Boxing Day cricket continued

Posted by Tony Hutton

Judging by the surprising reaction to my two recent blogs on Boxing Day cricket this seems to have created far more interest than I ever envisaged. So on several counts I thought a third instalment might be called for.

One item of interest related to the record number of appearances in this long running fixture. This I believe is held by Johnny Lawrence, formerly of Somerset county cricket club and numerous league cricket clubs in Yorkshire. I am reliably informed that he made thirty appearances on Boxing Day but am not sure whether these were consecutive or not. Be that as it may, but it was mentioned at the game this week that the redoubtable Barry Singleton of North Leeds CC is close to beating this record of appearances.

I am hoping that Steven Bindman, who has been doing considerable research on the career of Johnny Lawrence, may be able to add more information on this topic. He may also be able to confirm whether Mr. Lawrence ever took a hat trick in the course of his thirty games.

However one amazing record which I am able to confirm is even more remarkable. That is held by my candidate for Cricket Watcher of the Year, Jennifer Ellison. She attended her first Boxing Day game, at a very young age, back in 1957. Since that time she has missed only one game (in 1964) which I calculate as fifty nine matches in all !

Jennifer Ellison

Jennifer is still a regular at Headingley and Scarborough, but really prefers to follow the Yorkshire Academy and 2nd XI sides, which she has done for many years. She travelled the country together with her late husband, John, watching 2nd XI cricket when very few others did.

In addition she also finds time to be a very accomplished proof reader for all my entries on this blog, which can be prone to the occasional spelling mistake.








                                                                                                                                       

The hat trick nobody noticed

Posted by Tony Hutton

Yesterday's blog on this year's Boxing Day match in Leeds set me off again as to whether anybody else had ever taken a hat trick in England on Boxing Day. Barry Singleton of North Leeds CC performed this feat yesterday and it will no doubt take some considerable research by the Northern Cricket Society cognoscenti as to whether anyone else has ever done it.

Barry Singleton of North Leeds CC

I can shed some light on what might be the very first Boxing Day hat trick, which goes back as far as 1955. I recently obtained, in a second hand book shop, a copy of a book entitled 'Village Cricket' by A.J. Forrest. To my surprise the whole of the first chapter of this most interesting volume concerned the Northern Cricket Society Boxing Day game in 1955, in which the author actually played. This chapter has the intriguing title 'The hat trick nobody noticed'.

He had been invited to play as a guest by the founder of the Society, Ron Yeomans, who was aware that Mr Forrest was touring the country writing about village cricket.
Ron Yeomans is described as one of the world's most ardent cricket enthusiasts, being the founder, honorary secretary and guiding spirit of the Northern Cricket Society which then had a membership of six hundred people.

To cut a very long story short, the match, which was then played at Alwoodley cricket club in Leeds, was interrupted by rain. NCS with such luminaries as J.R. Burnett and Brian Stott of Yorkshire together with Peter Rochford the Gloucester wicketkeeper made a total of 82-8. The Northern were captained by Johnny Lawrence, the Yorkshire born leg spinner who played for many years with Somerset and became a Boxing Day regular over a very long period of time. He might well be in the frame as another hat trick contender. The long rain delay between innings eventually ended and Lawrence enquired 'Who hasn't batted?', 'Yeomans' was the immediate retort.

So it was that Ron Yeomans opened the bowling with spinners which had not seen the light of day in recent times. He did however manage to take two wickets in the over, one with the very last ball. With all the comings and goings of batsmen, this fact had been forgotten by the time Yeoman's second over started and he immediately clean bowled the batsman with a full toss. The incoming batsman was promptly out lbw next ball. One more for the hat trick everyone said, unaware, as was the bowler, that he had already achieved the feat. The next man middled the ball and everyone thought the hat trick had gone.

Rain finally ended the proceedings with a score of 21-5 and about fifty players, friends and supporters retired to the Wharfedale Inn, Arthington for a buffet celebration lunch.
Speeches were made and a good time was had by all. The author, Mr Forrest, was entertained that evening by the Alwoodley Chairman, George Featherstone, whose wife had apparently served three hundred cups of coffee during the match!  The Trophy the teams played for yesterday is still the George Featherstone trophy.

At around 8 p.m. the phone rang and it was none other than the aforementioned Ron Yeomans, with the excited news that the Press Association had just checked the score sheets of the game and had discovered his hat trick! So to end this story I can do no better than to quote the author's words at the end of this very long chapter.

'Such triumphs of hope snatch some harshness out of winter. They do not just refresh us, but set our fingers tingling in anticipation of joys to come, next season's fixtures. May they go on and on, amid snow and ice, a symbol of cricket's indestructibility as the loveliest and most challenging of games.' I am certain he would be glad to know the tradition continues to this day - more than sixty years later and that another hat trick has been recorded.

Sun shines on Boxing Day cricket

Posted by Tony Hutton

Although the current issue of the Cricketer Magazine produced an article about Boxing Day cricket, they seemed to be oblivious of the fact that the most well known Boxing Day match in the country has taken place in the Leeds area for no less than sixty seven consecutive years.

Today's game at North Leeds cricket club enjoyed clear blue skies and sunshine, spoilt only by a chill wind blowing the fallen leaves across the ground. This was in marked contrast to the deluge which arrived twelve months ago causing serious flooding in many parts of Yorkshire. Amazingly the game did go on then, if only for ten overs a side, but the record of playing every year since 1949, whatever the weather, remained intact.

This year's game was twenty five overs a side. The visitors, Northern Cricket Society, batted first on the artificial wicket. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals they managed to compile a total of 78 all out, with just one ball remaining. NCS, fielding a somewhat mixed bag of a side of local league cricketers started quite well and at one stage were 54-3. However three quick wickets for Keon Williams were followed by a hat trick by the home sides slow left armer, Barry Singleton.

It must be stressed that the game is always played properly, with little room for comedy, however this was provided by the last over bowled by the inimitable enthusiast Steven Bindman. After fetching a couple of balls back as they never reached the batsman and extending the over with one or two wides, he managed to take the final wicket with his fifth legitimate ball. One which the unfortunate batsman will never be allowed to forget as he was stumped trying to hit the ball out of the ground.

Some impressive bowling figures then with Singleton taking 4-4, Keon Williams 3-18 and Mr Bindman will be delighted with 1-6. Top score for NCS was Andy Stoddard with 14, still a very useful performer with the bat despite his difficulties running between the wickets. A two never looks on these days!

    Fellow blogger John Winn (right) and our Hartlepool correspondent Mike Taylerson

The North Leeds club, aided today by several guest players, did lose two early wickets but after that they strolled to rather an easy six wicket victory. They unfortunately lost star man Harwood Williams for a duck and Robert Nelson for eight, but then a good partnership between Jamie Hughes and Barry Singleton  took them to within sight of victory, before both were out for 28.

Northern Cricket Society Chairman Andrew Mawson presented the trophy to North Leeds skipper Singleton, who also claimed the Man of the Match award of a bottle of whisky. The proceeds of the raffle, which was very well supported by a good sized crowd, including many professional cricket watchers from as far afield as Hartlepool, Lancaster and Huddersfield, go to the St Gemma's Hospice in Leeds.

                            Professional cricket watchers on the march.

'I've known it colder at Weetwood'

Ballance to skipper Yorkshire

posted by John Winn

Yesterday's announcement that Gary Ballance will next season skipper Yorkshire in all formats seems to have been met with approval. Naturally Gale and Moxon are fully supportive and Ballance himself expressed his delight and the honour he felt at being named as Club Captain. It is always interesting on these occasions to check how the man on the Headingley omnibus feels about the announcement and here too the appointment seems to have been welcomed although nobody appears to be in raptures. 'Sound choice and the right one', 'the natural choice', 'good choice' are typical responses and even the removal of Alex Lees from any captaincy duties is given a positive spin both by the coaching staff and supporters in that it will allow the Halifax man to 'rediscover his batting touch'.

Ballance by his own admission is not 'a massive speaker' but 'I will be looking to lead by example and get the lads to follow me'. Fine words butter no parsnips of course but he is a very experienced cricketer, 21 test caps, and Andrew Gale recalls how well Gary did in leading the side against Notts at Scarborough. Proof of the pudding and all that and the new skipper will come under close scrutiny when, 16 weeks today, he leads his side against Hampshire in the opening championship match of the season at Headingley.

Elsewhere I received a text from our Golcar correspondent yesterday to the effect that at a meeting on Wednesday six clubs from the Huddersfield Central League were accepted into the Drakes League leaving Augustinians as the 'only club in limbo'.

April 22nd has emerged as the day when most cricket leagues will open for business in 2017 and joining the list recently has been Yorkshire Premier League North. The two promoted clubs begin with home matches, Clifton Alliance will entertain Scarborough and Easingwold have the attraction of Yorkshire Academy as visitors to Back Lane. Match of the day here might be Sheriff Hutton Bridge v 2016 champions Harrogate.

Busy winter period

Posted by Tony Hutton

Close season it may be but plenty of cricket activity going on not only in India and U.A.E. The cricket society season is in full swing with many interesting speakers to entertain cricket enthusiasts during the winter months. 

Brian Sanderson recently gave an excellent talk to the Yorkshire Supporters Association at Headingley on the work of the Yorkshire archives committee of which he is a very active member. Those of you who frequent the long room at Headingley will have seen Brian's various displays of memorabilia during the last season which are always of great interest not only to Yorkshire members, but to many visiting members as well.

Brian Sanderson

 

Brian outlined his cricketing career both as a player and a spectator, together with the people he met along the way who pointed him in the right direction to become a collector both of memorabilia and of cricket grounds, the more obscure the better!
Yorkshire do possess a great number of items, most recently from the estates of Bob Appleyard and Philip Sharpe. Most of the items are stored at the Yorkshire archives in Morley.

Brian also talked about the very successful museum now well established at Headingley which is not really big enough for all the items they would like to put on show. There are hopes that room can be made for both an extension and a much needed library, which would be a fitting memorial for the late Tony Woodhouse who was such an inspiration as both a historian and archivist for the club.

The Northern Cricket Society, who also meet monthly at Headingley, have had an excellent group of speakers already this winter. This started with Martin Howe, author of a recent book on former Yorkshire and England captain Norman Yardley. Martin was accompanied by Norman's twin sons who added to the occasion with many memories of their famous father. Then we had Dr. Dean Allen, University lecturer, who has written another excellent book on Empire, War and Cricket in South Africa. He gave a most entertaining talk on little known facts of the development of cricket in the multi-racial atmosphere of that country.

Last week the speaker was Mark Chilton, Yorkshire born but brought up in Lancashire for whom he played throughout his career and actually captaining the county for a few seasons just prior to being a member, eventually, of their championship winning team.
It did take a long time but he was very proud to be a member of that side despite being told that many better players than him had never won it.

                                                      Mark Chilton

His early days with Lancashire were a bit of a struggle with established stars like Crawley, Fairbrother, Stuart Law and Flintoff in the side. He also talked about the different atmosphere of the second team dressing room at Old Trafford compared with all the public schoolboys he played alongside at Durham University, like Strauss and Martin Jenkins.

Mark is now a coach with Lancashire 2nd XI and is obviously a very clever man. A graduate of Durham University, he has just completed a Masters Degree with a dissertation on leadership, which is a subject very close to his heart. He talked a lot about the qualities needed to be a good captain and a good coach and is very enthusiastic about the work of Peter Moores at Lancashire. He feels strongly that he is the best coach he has worked under and is rather surprised he was not more of a success with England. Mark also felt Moores would do well at Notts next season.

He is obviously very proud of the success of young Hameed with England and also feels that Jones, a batsman who came to prominence at the end of last season, will also make his mark as well as leg spinner Parkinson He described Jones as a hundred percent team man, compared with many players who these days think only of themselves, cocooned as they are in their own little worlds of their mobile phones.

So a collection of very interesting speakers with lots more still to come. The Yorkshire supporters will have a double act of Martyn Moxon and Dave Callaghan on Sunday 29th January at 2.30 p.m. The Northern Cricket Society will have Ian Fisher, former spin bowler and now conditioning coach at Yorkshire on Tuesday 3rd January at 7.45 p.m. and Paul Grayson, now coach at Durham University on Tuesday 7th February, also at 7.45. All meetings are in the Long Room at Headingley and new members will be made very welcome.

Before all this the traditional Boxing Day cricket match will take place at 10.30 a.m. when North Leeds cricket club entertain the Northern Cricket Society XI at the Homestead, Old Park Road, Roundhay adjacent to the Soldiers Field, Roundhay Park.