I have rather neglected my local club, Ouseburn CC, in recent weeks so was pleased to take the opportunity yesterday to put in a full afternoon at Lightmire Lane. Cup action here with an Atkinson Swires Senior KO (Round 2) tie, Pateley Bridge the visitors and both sides understrength, a disappointing characteristic of much Sunday cricket these days. Even the competition itself is undervalued with a number of clubs opting not to enter.
Ouseburn had usual opening bowlers, Jamie Bryant and Rus Robshaw, available but Pateley made good progress against these two and at one point were rattling along at five an over and reached 100 for the loss of only one wicket. The introduction of young Liam Blacker- Meek put the brakes on and there were wickets for Mackrill and Morrison as the screws were tightened, the run rate fell and the visitors' middle order and tail were exposed. 150 for 9 off the allotted forty overs was way below what had seemed possible and confidence among the Lightmire Balconiers was high as we enjoyed an excellent tea.
Skipper Fisher and former Goldsborough player Mackrill began the reply with a flurry of boundaries but when Fisher pulled a shot onto his wicket and Mackrill was caught behind on the leg side there was a momentary fluttering among the cognoscenti but Jones B and Bryant steadied the ship and shortly before six I felt confident enough to ring home and say that I would be about another forty minutes. A flurry of big hits, especially from Bryant made this look a very conservative estimate and by 6:15 it was all over with an 8 wicket win and 18 overs to spare.
The Quarter Finals will be on Sunday July 2nd and the draw is as follows
Darley v Helperby
Masham v Ouseburn
Studley Royals II v Knaresborough Forest
Birstwith v Blubberhouses.
Despite the non entry of eight clubs, five of the current top six in Division 1 are still represented and Masham (5th) v Ouseburn (2nd) is probably the pick of the ties.
One for roller conniseurs. This was taken at Armitage Bridge earlier this season. It was made by Pattisson's of Stanmore, Middlesex, a company established in 1896. As well as rollers they also manufactured mowers and light tractors using Ford components. One of their best known products were horse shoes to be worn by the horses pulling mowers etc. They had no better sponsor than WG Grace who believed they were 'the finest I have seen'.
No comments:
Post a Comment