The Arthington cricket festival took it's usual course with four weekends of friendly cricket to bring the curtain down on the cricket season. I was otherwise engaged for the first two weekends, but the weather was kind and I managed to see the last four games during the first two weekends of October.
Next man in waits his turn
Saturday 1st October and Arthington took on the Hawks a long established Wharfedale wandering side. A nice mixture of youth and experience, with leading light as ever David 'Ted' Lester scoring a hard hitting fifty. The Hawks were reinforced by the addition of the Priestley family from Pudsey St Lawrence, Ian a veteran performer who played one game for Yorkshire some years ago together with his two young sons. Number one son made a fine 31, but the youngest member was a bit put out to be dismissed cheaply.
The Hawks line up
The Hawks final total of 189 all out looked a decent score, particularly when opening bowler Wilkinson took 4-4 in his early spell. Arthington were soon reduced to 51-6 when the rains, which had threatened earlier, finally arrived and the game was called off as a draw. This was the only game of the festival not to reach a positive result and reinforced the feeling of many regulars that October weather can be excellent.
Regular spectators Harold Todd and Reg Parker
The following day saw the visit of Doghouse, again a very well established Sunday wandering side from Teeside. At one time they had a wonderful fixture list of games all over North Yorkshire and the North East on some of the most beautiful grounds around. Sadly in recent years the number of fixtures has decreased rapidly due to the problems of raising a team on Sundays. Unfortunately we learned that this might indeed be their last match ever, the end of a great tradition.
Cricket in the October sunshine
For years they fielded many strong players from the North Yorkshire and South Durham League and the opening pair reflected that with David Cross from Norton and Ben Usher from Bishop Auckland soon piling up the runs. Usher made 49 and Cross went on to make a fine 72, but after that the scoring rate declined somewhat and even so a total of 223-9 looked like a winning score.
80 year old Dennis Nash still taking wickets
Unfortunately the Doghouse bowling did not match the early batting and Arthington cruised to an excellent victory by six wickets, making 224-4, thanks mainly to a century by youngster James Lord from the Crossbank Methodists side in the lower reaches of the Bradford cricket league.
That end of season feeling
On the final weekend, Saturday 8th October saw a rather one sided game against Cambridge Methodists, who were bowled out very quickly for only 82. Vince Greaves-Newell took 3-7, Dougie Jones 3-15 on his 21st birthday and veteran Geoff Barker finished them off with two wickets. Arthington raced to victory with Richard Spry scoring 60 not out and Joe Nash (son of Dennis) 21 not out.
Steve Bindman batting for Cambridge Methodists
The end of the game was enlivened by a longish over from the one and only Steven Bindman, whose first two deliveries were so slow he could have retrieved them before they reached the batsman. However he then found his length and Mr Spry treated several balls with great respect before hitting one through mid wicket for four to win the game.
Arthington secretary Martin Binks enjoys the win
Sunday 9th October and the last match of the season ended in anti-climax, as it often does. Visitors St Georges Church, who play their home games in the grounds of nearby
Harewood House, made a useful total of 193-4 in their forty overs. Star performer was a young man from Zimbabwe, via school in Botswana, and now studying at Leeds University. He had the unpronounceable name of Stephen Parirenyatna (if I have spelt it correctly), but he could certainly bat and made an excellent 71 in partnership with another veteran Andrew Stoddard who ended not out on 59.
Andrew Stoddard (left) marches off undefeated
Apparently Mr Stoddard yesterday completed his one thousand runs in all forms of cricket this season, although he strongly denied that this included some scored on the beach at Scarborough. The two batsmen had put on around 120 for the fifth wicket after an early collapse but sadly Arthington never really approached the run rate required for victory. Opener Greaves-Newell made 40, but the only other batsman to make runs was last week's hero James Lord with anothe fine 50. Wickets fell at regular intervals and the game petered out just after six o'clock in the evening in the gathering gloom. Final score 156-8 so St Georges won by 37 runs. The players and umpires shook hands and said their farewells. The small band of spectators who had stayed in the cold to see the last rites made their way home and no doubt all will be making plans for next season before too long.
Dennis Nash put out to graze
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