanka Under 19s at the county ground with even less spectators than at Market Harborough. The highlight for us was the performance of Ed Barnes, the young Yorkshire Academy allrounder, who bowled two good spells and finished with admirable figures of 3-38 against a strong looking Sri Lanken team who won the match comfortably by seven wickets the following day.
Sri Lanka under 19s in the runs at Northampton
On our way home we stopped off at Market Harborough again, on what was the last day. Arriving around tea time we found the Yorkshire side anxiously waiting to take the covers off following a rain delay. They seemed to be the only ones interested and having bowled Northants out again for 143, they chased down a target of 220 after tea to win by three wickets. We were well on our way by then but apparently Matthew Waite was the star of the show with an innings of 103 not out with good support from Will Rhodes.
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