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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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