On Sunday my wife and I called in at the lovely town of Appleby in Westmoreland and in our perambulation came across the picturesque cricket ground. Alas the ground like so much of Cumbria suffered badly in last year's floods and this photograph shows some of the debris close by the pavilion.
Research in advance of our trip had told us that the ground was still out of action and that Appleby Eden as they are known are now playing their home matches at Culgaith CC, just a few miles drive along the A66 towards Penrith, so off we jolly well.
The match in progress at 'The Playing Fields' was an Eden Valley League Div 1 encounter between Appleby II and Caldbeck II. We were informed by a couple of spectators that Appleby were batting with the board showing 70 for 4. Of greater interest however was that Appleby would be unlikely to return to the banks of the Eden until 2017 at the earliest with restoration work to be done on the pavilion and the outfield and that the availability of Culgaith's ground had arisen because they, Culgaith, had folded last season. Our two informants attributed this demise to a number of players leaving to join Penrith CC but were pleased that some Culgaithians were now assisting Appleby. The misfortunes of both clubs had at least created a situation where on a warm Sunday afternoon cricket was still being played on the Culgaith ground with its backdrop of Cumbrian fells.
Looking at the league website on Monday morning I saw that Appleby had made 144 all out to which Caldbeck had replied with 127, a deficit of 17 and a result which leaves the exiles in mid table and their visitors looking like strong contenders for the drop. It is interesting that another team, Threlkeld, whose travails with flood damage was reported in the blog stand second, a splendid recovery from the catastrophic damage to their ground in 2012.
The Culgaith roller, a Barford Perkins stalwart.
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