Boxing Day Cricket 2017

 Posted by Tony Hutton

The 68th successive charity Boxing Day cricket match took place today at North Leeds Cricket Club .
After early morning rain, the weather relented and after a cloudy start the later stages of the game were played in bright sunshine.

Two late withdrawals of long time regulars Steve Lawrence and Harwood Williams from the Northern Cricket Society side did not detract from the visitors performance and three of their batsmen reached the thirty run mark, which meant they had to retire. Star of the show was South African James van de Merwe who reached 29 with a six and promptly hit another one before retiring on 35.

The game was played on a matting wicket rather than the usual artificial strip alongside and this seemed to encourage the batsmen who put on the highest score for some time, certainly by the NCS side who have been well beaten in recent years. As the weather improved so did the size of the crowd which by the end of the first innings had grown considerably. The Northern innings finished on 175-5 with three retirements in their 25 overs, all helped by plenty of vocal encouragement from skipper Andrew Stoddart.

The home side's reply was played in bright sunshine, although with a chill breeze which sent most of the crowd either into the welcoming warmth of the bar, where hot and cold drinks were being sold in good numbers as well as a healthy trade in mince pies and pork pies, or onto the pavilion balcony.

The crowd included former players with long memories of playing in the snow possibly around forty years or even longer ago, such as Harold Todd and Reg Parker. This is always a wonderful social occasion for spectators to meet up at Christmas and remember such tales of long ago. Sadly for once the North Leeds reply did not live up to expectations and wickets fell at regular intervals to leave them all out for 85 and the Northern Cricket Society victors by a large margin of 90 runs.

Yorkshire 2nd XI & Academy fixtures published

Posted by Tony Hutton

Just a quick message for the faithful few. Yorkshire have published the fixtures for the 2nd XI and Academy teams for next season. They all appear on the county website. Still one or two unfortunate clashes with first and second elevens at home on the same dates and so far no fixture for Stamford Bridge unless they get the three day friendly in April.

Time to look forward

posted by John Winn

Tomorrow, December 21st, marks the winter solstice and my smart phone tells me that the sun will rise in the Lower Ure Valley at 8:22 and set at 15:44, after which the days will start to lengthen and by mid January, in the evenings at least, we will begin to see the difference. Time for the pcw to start looking forward to the 2018 season and for those in the Leeds area there is a chance to see the traditional match at North Leeds CC on Boxing Day. Some leagues have already published their fixtures for next season, Aire Wharfe for example will begin on April 14th while the Huddersfield League will begin as is traditional on the third Saturday in April, the 21st.

Last year I began my league cricket season watching by visiting five new grounds in Huddersfield and despite typical April squally weather and at times a biting wind I saw  enough cricket to make the journey worthwhile. Too early to say where my 2018 will begin but my eye was caught last week by the publication of the draw for the ECB Club KO competition. Winners last year were Essex outfit Wanstead and Snaresbrook who have a bye in the first round which is to be played on April 22nd. Their second round opponents will be either Upminster or Winchmore Hill. Last year's beaten finalists, Ormskirk also have a bye and will be at home to the winners of Lostock and Chorley on May 13th.

Group 1 covers East and North Yorkshire and the North East. Some interesting first round ties here include Stamford Bridge v Barnard Castle and  Clifton Alliance v Richmondshire. The winners of this latter tie will be at home to South Northumberland in Round 2 on May 22nd. South Northumberland were expelled from last year's competition for fielding an ineligible player and will no doubt be doubly determined to progress this time. In Group 2 one of my local teams, Harrogate travel to Doncaster, the winners to meet Hanging Heaton. Sessay, so prominent in the village cup in recent years, have made the step up to the club contest and visit Barnsley Woolley Miners on April 22nd. Should they get through Chesterfield will be their opponents in the second round, a home tie for the North Yorkshire side.

The full draw is available at ecb.play-cricket.com. As this will probably be my last posting before Christmas may I wish our readers a Happy Christmas and good cricket watching in 2018. Thank you for your support.

Michael Carney 1947-2017

posted by John Winn

Mick Carney's funeral will be on Thursday December 21st, which would have been his seventieth birthday. It will be held at St. Cecilia and St Patrick's RC Church, Ryhope Road Sunderland SR2 7TG at 12:05pm. After the service people can make their way to The Riverside Ground, Chester-le Street where they will be joined by family and close friends after a private cremation.

Mick's family ask that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to British Heart Foundation. These can be made at the church or at The Riverside. People are invited to wear some colour on the day at what will be a celebration of Mick's life.

Memories of Perth

Posted by Tony Hutton

John Winn has already reported the sad death of Mick Carney. I only knew him briefly but Mick was a larger than life character who always enlivened our visits to Riverside. As a regular reader of our blogs he was always ready with a comment, usually complimentary, whenever I met him. Added to that he was a passionate and long suffering supporter of Sunderland football club, as my own grandad was for many years, so I always felt we had something in common. He will be sadly missed.

The WACA Scoreboard

The Test Match currently taking place at the WACA in Perth will be the last match played at this famous ground which I have been fortunate enough to visit on several occasions, having the good fortune of a cousin who lives just south of this most pleasant of cities. The TV pictures have shown the vast new all sports stadium which has been built just across the river at Burswood, again not my idea of a proper cricket ground.

My first visit was in February,1991 when England played the 5th Test of the series at Perth after I had seen the drawn game in Adelaide. I remember stepping off the plane on arrival in Perth into the overpowering heat which hit us in the face. It was the hottest temperature for many years but fortunately returned to normal a day later. My cousin immediately drove us to his home, in his air conditioned car, and deposited us in his swimming pool with a bottle of beer to cool us down!

WACA Pavilion in the centre of picture.

The approach to the ground through the park next door was very attractive and everything about the ground, including the huge floodlight pylons, seemed so different from the grounds in England. The large grass bank in front of the old scoreboard was a wonderful place to watch the game from and the museum under the stands and the welcome from the Aussie officials for English fans was excellent. This was just before the growth of the Barmy Army which blighted the tour four years later with their inane chanting.

Mark Waugh had made his debut at Adelaide and scored 138 in the first innings. David Boon also scored a century in the second innings but England batted out for a draw on 335-5 on the last day with a hundred from Gooch and good scores from Atherton and Alan Lamb. Here at Perth England were not so fortunate with Craig McDermott destroying their first innings by taking 8-97, helped by the afternoon Freemantle Doctor wind. Lamb made 91 and Robin Smith 58 but from 212-3 England collapsed to 244 all out - a familiar story.

England's opening bowlers Devon Malcolm and Gladstone Small made a good start but Australia's strength in depth brought runs from the middle order with Boon 64, Matthews 60 not out and Healy 42 giving them a total of 307. England's second innings was even more disastrous than the first and they were all out for just 182 only Robin Smith 42 and Phil Newport of Worcester, who had been flown out as a late replacement, 40 not out, making any runs at all. The three Aussie pace bowlers McDermott, Alderman and Hughes did all the damage.

So the match finished on day four when Australia knocked of the 120 runs to win with only one wicket down to win by nine wickets. This gave us some extra time to see the sights and the whole city seemed so attractive, especially the wonderful Kings Park, together with the surrounding areas like Freemantle and Rottnest Island. I was still working at this time but was very attracted to the lifestyle of Western Australian and could quite have fancied going to live there.

Finally best wishes for Christmas to all our readers helped by this card from Australia just received from a friend recently returned from the Adelaide and Brisbane Tests.

Sad News

posted by John Winn

In my most recent posting I mentioned that Michael Carney was in hospital in Sunderland. Sadly since then I have received the news that Mick died on Saturday night. He would have been seventy next week. Mick, a retired teacher was a member of both Durham and Middlesex County Clubs and it was at The Riverside where I had most contact with him, usually finding time to assess the prospects for play before he took his regular seat on the members' balcony. This photograph taken at Lord's in September 2016 shows Mick, right, chatting with my friends John Fisher, centre, and John Gawthrope. 

Mick taught at the same school in Peterlee for 39 years until his retirement in 2008. Prominent in union activities he rose to be President of NASUWT. Mick was a talented artist and his portraits of Geoff Cook and Paul Collingwood hang in the Long Room at The Riverside. I and many others will miss his presence in that room when the 2018 season comes along. I will post details of the funeral arrangements when I have them.    

Reasons to be cheerful, not many.

posted by John Winn

Every cloud and that sort of thing but it was well into Tony's last posting before the 'glimmer of good news' broke through the cloud of disappointment shrouding the publication of the 2018 fixtures last week. Many have taken to twitter since to express their particular frustrations. A Lancashire supporter has pointed out that the curtain will close on championship cricket at Old Trafford not later than the 25th of July, the last scheduled day of the Roses match after which there will be there three T20 games and possibly a quarter final in that competition. Might just be worth popping over the Pennines on July 25th to hear the first cry of 'winter well'. Our Hartlepool correspondent has been in touch steaming at the prospect of almost half Durham's home championship games being after the August Bank holiday and that the floodlit game with Warwickshire will be played in mid summer week at a ground which is 54 degrees north and when at that time of year the sun does not set until 9:45 pm.

Four of Durham's seven home fixtures clash with games at Headingley or Scarborough and they have missed out on a trip to Lord's as they will play Middlesex only once, at The Riverside on September 24th. Some consolation for this comes by way of Durham being part of the Cheltenham Festival with a match against Gloucestershire beginning at that splendid venue on July 22nd. I last saw my native county play there in 1997 when my friend Peter Sixsmith, currently appearing as Santa Claus on the Weardale Polar Express, and I met up for the first day of four. Durham won the toss and chose to bat and were skittled out for 86 with only John Morris and Nick Speak making double figures. Things perked up when Simon Brown and John Wood took early  wickets but centuries from Mark Alleyne and Jack Russell saw the West Country men to 471 for 6 declared. Durham fared much better in their second innings with current coach Jon Lewis hitting 81 and David Boon 66. This was enough to take the game into the fourth day and had they survived just a little longer they would have been saved by heavy rain. Alleyne was man of the match with nine wickets to go with his 169. 'Glos' took the maximum 48 points from the festival, they had beaten Derbyshire easily the previous week, points which took them to the top of the table. Their season fell away with no wins after mid August and they finished seventh. Champions were Glamorgan and Durham passed the wooden spoon to Sussex. Surprisingly perhaps, for T20 had not been invented, the season finished just one week earlier than it will in 2018.

What of Yorkshire twenty years ago? Wisden reports that they had given up on the possible move to Wakefield and begun talks with their landlords 'to see if the existing ground could be redeveloped'. Wisden also claimed that there was open disagreement between captain David Byas and the committee over the future of Peter Hartley and 'David Bairstow's tragic death cast a pall over the county'. After all this sixth place in the championship was not such a bad effort.

Those of our readers who know Eddie Marshall, Darlington Eddie, and Mick Carney will be sorry to hear both have been ill recently. Eddie has been discharged from hospital and is in a care home prior to returning home but the last I heard Mick was still in hospital in Sunderland. We wish them both speedy recoveries.

Finally can I give a plug to a newly published ACS book, Cricket and Cannons, which covers the playing of cricket during the Crimean War. The author is a good friend of mine, David Shimwell, we shared a flat when students at Durham University, and the book 'deftly combining military and cricket history, provides a fascinating and original insight into cricket taking place in the mid-Victorian era'. David is a Peak District man, his uncle was my wife's primary school headmaster, but he lives in North West Durham and is regular watcher at The Riverside. Go to the ACS Website at http://acscricket.com for further details.

A glimmer of good news

Posted by Tony Hutton

It pains me greatly even to mention the antics going on in Australia with over paid international cricketers engaging in childish behaviour as they prance about from bars, to airports to press conferences where everything is recorded by the scandal mongering media.

You do feel however that if anyone deserved a proper head butt it might be the England selectors who have blighted the career of Johnny Bairstow for far too long, first leaving him out of the team and taking him round the world as drinks waiter, then refusing him permission to play county cricket and now batting him at number seven to look after the tailenders! Some of them don't seem to know which end of the bat to hold.

Words almost fail me but there has been a glimmer of good news with the announcement of the county cricket fixtures for 2018 in their now familiar truncated form. In addition a splendid article by Paul Hayward in today's Daily Telegraph which tells the story of England's oldest living Test cricketer Don Smith of Sussex. Smith is now 94 years old and lives in Adelaide where tomorrow's second Test is being played, needless to say day/night with pink ball!

Smith will not be there to watch. He shares my own philosophy about present day Test cricket, saying
'I stopped going to matches years ago because I can't stand the noise. I just want to see my beautiful game of cricket'. His memories are from a different age and reading his story you can't help to surmise a better one.

Now to return to the newly announced first class fixtures, preceded of course by the T20 fixtures a day earlier. The ECB have no doubt on which side their bread is buttered. They continue their policy of alienating the core supporters of the game, the county members, by cramming the proper cricket (county championship games) into early and late season. Perhaps it is time for The Government to instigate a survey of the death rate of senior citizens caused by hypothermia due to watching cricket during April, May and September.

You will be very lucky to watch county cricket in this sort of mid-summer weather.

There is still the lack of geographical knowledge in that Durham and Yorkshire are often at home on the same dates, when many northern cricket watchers are members of both counties, but I forget members are no longer important, as the powers that be search for their wonderful (if non existent) 'new audience'. Even the admirable Minor Counties are introducing a T20 competition and will play their one day trophy games in coloured clothing, although the number of championship fixtures at least remains the same.

As I say there are glimmers of good news - proper cricket will still be played at Scarborough (including even an Under 19 Test Match), at Cheltenham, Chesterfield, Colwyn Bay, Southport and Swansea. Even the odd day at the building site that will be Headingley might be possible. We await the county Second XI and League cricket fixtures with baited breath so that we can plan our visits to the many beautiful grounds still available to watch cricket.

It would be stretching the imagination too far to expect two England victories in Australia this week, but if our Rugby League side can win the World Cup in Brisbane tomorrow that will be a start.

More Champain

posted by John Winn

In a posting I made last month, 'Another Horace', I made reference to the Bateman Champain family and in particular Francis of that ilk who played for Gloucestershire, Oxford University and The Gentleman in the closing years of the nineteenth century. That era in David Green's history of Gloucestershire cricket is dominated by chapters on the county's 'giants, WG Grace and Gilbert Jessop and Francis Champain is the only one of the several brothers who gets a mention in the book and even he is limited to two references. In the first of these he is listed as one of a number of talented amateur batsmen who played in 1895. This assessment must have been  based on things to come for Francis batted but three time for Glos that year scoring 0,0 and 4. His bowling was slightly better yielding two wickets at reasonable cost. The following season his school master's duties allowed FHB, to give him his full initials, the time to play four matches one of which yielded a fifty, batting at nine against Middlesex. Despite his limited availability Francis  continued to improve and in 1899 came his greatest moment when playing for Oxford University at the Christchurch Ground, Oxford he opened the batting and hit a century against the visiting Australians. This gained him selection for the Gentlemen in their match against the Players at The Oval where he hit 30 and 8. He did not play in the return match at Lord's the following week but he could hardly complain given that the Gentlemen's first three read MacLaren, Fry and Ranji.

Three of Francis' brothers also played first class cricket and although none achieved the same heights none could be have said to led dull lives. Hugh, the oldest born in 1869 rose to be a Brigadier General in the Indian army and played for MCC and Gloucestershire appearing in 12 first class matches spread over 14 seasons. His debut was against Yorkshire in 1888 and his last game against Surrey in 1902 was ruined by rain and he did not ball or bowl. Another of the family, Claude, 1875-1956, also played in that match and like brother Hugh his career of 18 first class matches was somewhat spread out beginning in 1897 and ending in 1907, Claude too began against Yorkshire but with play confined to the first day he had no chance to shine and indeed shine he never did for his top score in 28 innings was 29 against Somerset at Gloucester in 1902.

This leads to the last of the four Champains, alas none called Charlie, for this is John born 1880 died 1950 and who only played five matches for Gloucestershire, the rest of his first class experience being confined to games for Free Foresters for whom he made his top score, 17, v Cambridge University in 1919. With Hugh's best effort 35 it is hard not to come to the conclusion that except in the case of Francis, family and status rather than cricket ability were largely responsible for the careers of the Champains. John however reached distinction in another field for later in life he became the Bishop of Knaresborough.

Finally, thank you to our readers for the blog recently recorded its 200,000th hit

Francis Henry Bateman Champain

Yorkshire at Stourbridge in the 1930s

Posted by Tony Hutton

Recent researches into Yorkshire's 1949 season reminded me that Leonard Hutton made a pair against Worcestershire during the month of June, when he made a record number of runs in a calender month. For some reason I had the feeling that this match was played at Stourbridge, but on looking it up found it was at the county ground Worcester. There it was in black and white - L.Hutton bowled Perks 0 and lbw bowled Perks 0.

The Stourbridge connection was still niggling me so I looked up the games Yorkshire had played at this long forgotten first class venue, which I visited for the first time to see a Worcestershire second XI game in 2016. Yorkshire have played four games here, the first one way back in 1906 when Lord Hawke, Rhodes, Hirst and Haigh were all in the side which won rather easily.

Then to my surprise I found that the other games when Yorkshire played here were all close together in the 1930s. I just wonder whether Yorkshire had upset somebody at Worcester as they were sent to Stourbridge, almost the equivalent of being sent to Coventry,  rather than the county ground in 1936, 1937 and 1939.

Stourbridge pavilion.

Looking up the scorecards of these three games proved most interesting. Yorkshire didn't lose many games during that period. They were county champions in 1937 and 1939 but only fourth in 1936 when Derbyshire won it for the only time. To my great surprise I discovered that Worcester won the game in 1936 by just eleven runs in a season when Yorkshire only lost two games. A very young Leonard Hutton was run out for 0 in the first innings and was lbw to Jackson for 0 in the second.
So this was another pair which I must have heard about hence the Stourbridge connection.

A very young Reg Perks also played in this game and distinguished himself by dismissing the great Herbert Sutcliffe for only seven. Worcester scored 148 in the first innings (Verity 5-48) and Yorkshire replied with only 123 - Mitchell top scoring with 34. In the second innings Worcester were dismissed for 92 with Verity doing even better with 8-40. Yorkshire's victory target was only 118 but having got to 68-2 thanks to Sutcliffe and Leyland, they collapsed to 106 all out, spinners Dick Howarth and Peter Jackson taking five wickets each.

Worcester second XI in action at Stourbridge.

One year later (a couple of weeks after I was born) Yorkshire were there again and normality was resumed with a victory by an innings and 81 runs. This time Hutton made a century (101) and Leyland 167 in a total of 460 all out.

Worcester replied with 190, top score to the splendidly named H.H.I.H. Gibbons. He made 74 not out and his full name is Harold Harry Ian Hayward Gibbons. Surprisingly he was not an amateur but a professional born in Devonport (possibly a nautical connection) and played from 1927-1946. Verity was at it again with 5-53. The second innings proved very similar, Worcester 189 all out (Verity 5-60).

The War Memorial archway at the entrance of the Stourbridge ground.

Another surprise in 1939, just before World War II, when another low scoring match took place and Worcester yet again claimed a rare victory this time by just sixteen runs. Worcester were all out for 102, Ellis Robinson and Hedley Verity with four wickets each, but Yorkshire in reply made only 91.
Hutton was bowled Perks for seven, as he would be again ten years later for nought! Turner did better than his illustrious team mates with 29 not out and Reg Perks took 4-20.

Worcester were again dismissed cheaply, this time for 118 - Reg Perks top scoring with 36.
Having seen him bat after the war I would assume that he gave it the long handle in no uncertain fashion. Bill Bowes chipped in with three wickets, as did Robinson, and Verity had four. So once more a modest total of 130 required by the visitors. Again the middle order collapsed, with skipper Sellars collecting a pair, and despite Leyland's valiant 39 Yorkshire were dismissed for 113. Perks took 5-50 and Martin 4-30.

So a fascinating period of cricketing history played out at an almost forgotten venue, not the most salubrious of settings for the Birmingham League club who still share the playing area with the local soccer club. However the Stourbridge club has been a prolific nursery for Worcestershire cricket over the years and I well remember seeing them field a side of nearly all county players in a Birmingham League match at Walsall in the 1950s. Among those who played were Peter and Dick Richardson (brothers who both played for England), Martin Horton, Dick Howorth, Norman Whiting, Grenville Wilson (a very quick left arm bowler) and George Mills (wicket keeper).

Probably the most famous Stourbridge player of all was Don Kenyon, who was a prolific opening batsman and captain of Worcestershire, who also played a few games for England. In more recent times all rounder Stuart Lampitt was another Stourbridge product.

More from Wetherby

posted by John Winn

In the most  recent posting on their website  the Wetherby League has given  more details of how the league will be structured in 2018. This follows the decision made by the member clubs,covered in a posting on this blog a couple of weeks ago, not to merge with the York and District League. The season will begin on 28th April and finish on September 8th with the two Bank Holiday weekends kept completely free of cricket. Each of the top three divisions will have ten clubs with the remaining fourteen in Division Four.

The league also confirms the departure of three clubs, Shadwell and Old Leos, who have joined the Aire Wharfe, and champions Kirk Deighton who have been accepted into the Nidderdale league, a transfer which has provoked considerable rancour. Kirk D had given notice early in the 2017 season of their wish to negotiate with other leagues and subsequently applied to join the the Nidderdale league in 2019, an application which was accepted. On the 24th of October Kirk received an email from the chairman of the Wetherby League which said that the club would not be offered fixtures for 2018 and has accused the Nidderdale League of  a breach of the Memorandum of Understanding between leagues over the issue of transfers. They have now been accepted into the Nidderdale for 2018 and with  back to back Wetherby titles on their cv the newcomers will look to do well in the new surroundings and it will be interesting to see where they will be placed when the fixtures are announced.

With three clubs going through the exit door it is of interest that one, Burton Salmon, are bucking the trend and will join the Wetherby league in 2018.  The club ran into difficulties in 2016 and withdrew from the York Vale League early that season citing lack of players as the problem.  The club reformed this year and after a season of playing friendlies now feels ready for a return to league cricket.

Four years ago to the week I posted an item entitled 'A Cliffe hanger' in which I referred  to a visit made by Tony to the delightful North Yorkshire ground of Cliffe CC, near Scotch Corner and just off the Roman Road, Dere Street. Tony's account appeared in the book Two Men and A Blog written by Tony and Peter Davies. Cricket has been played at Cliffe for well over a hundred years and for a while there was even a Cliffe and District League. Yesterday I was given privileged access to back copies of the Darlington Sports Despatch in the hope that I might be able to find positive confirmation that the Swaledale League finished in 1966. Alas coverage was even more sparse than in the Darlington and Stockton Times on which I had based my earlier research and there remains a question mark as to when the last game was played. July 23rd 1966, probably but alas not definitely.

Whilst searching through the bound copies of 'The Pink' as it was known I found several references to The Cliffe League including this the final table for the 1923 season.

Forcett Park, Croft, Melsonby and Gainford are no more but the other four prosper. Raby Castle were 2017 champions of the Darlington and District league, Richmondshire runners up in NYSD Premier, Cliffe gained promotion to Darlington and District Division A  and Barton were comfortably mid table in that division.

Old man stars for Old England (1951)

Posted by Tony Hutton

Searching through my cricket archives recently I came across the details of a match played at the beginning of the 1951 season at Edgbaston, Birmingham. This was a warm up game for Warwickshire in what was to be an eventful season as they went on to win the county championship.

The game was against a star studded Old England XI with many players whose best years were in the 1930s before World War II. The most notable performance of the day was a magnificent century by one of the oldest men on the field Donald Knight aged 56. 'Tiger' Smith the former Warwickshire wicket keeper, and by now the county coach, was probably the oldest at 65.
       

This was a one innings match which was quite a novelty in those days and although the overs were unlimited it was a predecessor of things to come in the future. Warwickshire fielded a few youngsters in contrast to their opponents and left out all their regular bowlers with the exception of Eric Hollies, who for the first time in his life was listed as high as number nine in the batting order on the scorecard. He was not called upon to bat but had been a number eleven for all of his career.

Warwickshire batted first and a young man recruited from Yorkshire, Norman Horner, was out for 2 bowled by Surrey veteran Alf Gover. His opening partner Jimmy Ord, who had played for the county before the war, stayed around long enough to prove the mainstay of the innings with a fine 117. Don Taylor, another newcomer from New Zealand made a useful 38 but county captain Tom Dollery would not have been too pleased to be dismissed by two of his former county colleagues. He was caught Smith bowled Paine for just 1.

Nevertheless Warwickshire declared with a useful 214-6 in 60.4 overs. Paine once of Warwickshire but now of Moseley in the Birmingham League was the best bowler with 16-4-56-2. Jim Sims another spinner still plying his trade with Middlesex was a bit more expensive but also took two wickets.

Warwickshire were trying out two young and eager fast bowlers Ray Carter and Jack Bannister. Carter started off brilliantly dismissing both openers for nought. Laurie Fishlock of Surrey was clean bowled and Jack O'Connor of Essex lbw. When Bannister removed Paine for 9 the score was 28-3 and everyone thought the game was going to be a walkover for the county side. A good partnership from former England captain R.E.S. Wyatt, now with Worcester, and the aforementioned Mr Knight of Surrey swung things back Old England's way with a stand of 67. Wyatt was the dominant partner but was out for 47.

At this point Knight took over and played the innings of the day racing to 112 with 18 fours and playing some splendid shots all round the wicket.

Donald Knight was born in Sutton, Surrey in May 1894 and played for the county while still at school at Malvern College. He won a blue at Oxford either side of the First World War and his best season was as far back as 1919 when he opened regularly with Jack Hobbs and scored over 1500 runs at average of 49 with nine centuries. In 1920 he was struck on the head by a ball and was never the same batsman again.

However in 1921 he was picked for two Tests against the Australians but made only 54 runs in four innings. He became master in charge of cricket at Westminster School in 1920 and thereafter only appeared occasionally for Surrey, retiring after the 1937 season.

Having discovered this after the match made his innings all the more surprising and to this day I remember it and the fluency of his batting. He was eventually clean bowled for 112 by the persistent Bannister, who of course was to make his name as a county professional, bookmaker, journalist and commentator in future years. In fact Bannister had a very good day finishing with 5-43 in what became a drawn match with Old England 206-8 when time was up.

Wetherby League carries on

poste to the point where d by John Winn

On a number of occasions over the past few seasons I have blogged about the loss of clubs from the Wetherby League to the point where the league's very future has been called into doubt. The league has confronted this situation by polling all clubs with the choice of remaining as the Wetherby League or merging with the behemoth that is the York and District Senior League. The result of the vote, to which three clubs did not respond, was 59% in favour of the league continuing. The clubs also voted on the structure for next season and by a majority of 5% voted to reduce the number of clubs in Division 1 to ten. 13% voted for an option that would have seen the number of teams reduced to eight. Secretary Barry Oliver stresses that the decision to reduce to ten is a trial and will be reviewed for 2019.

Will this stop the exodus of clubs? Possibly not for if we turn to the Nidderdale League website there is a lengthy article under the heading 'Plan for Change' which refers to the 'potential implosion of the Wetherby League' and the reduction in divisions to three. Anticipating that the merger with the York league might have gone ahead three Wetherby  clubs within the Nidderdale catchment area had sounded out the possibility of joining the Nidderdale rather than the York.

Much of 'Plan for Change' addresses the problem only too familiar to pcws, the plague of concessions, especially in the lower divisions of leagues. There is an excellent paragraph which sets out how the changes in both men and women's  lifestyles,  have impacted on league cricket. I recommend it to all our readers. The stats for conceded matches are truly awful, 72 in total, more than one fifth of which were by one team, Helperby III. 25% of the 'lost games' were when the cricket and football seasons overlapped and the worst day when in 11 matches no coin was tossed was when York Races, the Headingley test and the Leeds Festival coincided. Wetherby gave up 17 matches that day.

To his credit the Nidderdale secretary is not content to ring his hands and in his article puts forward several suggestions to try and reduce this problem. These include reducing the number of overs, reducing the number of matches in the lower divisions and speeding up over rates. For the full article search Theakston Nidderdale League, click on news, then a plan for change, scroll down to TNL Review plan for change discussion document, for those of you watching in black and white it's in green ink. Clubs were invited to attend a discussion meeting on this matter last week. No report on that yet.

Finally the website reports that the company that gave birth to crichq, a system the league has used for a number of seasons, has gone into administration and the league is trialling ecb's play cricket as an alternative. Whilst I feel sorry for anybody whose jobs are threatened by this news I will not be sorry to see the back of crichq, a website I have grumbled about on the blog on numerous occasions.

No play today. Hinderwell CC 26/08/17

Derbyshire in Staffordshire

Posted by Tony Hutton

A trip into Staffordshire to see Minor Counties cricket at Checkley this summer completed my set of grounds on which Derbyshire have played in that county. It all goes back a very long way as I was reminded the other day when I passed through Burton on Trent on my way home from a few days holiday in the Midlands.

The Staffordshire Knot

As a boy and a young man I lived in Walsall at the southern tip of Staffordshire and can recall an epic cycle journey (a round trip of about 50 miles) from Walsall to Burton on Trent to see Derbyshire play Worcestershire in May 1953 at the Ind Coope & Allsopp ground. I can vaguely remember Don Kenyon making top score for Worcester in a game which Derby won by three wickets, but what sticks in the memory is that the two Derbyshire amateurs came out of a different gate, and presumably dressing room, from the professionals.

Derbyshire in all played 35 first class games at this ground between 1935 and 1980 by which time it had become the Allied Breweries ground. At that time it was decided to concentrate all cricket at Derby and Chesterfield. Sadly although the ground continues as a sports and social club no cricket is played there now.

A few years after my cycle journey I returned to Burton to play on the Town Ground, which also staged county cricket on a regular basis between 1914 and 1937. Along the track off Trent Bridge (another one) we passed the third venue to stage first class cricket in the town when both Oxford and Cambridge played Derbyshire on the Bass Worthington ground during the mid 1970s. Our club side from Walsall which played a Sunday friendly at the Town Ground was notable for the inclusion of one David Brown, fresh out of school and already being looked at by Warwickshire. He was of course to go on to captain the county and play for England. On this day however he failed to take a wicket whereas my gentle off spin managed two or three!

Time moves on and with the advent of the John Player Sunday League Derbyshire had the idea of playing some matches at different grounds in Staffordshire to obtain new supporters from a county which over the years had provided them with some very useful players. So it was that games were played in the seventies and eighties at Cheadle, Leek, Knypersley and Checkley. The first three had staged Minor Counties games for Staffordshire but Checkley only caught up during the 2017 season when I visited for the first time.

Checkley cricket club.

All these grounds have their attractions but obviously it was difficult getting sponsors despite some deals with local councils. The facilities were not really up to staging county games and the experiment was eventually abandoned following further improvements to the county ground at Derby.

Some of the information in this blog has been sourced from an admirable ACS publication 'Cricket Grounds of Derbyshire' by John Shawcroft, written in 2008. Unfortunately there is one mistake which shows a picture of Hartlepool's ground labelled as Knypersley. However I am able to rectify that with a picture of my own, which without doubt was taken at Knypersley during a visit by Cumberland.

Knypersley cricket club

Another Horace

posted by John Winn

As far back as the 31st March 2014 in a posting I made welcoming the start of another season I quoted from the poet Horace. Over the next few days this sparked some of Headingley's finest brains to think of Horaces  who had played cricket. Tony came up with Horace Fisher of Yorkshire and Horace Hazell of Somerset and I put a couple of short accounts of these two men's careers on the blog. To my surprise and quite by chance I came across another Horace, a Yorkshire man no less, when thumbing the 1964 Wisden for on page 954 was the obituary of one Horace Rudston who had died in April 1962, aged 82.

Born in Hessle where he also died Horace played as a professional for Yorkshire from 1902 to 1907. It is perhaps significant that his obituary appeared a year late for he did not set the broad acres on fire. Scoring 609 runs in 21 games  for the county 269 of which were in one match against Leicestershire in 1904, 164 runs in the first innings.  But Wisden, in the eight lines they spared for his belated obituary drew attention to what they describe as an 'eventful' match at Bristol in 1906.

In today's hyperbolic world 'eventful' would not do the game justice. Played on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of August Gloucestershire batted first and were bowled out for 164 with William Ringrose taking five wickets including that of Jessop and FH Bateman-Champain* top scoring with 42. Yorkshire responded in similar vein conceding a five run deficit with left arm spinner George Dennett opening the bowling and taking 8 for 86 . The west countrymen fared a little better in their second innings with Jessop hitting 34 in almost even time and Hirst accounting for five thus leaving Yorkshire 234 to win. Despite 52 from Wilfred Rhodes Yorkshire were five down for 119 with Dennett, who bowled unchanged again, having three to his name when Rudston was joined by skipper Ernest Smith with whom he added 66 until Horace, attempting to square cut Jessop hit his wicket. Yorkshire were not done for and when Hunter was ninth out victory was not out of the question with just 11 needed. Nine of those were gathered by Myers and Ringrose before the latter was lbw to Jessop, the croucher's 750th first class wicket. Thus Gloucestershire won by one run, for which they were awarded one point while Yorkshire were deducted one.

Yorkshire played one more championship game that season, v Somerset at Bath which they won by 389 runs, George Hirst a century in each innings, for which gave them another point which left them level on points with Kent who had won their last eleven fixtures. With counties playing different numbers of matches Kent's higher percentage gave them the first of four championships they were to win before the first world war intervened.

In what might so easily have become 'Rudston's match' over three hundred overs were bowled, more than 77 of them by Denning, without his skipper once having to suggest he take a spell. George was no stranger to hard work for he bowled over 1000 overs that season taking 160 wickets including a tenfor against Essex at Bristol.  The umpires were Messrs Millward and West but which one of them gave Ringrose out lbw and so virtually hand the title to Kent we shall probably never know.

* The Bateman-Champains were something of a cricketing family with five brothers playing in the XI at Cheltenham College. An Oxford Blue, Francis Henry would have played more for Gloucestershire had it not been for his duties as a schoolmaster at Wellington and Cheltenham. He hit a hundred for the university against the 1899 Australians and played

for the Gentlemen against the Players on two occasions. His playing days over he took up fruit farming in Canada.

A Corinthian spirit

posted by John Winn

With Arthington behind us and Boxing Day still more than ten weeks away the pcw must find alternative ways to quench his/her thirst for all things cricket and for this blogger the winter provides the opportunity to catch up on reading and I have this week finished 

‘ Runs and Catches' the slim autobiography of Tony Pawson. 

Pawson, who died in 2012 aged 91 is described in his Wisden obituary as 'one of the last of the brilliant all-round sportsman who emerged from the public schools and bestrode English sport in the first half of the twentieth century'. His cv certainly supports this view for coming from a privileged background, his father captained Oxford in 1910, Tony followed in dad's footsteps and went to Winchester and after a distinguished war he entered Christ Church College, Oxford, made a hundred in the 1947 Varsity match then captained the Dark Blues the following year.  That would be enough for most of us but he had played for Kent after being demobbed and made 90 on debut..A good county player Pawson freely admits he was not good enough for test cricket but given his credentials it would not have been surprising had he been selected. Think JG Dewes and JJ Warr.

Away from cricket HA Pawson was also an outstanding footballer in the halcyon days of the amateur game. An Oxford blue he was selected for the England amateur XI, played for Pegasus when they won the Amateur Cup in 1951, and fitted in a couple of games for Charlton Athletic, scoring on his debut against Spurs .If all this adds up to something out of the pages of Hotspur rather than Wisden then the icing on the cake is yet to come for in 1984 Tony became world champion in the sport that gave him most satisfaction, namely fly fishing. Born in Sudan he first fished in the Nile as a four year old and after his successful debut for Kent announced to his skipper Bryan Valentine that he was not available for the next match, 'gone fishing, there's a sign upon my door' to borrow from the Louis Armstrong song. 'Runs and Catches' has on its cover a photo of Pawson batting for Kent against Middlesex at Lord's in 1947 and on the back he is shown landing a salmon on the Scottish Avon.

Like most of us HA had to make a living and after a spell as a schoolmaster at Winchester he had a very successful career with Reed International where he was Personnel Director but then turned his hand to journalism and it is for his writings on cricket in The Observer that I best  remember him. When asked how he had the patience for fishing his reply was

that 'the only patience needed is to endure the months and days when you can't fish'. Substitute watching cricket for fishing and that sums up quite nicely the philosophy of the pcw

The umpires set forth to start the last game of the season at Arthington

Yorkshire then and now.

Posted by Tony Hutton

Last week I had the pleasure to listen to Mark Rowe, author of a new book on Brian Sellers, the former Yorkshire captain and cricket chairman for many years. As Mr Rowe admitted in his rather unorthodox presentation it was a book that should have been written by J.M. Kilburn, the long time Yorkshire Post cricket correspondent.

However Mark Rowe stated that he tried to have a balanced look at Sellers life. He was the most successful county captain of all time. Yet many people fell out with him or didn't like him, particularly in his role as administrator, or virtual dictator, that it was hard to find many plus points. I think the same can be said about Yorkshire's cricket during 2017 which has come in for a lot of criticism from the majority of supporters who demand success at all times.

The end to the season in the game against Essex at Chelmsford and the earlier game against the same opposition at Scarborough were very much the low points of the year and I had reached the stage where I felt it best not to comment at all as so much had been said already. However several people have urged me to express my opinion. My blogging colleague 'Backwatersman', who has entertained us all season with his writings on Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, was one who wanted to know what was going on - as if I knew!

So rather reluctantly here goes. The first thing to look at is the predicament of Andrew Gale, captain of two championship winning sides, thrown in at the deep end to replace Jason Gillespie as coach without any previous experience. Gale is of course very close to all the players, some might say too close, but no doubt he has their confidence and will have learned a lot from his first season in charge.
I am not one of those, and there are many, who are calling for his resignation. He needs more time to settle into the role and I for one am all in favour of having a Yorkshireman in charge rather than someone from overseas.

Which leads me nicely onto the next topic - overseas players, which has always been a thorny question for Yorkshire. They have had some very good ones notably Darren Lehmann and Michael Bevan for instance, but also quite a lot who have not done the business. They had three overseas players for shortish periods of time in 2017, none of whom really distinguished themselves and without doubt proved the point that short term signings are a complete waste of time. I appreciate the difficulty in finding players who can commit to a whole season with the current crowded international programme but that is what is needed.

The next problem has been the loss of form by all the top order batsman. Only Gary Ballance, in the first half of the season, scored a large number of runs until his season was blighted by injury and international uncertainty. Most worrying for many people has been the loss of form of opening batsman Alex Lees, who looked a certainty for England honours two or three years ago. Who could ever forget his magnificent 275 not out against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 2013?

Lees has tried to find his form in the second team and I saw him score a double century against Durham seconds at Riverside, but even there he didn't really seem to have regained his old fluency and continued to struggle in the first team, even going down the order to number three. Hopefully both he and Adam Lyth can regain their previous high standards next season. Jack Leaning is another who needs to find more consistency in championship cricket as he too has plenty of ability.

Now for the plus points and there were quite a few. The obvious choice is Ben Coad, who had a remarkable season and made a real breakthrough at senior level, after not many outstanding performances with the seconds. However what I like about him is his ability to bowl straight, the old Brian Statham theory 'you miss, I hit'.

The other player to impress me was Harry Brook, the young opening batsman, for both the Second Eleven and the Academy side. Runs a plenty in the first half of the season brought him promotion not only to the first team but to captain the England Under 19s. Then the runs dried up and he had a poor spell of form towards the end. He is a class player with an excellent temperament and I am sure he will come back strongly.

The Yorkshire Academy side had a good season in the Yorkshire Premier League North and only just missed out on the league title. Obviously not all of the players will make the grade at first class level but there are some both past and present who could still make it and I thought both Wainman, an opening bowler, and Thompson, an all rounder, deserved a first team chance last season.

Of course the biggest problem facing Yorkshire cricket, reflected on a regular basis by readers' letters in the Yorkshire Post is the continual absence of their England players. This will continue until the people running county cricket stand up for themselves and their members to emphasise that county cricket is not just there to provide Test players but is a treasured and valued competition in it's own right which should be marketed and promoted properly not just left to rot. The star players should be allowed to play for the county sides that produced them and the fixture programme should be planned accordingly instead of giving precedence to the money machine which is T20.

Brian Sellers was a man of forthright opinions and colourful language. One can only imagine what he would have said if his band of international players of the thirties or sixties had been taken away for the whole season.

County cricket's future is obviously very much in the balance but as long as it continues Yorkshire will produce good players. If only we could see them playing for the county rather than just for England. County members, most of whom like me belong to an older generation, are being written off by the money men now running the game. We must do all we can to stop them ruining what has always been an important part of the British way of life.

Arthington see off the season in style

Posted by Tony Hutton

The cricket festival at Arthington cricket club in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire has prolonged the season into October for the last twenty nine years. Unfortunately, the usually good weather deserted them this year and a record number of four of the eight scheduled games were called off due to rain.
Again an unfortunate clash with Yorkshire league cricket's semi finals and final at Headingley meant that few people attended the two games on 23/24 September.

Cricket in October at Arthington.

However for the final weekend 7/8 October both games were completed and both finished with victories for the home side to crown a season when both first and second elevens had achieved promotion from their respective divisions of the Nidderdale League. Of course when the festival started back in 1989 Arthington were still playing friendly cricket, which is what the festival is all about with opponents mainly from the ranks of the few teams still playing this type of game outside the league structure.

Saturday's game against Cambridge Road Methodists resulted in a fairly comfortable home victory with help of a guest player James Van der Merwe, from South Africa, who has been plying his trade with East Leeds CC in the lower reaches of the Bradford League. He took four wickets with his spin bowling as the visitors were dismissed for 113 and then scored a quick fire 50 to help the home side to a four wicket victory. The weather was dry, but cloudy, and the cold wind sent a few of the rather smallish crowd home early.

Wherever two or three are gathered together at any cricket ground in England they will alway stand in front of the scoreboard!

Sunday was a much better day, no wind for once, and even glimpses of blue sky in the distance but it never really arrived at the ground. A bigger crowd, if you could call it that, of regulars for this last farewell to the season appeared, including a visitor from Surrey, one from Teeside and two from the wrong side of the Pennines even. The visitors today were St Georges Church, who play their matches on the nearby attractive ground of Harewood House.

Despite their recent amazing victory over Cookridge Hospital when St Georges took the last eight wickets for just one run, including four clean bowled with the last four balls, they could not reproduce that form today.

St Georges could only make 104 with the lower order collapsing against the spin twins Geoff Barker and Andy Stoddart with 4-7 and 2-7. As ever though the two stars of the show were the two over eighties players Dennis Nash, who of course opened the bowling, and wicker keeper Martin Binks, who got two stumpings and thought he should have had three!

The two famous Arthington veterans - Dennis Nash and Martin Binks.

Barker lets one go through outside offstump.

After an early scare when opening bowler O'Sullivan reduced the home side to 5-3 and narrowly failed to get a fourth with his hat-trick ball, Arthington were guided to victory by the ever dependable Geoffrey Barker, with his trademark forward defensive stroke to the fore and a more aggressive 50 from first team wicket keeper, Andy Dowson which took them home with overs to spare.

Geoff Barker's trademark forward defensive while Andy Stoddart stands on one leg.

So as the evening began to get somewhat chilly just after five o'clock the game and the season came to an end. The players and spectators said their farewells, with good wishes to 'winter well' and some of us will no doubt reconvene as early as March for the beginning of next season. Although well before that we have the annual Boxing Day game at North Leeds CC to look forward to.

Good in parts

posted by John Winn

With my only chance of seeing anymore cricket this season hanging on the prospects for this weekend's two matches at Arthington it is an appropriate  time to reflect on the last six months for it is that long since I, for the first time, saw cricket in March. The occasion was not an auspicious one, Loughborough University B v Notts II, an occasion notable not so much for the standard of the cricket but more for the plethora of coaches in attendance. But it was cricket on a new ground and in the afternoon the sun came out and watching was not an unpleasant experience and in a season where there have been relatively few highlights it just about qualifies for that status.

If we get the good bits out of the way first then my first test cricket at Lord's on a lovely day in July and the long journey to Swansea to a ground where I had not seen cricket before and where I was blessed with warm sunshine, good company and a splendid century from the evergreen Paul Collingwood, stand out.Those two aside there has not been that much to celebrate on the county scene and I think my whole outlook on the season has been tarnished by a sense of injustice about the harshness of the punishment meted out by the ECB a year ago to Durham. Relegation and a 48 point deduction still stokes fires of bitterness inside me, not helped by Hampshire escaping relegation on the last afternoon of the season by the skin of their teeth.

Watching Yorkshire's late season collapse has not helped matters and as Tony has said enough is probably enough in terms of comments on events since the win at Taunton in June, although I suspect inquests will go on over a pint with my regular travelling companions, two Johns and an Arthur, deep into the winter.

On the club cricket scene things are a little brighter for I have visited over 25 new grounds stretching from Lands in the north to Ackworth in the south and from Mytholmroyd in the west to Whitby in the east. The last of which completed the set of NYSD grounds. Other memorable days were spent at  Booth where cricket, weather and scenery combined to paint a perfect picture and Almondbury Wesleyans where the tea lady had the presence of mind to serve hot soup on a cold April day. My local club Ouseburn were champions of the Nidderdale
League for the second successive year and giving almost equal pleasure,
they were able to turn out three teams on the third Saturday in September.

Looking ahead to next year the 153 club is back on the agenda, my pursuit of seeing every county play every other county in championship cricket, for Warwickshire's relegation means they will play Leicestershire and Gloucestershire, two of the four games needed to reach my target. Until the last few days of the season it looked like I might be able to complete the whole project for had Somerset finished in the bottom two then all four games would have been on offer, but such things are not within my behest to arrange and I will settle for what Warwickshire's poor form has given me. Of course it has been pointed out to me that under the present system there is no guarantee that second division teams play each other twice so I may only get one crack at it and even here the weather may intervene. I await the fixtures with interest.

Finally I promised in my last posting that I would throw some light on this photograph. It dates back to the 1920s and it was taken at the private ground of HM Martineau at Blind Lane, Holyport in Berkshire. Cricket was played here as far back as 1886 and in the 1920s the Australian, New Zealand and West Indian tourists played matches here, usually at a very early stage in their tour. The man looking into the heavens for the coin is thought to be the Australian captain HL Collins and their opponents on 28th and 29th April 1926 were Minor Counties. If correct then the opposing skipper is the famous Norfolk cricketer and Conservative MP, Michael Falcoln. Play was washed out on the first day and the match was drawn. In other years it was customary for the tourists to play against Hubert Martineau's XI. Looking at the card for the match against New Zealand in 1927 it is clear that Martineau was not frightened to put himself in the firing line for in a Kiwi total of 586 he has 1 for 125 off 22 overs. Not so much a case of whose bat is it but whose ground is it?

Weather threatens end of season games

Posted by Tony Hutton

October is here and the cricket season has almost run it's controversial course. John has already described the eventful end to the county season, although it appears that Middlesex are still appealing against their relegation due to points lost in the 'bow and arrow' game at the Oval. The less said about the drinking culture of some England players and the abysmal end to Yorkshire's season the better.

Last week's club games at Headingley did mean an unfortunate clash with an Arthington weekend where as far as I know cricket was played on both days at the delightful Wharfedale ground. Unfortunately the two previous Sunday's were rained off and the same has happened this weekend when both games are victims to the weather.

However, just up the road from Arthington yesterday a game was actually in progress at Harewood House where St George's Church were playing Cookridge Hospital in a 35 overs per side game.
Getting the short distance there proved rather an obstacle course as a serious road accident had taken place at the junction with the Leeds/Harrogate Road and the police were directing traffic. In addition a major event had taken place in the grounds of Harewood during the morning and a huge queue of cars was trying to leave.

The hardy spectators at Harewood House.

Having managed to arrive at the ground it was a relief to find a game in progress in front of a handful of hardy spectators, with the trees already showing their autumn colours. Nothing spectacular took place but it was just pleasant to sit and watch a friendly game of cricket, with nothing at stake, taking place.

Autumnal colours at Harewood.

The final cricket at Arthington is scheduled for next weekend 7/8th October and we can only hope that the weather will relent, as it usually does, for this traditional end to the season.

Houdini Hampshire survive again

posted by John Winn

So when the music stopped it was Middlesex who were left without a seat at the first division table next season. From champions yesterday they were rolled over in fairly short time at Taunton and then endured a five hour wait while the wooden spoonists tried to bowl out Hampshire. Shortly after lunch, when Hampshire lost three quick wickets, their hopes of survival must have been raised but obdurate defence from Vince and Dawson saw Hants almost to safety, safety ensured by Holland and Berg. By 5:
30 Middlesex knew they could look forward to trips to Derby, Chester le Street and Grace Road next year and could rue even more the loss of two points for a slow over rate in the match abandoned when Kennington's answer to William Tell decided to take a hand.

Not only Middlesex could look back and lament that the season had been at the mercy of such narrow margins. Yorkshire who sighed with relief as early as Monday, a sigh so deep it left them without the breath to stand up to the Essex attack on Wednesday afternoon , can look back more than three months to June and their victory by three runs over Somerset, three months in which they have won just one championship match, last week's nerve jangler against Warwickshire. On that Monday afternoon Ballance's persistence with Lyth's spin finally paid off when Jamie Overton miscued to Carver at mid wicket and the white rose men trousered 16 points. If Overton had middled that delivery Yorkshire would have lost and finished the season with 132 points thus keeping the bears company in the bottom two.

Such has been the competition to avoid relegation in the last month that all the sides involved, and third placed Surrey were not safe until last week, could probably point to some turning point, inclement weather, a bad lbw decision, five penalty points for the ball hitting the helmet,etc etc which might have gone for or against them and when two points cover four teams such events can make or mar a season. Thus Hampshire survive again, this year by two points, last year by courtesy of the ECB and in 2105 again by two points. It is nine years since they finished above sixth in Division 1.

In the second division Notts, another 'tomb raider' club, finally overcome their jitters thanks to a partnership between the retiring Chris Read and Root the younger and left Northants in third place. Leicestershire held on to the wooden spoon and Durham handicapped by a 48 point deduction could do little better. The season at The Riverside has seen its share of exciting finishes and the loss of Coughlin, Onions and Jennings has been to some extent offset by the emergence of Steel at the top of the order and in the last few weeks signs that Clark might be fulfilling his potential. The return of Will Smith, who has been kept out of the Hampshire side by Kolpaks, has amongst a small number of members I have canvassed received a lukewarm reception.

My season is not quite over but a weekend away rules out my attendance at Arthington until Saturday week at the earliest so my next posting will probably be an appropriate time to sum up my season's watching.

Dashing off to Teesdale, will caption this photo on return.

Eyes on Taunton

posted by John Winn

Listeners to Five Live Sports Extra can today follow events at Taunton where Middlesex, needing to score 250 to ensure safety , have already lost two wickets this morning.This on a pitch where of the thirteen wickets that fell yesterday, twelve were to spin and the other a run out. Wayne Noon, cricket liaison officer for this match, remember when we had pitch inspectors, made no comment last night but is expected to make some announcement at stumps today.

In the meantime I recommend you to go to cricinfo and read an excellent report on yesterday's play by George Dobell.

Those of our readers who know their Onions will be aware that he has failed to agree terms with Durham and consequently the current match at New Road will be his last for the  county that he has served since 2004 and for which just last week became its leading first class wicket taker. It is again tempting to blame the ECB's harsh punishment handed out to Durham a year ago for this departure but given that Onions is 35 and has a history of severe back problems one wonders if he would have been given the two year contract he desires even had the coffers been full.The rumour last week was that he was going to Kent, this morning's Guardian says it is Lancs. In the meantime, that phrase again, Lancs have announced the signing of Keaton Jennings on a four year contract, on recent form that must be for his bowling. This is the same Jennings who all along had been going to Notts providing they were promoted which as yet they are not. Keats' exit can be laid at Harrison's door for the contract Jennings signed a year ago had a get out clause allowing him to leave if Durham failed to win promotion this year, which given they started minus 48 was very very unlikely. And so it has proved and only Leicester have saved them from the wooden spoon which the Prince Bishops last held in 2004 when they wrenched it from Derbyshire's grasp.

Finally I note with mixed feelings that Onions has struck at New Road to remove Clarke, ct Collingwood bowled Onions, perhaps the last time that mode of dismissal will appear in Durham's records.