Last ball finish on Boxing Day

Posted by Tony Hutton

The 69th Annual Boxing Day cricket match took place, as ever, at North Leeds cricket club, Roundhay yesterday. The home side avenged their defeat at the hands of the Northern Cricket Society twelve months ago with a last ball victory in a high scoring and competitive encounter.

Before play started the players of both sides lined up in the middle for a minute's silence in memory of Jenny Bowes, a member of the well known Bardsey cricketing family. Jenny scored for Bardsey cricket club, for whom her husband Tim and sons Andy and Steve have all played, for many years.
Tim was in attendance and Andy guested for the North Leeds side.

The weather was fine and dry, and not too cold, and the game was played on a matting wicket with a shortish boundary on one side, encouraging the hitting of sixes of which there were quite a few.
The Northern Cricket Society batted first but lost veteran Steve Lawrence early on without troubling the scorers. Steve is of course son of the famous Johnny Lawrence, county cricketer with Somerset, who supported this game for many years.

The early wicket did not seem to trouble the other batsmen who laid about them in good style and the runs came quickly. The game was played as proper cricket, with no messing about, and the only difference in the rules was that batsmen had to retire at the end of the over in which they reached 29.
They were then allowed to bat again if needed, which helped out both teams towards the end of their innings.

Another big hit has Northern captain, Andy Stoddart, hopping on one leg.

After the first two retirements, wickets fell at regular intervals but the runs kept coming and eventually the Northern Cricket Society were all out for 172 in the final 25th over of the innings.
During the morning the crowd built up nicely and the bar was doing an excellent trade, with club stalwart Steve Wales helping out serving coffee and teas as well as hot dogs and mince pies which all went down a treat.

Good to renew friendships with a lot of individuals that you normally only meet during the cricket season and we lost count of all the people we met. Reg Parker and Harold Todd were both notable players in this fixture many years ago, with Reg in his early nineties now possibly the oldest present.
One spectator who travels every year from Lancaster, Ian Cockerill, had probably travelled the furthest and was there early in pole position so that he could watch from his parked car.

Straight drive down the ground, with Ian Cockerill watching from the white car.

The North Leeds innings also got off to a good start, with the Northern Cricket Society's bowlers not really matching the performance of their batsmen. However from a position where a home victory looked to be coming very quickly, wickets began to fall and eight runs an over were required from the last three to be bowled. Skipper Andy Stoddart made a breakthrough with a wicket with the last ball of the penultimate over. With eight wickets down North Leeds were able to recall top order batsmen who had retired earlier and they were able to level the scores with one ball remaining. A drive through mid on brought an easy two runs and North Leeds were the victors by two wickets.

The not out batsmen return to the pavilion, whereas the fielders search for an unidentified drone.

The losing captain doing his Captain Mainwaring impersonation.

This was a good start for new North Leeds captain Dom Cowley who proudly took the trophy whereas his opposite number, who had predicted a crushing victory for the Northern Cricket Society, left the field looking non too pleased. No doubt he would calm down as the after match festivities continued and certainly the spectators, especially those clutching raffle prizes, will have felt it was yet another most enjoyable occasion.

Dramatic news from Wetherby via York.

posted by John Winn

I have over the years posted several times about the travails of the Wetherby league and in particular the loss of a number of its member clubs to other leagues. In September 2014 for example I described the exodus of clubs like Spofforth, Great Preston, Whixley and Old Mods and Wetherby to outfields new which at the time left the league with 31 members, 26 of which had LS postcodes. This steady trickle is to become a flood however for in its most recent newsletter the York League reports that 12 of the current membership have successfully applied to join that league from 2020. They are
Barwick, Bilton (second team)*  Church Fenton, Green Hammerton, Hillam and Monk Fryston, Kirk Hammerton, Long Marston, Rufforth, Saxton, Sicklinghall, South Milford and Wetherby(second team)*. In addition  Garforth PC are going to the Pontefract League and will have  teams in Div3 and Div 7. They already know who they will be playing and when for the fixtures were published in November.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this is that there is no mention of it on Wetherby's own website. All remaining clubs have LS postcodes and no doubt in time the league will announce how it plans to deal with the loss of near enough half of its members. In the meantime I would like to wish all our readers Season's Greetings and hope that like me they can draw comfort from the fact that the shortest day is now behind us and by mid January, in the evenings at least, we will begin to notice a difference in the length of days.


* Bilton and Wetherby already have first elevens in the York League. The movement of these clubs will increase the York league by 21 teams. Deputy CEO Steve Berry'is busy compiling the 2019 fixtures and they will be released shortly'.

2019 fixtures slowly appearing

Posted by Tony Hutton

For professional cricket watchers it is the time of year when the fixtures for next season gradually appear. For those of us who watch all conceivable forms of the game it is a difficult period. Yes we have the county championship fixtures, but there is far more too it than that. It always rather baffles me why it takes so long, without wishing to criticise the excellent work done by many league officials and volunteers who give their time without charge.

York cricket club will host county championship cricket for the first time in June.

The benchmark seems to be set by the Derbyshire County League, which is able to produce full league fixtures for fifteen or so divisions every year before the end of October. Wonderful, but not really challenged anywhere else. However the last few days have brought riches indeed with the appearance of Yorkshire's second eleven fixtures (yet again first in their field), the national under 17s county fixtures and the national over 50's county fixtures on their respective play-cricket sites.

More locally the Aire-Wharfe League and the Bradford League have both gone to press recently. One major problem relates to the Minor Counties or Unicorns as they now prefer to be called. Their fixtures emerge as if from a slow dripping tap with about five counties details appearing over the past month or so. The latest yesterday was Suffolk on Twitter which revealed the welcome news that they will play a three day championship game at Sedbergh School (which missed out last season) against Cumberland from 18-20 August.

                                Sedbergh School.

Good news indeed you might think, but get round to checking the county championship fixtures and you find that not only are Yorkshire at Scarborough, but Lancashire are playing Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay. So two fixtures which a lot of Cumberland followers from both sides of the Pennines will want to attend. In addition Durham are playing at Riverside, so all in all the delights of Sedbergh may only be shared by a relative few, of which I hope to be one, at least for two days.

The Yorkshire second eleven fixtures also throw up the usual anomalies with the seconds at home at the same time as the first team on a few occasions, but we are used to that and can manage an alternative day system. More good news is the return of a three day championship game at Stamford Bridge, a club which always makes spectators welcome as well as offering a plethora of prizes on their remarkable tombola stall. Here's hoping for good weather for that (15-17 July). Sadly no sign of Todmorden returning to the second eleven fold, we can only hope that Lancashire might play a game there.

Full second eleven fixtures did not appear until the third week of January last year, by which time we hope that the Yorkshire League North fixtures, which feature not only the Yorkshire Academy but important local clubs like Harrogate and York as well, will arrive. Sadly I feel they are delayed due to the administration and website being shared with the York and District Senior League. This is another competition with endless divisions, enlarged in the coming season with the advent of many new teams from the Wetherby League.

However patience is the name of the game and although we bemoan the fact that first class county cricket as we know it may well be on the way out in future years, there is still an awful lot of cricket to be played at all levels which should satisfy the most insatiable addicts for a long time to come.

Four cricket speakers in a week

Posted by Tony Hutton

Cricket speakers seems to be the theme this week with Paul Nixon of Leicestershire at the Northern Cricket Society lunch last week. Then three in a row with Yorkshire county cricket club's Supporters Association AGM at Headingley on Sunday, followed by an excellent talk from Guy Williams, a sporting journalist who contributes regularly to the Cricket Paper.

On Monday evening we had Moeen Ali, freshly returned from Sri Lanka, talking at an Ilkley Literature Festival event, held at the Grammar School at Leeds and on Tuesday evening back to Headingley for a Northern Cricket Society meeting. This was addressed by John Sadler, assistant coach at Leicestershire, standing in for Alan Fordham of the ECB who was apparently double booked.

So a varied collection one might say, but all full of interest nevertheless, with a good turnout of cricket enthusiasts on each occasion, the biggest attendance quite naturally for current Test star Moeen Ali.

                                Paul Nixon (picture by Mike Sewell)


Paul Nixon is still as enthusiastic as ever in his newish role of Chief Coach at Leicestershire. He took us through his up and down career from being a young lad from the Lake District, being born in Langwathby, Cumbria and first playing cricket at Edenhall cricket club, not far from Penrith. He joined Leicestershire in 1989 and shared in considerable success with two county championship wins under the captaincy of James Whittaker, who he was going to see after the lunch.

He left Leicester briefly for two seasons with Kent from 2000 enjoying his time there playing together with people like Rahul Dravid, the Indian Test player, who he rates as probably the best batsman he has ever seen, who even used to practice in the nets on his days off. However following his return to Leicester in 2003 his career really took off with the advent of T20 which the county won twice and then very much the highlight when he was eventually selected for England at the rather advanced age of 36 to play in one day internationals in Australia.

Sunday afternoon with Guy Williams, someone new to me, proved very interesting with his thoughts on Yorkshire cricket, pulling no punches on the loss of Jack Brooks and wondering how Yorkshire were going to replace him. He shared the view of many in the audience about the signing of unproven players from other counties on three year contracts. However the most interesting parts of his speech were about his time as a journalist with Yorkshire TV.

He had tried to get Don Bradman to come to England many years ago to help with a programme on the history of Headingley Test cricket in which the 'Don' had played a major part during the 1930s and 1940s. Sadly he was unable to attend but wrote Guy Williams a wonderful letter which he has framed and passed around the audience. However he did manage to put together a programme with Bill Bowes and Harold Larwood, together with Dickie Bird which went down well, even after an over enthusiastic doorman at YTV told Harold Larwood on arrival that he thought he was dead!

Mr Williams also did an article for the sadly missed retro cricket magazine, Backspin, picking the best ever Yorkshire XI with Brian Close and Raymond Illingworth. There was some controversy at the omission of Geoff Boycott, but how could he get in with Hutton and Sutcliffe to open. Close of course picked himself, but the greatest omission seemed to be that of Wilfred Rhodes, surely the greatest Yorkshireman of them all. However the two Yorkshire veterans thought Hedley Verity the better choice. Some comment from the audience on the selection of Philip Sharpe at number three, but apparently his slip catching ability was the deciding factor.

Monday night was cold and frosty and it must have been a shock for Moeen Ali, just back from the heat and humidity of Sri Lanka. He was promoting the sale of his new book, which appears rather more interesting than most cricketing autobiographies, charting as it does his rise from playing street cricket in the Birmingham suburbs, to county and Test cricket.

                                 

                           Moeen Ali at the Grammar School at Leeds (picture - Daily Telegraph)

Moeen has obviously come a long way in recent seasons both as a player and as a person, who explained how he questioned the Muslim faith in his teenage years but became reconciled after asking many questions of people he met. He spoke very frankly of the England team set up and feels that in the recent series Joe Root has finally established himself as a captain and leader. Obviously he was very pleased with the success of the spinning trio of himself, Adil Rashid and Jack Leech and explained how he was the 'captain' of this team within a team.

Interestingly he spoke very highly of Stokes as a person who has been greatly misunderstood and, despite his misdemeanours, is probably Moeen's best friend in the squad, along with Adil Rashid.
He also thought highly of Johnny Bairstow as a sympathetic individual who should continue as number three and feels that the squad are on the verge of great things if they can solve the opening batsmen problem.

Finally on Tuesday evening we had John Sadler at the Northern Cricket Society. A Yorkshireman born and bred, he worked his way through the Yorkshire schools set up to Yorkshire second eleven level, but shortly after winning his second XI cap he was sacked, with no apparent explanation. However he bounced back to find a first class career with Leicestershire and Derbyshire as a batsman.

                                                                 John Sadler

He then entered the rather complex world of cricket coaching and spoke very openly and honestly about the ups and down of his journey so far. He outlined his philosophy of man management which is basically looking people in the eye and telling them the truth. Obviously the hardest part of any coach's job is having to tell players they are surplus to requirements and his own experiences have helped him in this.

He is currently studying for a Master's degree in Sports Management, something Mark Chilton of Lancashire has already achieved. He put us in the picture of the politics of county cricket and explained how coaches are often put under pressure by boards of directors or senior management who are often not true cricket people.

Now he is part of the coaching team at Leicester working together with Paul Nixon, our first speaker of the week. One feels that they will do well with Nixon's enthusiasm being complemented by Sadler's common sense and straightforward approach. Good luck to them both.

A good day for Noel and Lenny at Barney

In my last posting I mentioned my use of The Teesdale Mercury archive for research into cricket in the Eggleston/Romaldkirk area of that dale and, as is often the case when looking for one thing one comes across another which diverts attention away from the original topic. The scorecard above is from the weekly paper in July 1926 and records a tied match between my father's old club, Haughton le Skerne, and Barnard Castle. More than 90 years on the two clubs are still in rude health with 'Barney' champions of the ECB Premier NYSD and Haughton champions of the Darlington and District League. Some distance apart in the pyramid today but between the wars friendly matches between the two were regular events. Few if any could have been as close as this. 

There is of course family interest in the card for me with my father N (Noel) Winn taking four wickets for Haughton who were captained by his oldest brother R(Roland) Winn. Sadly the card does not show the fall of wickets but it looks as though Haughton fell away after a decent start and that for Barnard Castle a good stand between their last pair brought them within one run of victory. It would be nice to think that my dad castled TP Hutchinson to bring about the tie. Nobody alive today to tell the full story of course but H(Horace) Marshall lived to be almost 100 and a nice touch is that I bumped into his son John, himself a former cricketer, just last week at an event in the village in connection with armistice commemoration. 

Family connections aside  some other names on the Haughton card are familiar to me and from a cricketing point of view the most memorable is that of L Alsop, Lenny as he was known was born near Richmond in 1905, so he was 21 at this time, and his family moved to Haughton in 1910. I am 'friends' on Facebook with two of his nieces. The late Bob Hattersley's history of Darlington CC records that Lenny went to play at Feethams in 1925 but this card shows he had not severed all connection with his village club a year later. He did go on to have a 67 year association with the town club scoring 726 A Division NYSD runs and 2046 in second XI cricket. He was President from 1981 to 1983. He does have one other claim to sporting fame for he played one match for Darlington FC, the mighty Quakers. On December 15th 1930 he sported the famous hoops at Peel Park Accrington in front of 1175 spectators, most of whom probably went home to enjoy their tea happy that Stanley had won 2/1. Both teams finished mid table but Nelson who finished bottom failed in their bid for re-election and were replaced by Chester.

This photograph can also be linked to the game featured on the card. The imposing figure holding the bat is Thomas Calow, village schoolmaster, and father of Roy who had a good day with three wickets and two catches. Roy died tragically young for having gone to Blackpool for the weekend when aged about 30 he contracted a throat infection and died shortly afterwards. He is buried with his mother and father in Darlington's West Cemetery. The smartly dressed scorer is my Uncle Roland, captain in 1926 and aged about 14 on this picture, the man on the grass is my grandfather, another John Winn. Not too far fetched to think that he and Mr Calow watched their sons play in this tied match.

Fixtures for county cricket in 2019 are to be published on Tuesday. Championship and One Day matches in the morning and T20 in the evening.. Having tweeted that my first point of interest would be the date of Yorkshire's fist championship match at Headingley on reflection I have amended that, in my mind at least, to the venues of championship matches which will not be played at HQ. Clifton Park,York is strongly fancied which would be tickety-boo for me. 

Cricket at Roundhay Park, Leeds.

Posted by Tony Hutton

The first cricket I ever saw was during the Second World War when my grandfather used to take me regularly to Roundhay Park, Leeds for Sunday afternoon charity games arranged by a well known Leeds business man - Jack Appleyard. He somehow managed to produce amazingly talented sides of not only local league players, but County and Test players too. Jack Appleyard's XI ran from 1941 to 1958 playing games for local charities not only on Sundays at Roundhay, but mid-week games as well at a variety of local club grounds in the Leeds area.

The Roundhay Oval is still regularly used for local league cricket and is situated in a natural bowl with huge grassy banks which were known to have accommodated crowds of over 100,000 for the famous Leeds Children's Days and military tattoos. Much earlier in it's existence, before World War One in fact, it had been suggested as the venue for F.A. Cup finals, but lost out to Crystal Palace some time before the building of Wembley Stadium.

One of the earliest games I can actually remember was the 1943 Leeds League's Hepworth Cup Final between Kirkstall Educational and Lofthouse. This was reported to have attracted a crowd of 22,000 which was believed to be the highest crowd for a league cricket match in this country beating the previous figure of 14,179 at the Bradford League's Priestley Cup Final of 1921 at Park Avenue, Bradford.

The reason I can still remember this game is that my uncle Geoff Stones, plus three of his brothers and a brother in law, was a member of the winning Kirkstall team. My proudest moment (as a six year old) came when he was fielding on the third man boundary and actually spoke to me as I followed him round the boundary edge.

The following year, 3rd September, 1944, saw probably the greatest assembly of cricketing talent to ever appear at Roundhay. This was the Hedley Verity memorial match following the wartime death of the great Yorkshire and England left arm spin bowler in Italy. Among the England greats were Wally Hammond, still captain of England after the war, Len Hutton, Herbert Sutcliffe, Maurice Leyland, Arthur Wood, Eddie Paynter and George Duckworth. The umpires were two Yorkshire legends, Wilfred Rhodes and Emmott Robinson. Sadly the game was abandoned when rain interrupted proceedings but not before Len Hutton had scored 82.

On the 21st July, 1946 a match was played in aid of Yorkshire veteran Wilf Barber's testimonial. Press reports suggest that there were 60,000 people present and a collection for Barber amounted to £400, a substantial amount in those days. Appleyard's XI captained by Wally Hammond took on Brian Sellars' XI in this match. 'Tiddly Push' as Barber was affectionately known was honoured to be part of a wonderful squad which read. Sellars, Barber, Hutton, Leyland, Wood, Smailes, Turner, Robinson, Beaumont, Watson, Coxon, Wardle and Halliday.

However, Appleyard's XI won the game with a brilliant display of hitting from Lancashire's Eddie Paynter, who scored 82, including six sixes and seven fours. This may have been the innings which perpetuated an urban myth that Paynter once hit a ball into the lake at Roundhay, which would have been a prodigious distance. I cannot remember who first told me this story, but it has never been verified. I have several times walked the route the ball must have taken and all I can surmise was that Paynter, a left hander, was batting at the Lake end and hooked the ball over fine leg. It must have then gone onto the wide footpath at the top right of the picture at the top of this article and rolled down the hill, alongside the then boathouse and slowly dropped into the very corner of the lake. That's my version for what it's worth.

The period after the end of the war often saw visiting county sides appearing during their Sundays off during three day Championship games, long before the advent of the Sunday League. One little known fact is that Brian Close actually played one match for Nottinghamshire at Rounday, when they were one man short, and Close who had just started playing for Yeadon in the Bradford League was quick to volunteer.

That same season, 1948, Mr Appleyard tried very hard to get the all conquering Australians to appear at Roundhay on the Sunday of the Headingley Test. For once he failed, but he might have drawn an even bigger crowd than the record ever attendance at Headingley. The Roundhay regulars had to make do with with a relatively low scoring game with Hammond's XI, when the great man made only five runs.

The last game I attended was in 1949, shortly before my family moved to the Midlands, when Jack Appleyard's XI played Dick Howarth's Worcestershire XI, which was the full Worcester county side plus another young Yorkshire Colt in Eric Fisk. Amazingly I still have the match programme, printed on very thin paper. Although rather fragile now, I can reproduce it below.

The star-studded home side was typical of the players who appeared regularly, with such well known county men as Eddie Paynter, Arthur Wood and Horace Fisher. The three great West Indians, Weekes, Worrell and Holt and the Australian Cec Pepper were the icing on the cake, performing as they did in those days in the Lancashire League. Weekes and Worrell would dominate proceedings at Test level the following season when the West Indies toured England, along with those two little pals of mine, Ramadhin and Valentine.

Years later I managed to find the scores of this match, plus many others from the Yorkshire Post archive in Leeds Central Library. Worcester batted first and I remember the fair haired Yorkshireman George Dews, top scoring with 52. I later saw him playing league football for both Plymouth Argyle and Walsall. Worcester scored 232-8 declared, but Appleyard's XI with some assistance from the great Frank Worrell, who made a century in just over an hour, coasted to victory with 233-8. Not a bad afternoon's entertainment.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s things came full circle for me as my office side played home matches on the Roundhay Oval in the Bradford Business evening league against some very strong Building Society, Insurance Company and Banks sides, often reinforced by several 'ringers'. I was delighted to play on the sacred turf when most of my team mates had no idea of the history of the place.

In recent years the pavilion has been rebuilt with appropriate security screens to repel the threat of vandalism and it is good to see cricket continuing at this historic venue which brings back so many great memories.

More work to be done

posted by John Winn

In 2014 I posted this picture of a disused cricket pavilion and posed the question 'Who played here?' In very little time it was established that it had been the home of Eggleston CC, now defunct but members of The Darlington and District League from 1975 to 1998. Eggleston lies just north of The River Tees and the path shown on the photograph forms part of the Teesdale Way . Just a mile away is the village of Romaldkirk, south of the river and therefore historically part of the North Riding but since 1974 for administrative purposes at least considered part of County Durham.

My wife and I are frequent visitors to this part of the world, staying in Romaldkirk, where we found reference to a cricket team which had played under that name but with no indication as to where. For some time now I have been a member of a Facebook group 'Upper Teesdale Old Photos and Memorabilia' and last month I posted the photo of the pavilion on the group's page and invited members to comment. I was delighted to receive other thirty replies and it is on these that I have based this posting with particular thanks to Micheal Blenkinsopp, James Dykes, David Bainbridge and Carolyn Proud for their lengthy and helpful replies.

The ground was known as The Haughs and the area  still goes by that name. Michael played there briefly for Romaldkirk in the early sixties and recalls an annual festival game between Romaldkirk and Sir William Gray's XI. Sir William, owner of Gray's Shipping Yard in Hartlepool was at that time owner of the nearby Eggleston Hall. Michael describes how 'a big marquee would be erected on the field and lots of food and drink would be joyously consumed after the game.' Romaldkirk CC, like many village clubs, seems to have been a family affair for in the 1950s Michael's father John and his two brothers Geoff and Stan would play alongside maternal grandfather Wilf in the same team. Bainbridge is a very common name in the area and a distant relative of mine Jane Bainbridge was born in Mickleton in 1848 but ended up living in my home village near Darlington towards the end of the nineteenth century. 

Sir William was an MCC member and a keen cricketer himself. James Dykes, who confirmed that Eggleston CC did play league cricket between the dates mentioned, tells how an earlier club of the same name folded in 1959.  A pavilion built in 1930 used materials from the shipyard and The Teesdale Mercury, a weekly newspaper which still gives local cricket good coverage, reported on the opening of the pavilion by Lady Gray. At some point the club was restarted by permission of Sir William and the initiative of Bob Trotter.

David Bainbridge was a teenager in the late 40s and says 'I well remember the pavilion and many players at that time. To the front was an area fenced about twice the size of the pavilion where the team and spectators sat together while Hugh Adamson entered the score book and (I) occasionally helped him. Round the back was the very basic toilet for men, what the females did is questionable. Our umpire was Joe Moore senior who was the plumber on the Eggleston Estate. He could be relied on for a good result. His son Joe was a formidable fast bowler from a very short run. Other players were Stan Bainbridge, Herbert Tarn, both good with bat and ball. George Coates also. He was a tall strong man and I recall him with a rope over his shoulders pulling in the shafts with us youths pushing the heavy horse drawn roller. Among the young players were Clifford and Cecil Walton and Ken Black all top class players. Ken still lives locally.'

I spent time looking at the archive of The Mercury which has reference to cricket being played in the area as early as 1856 (thanks to Carolyn Proud for that) but feel that more work needs to be done on the history of both these clubs. I have promised to put the address for the blog on Facebook so that this posting can be more widely read, the group has some 1500 members and I hope that this might elicit further comments. 

Triple century - once in a lifetime.

Posted by Tony Hutton

During my long cricket watching career I have only seen one triple century. This was scored by the New Zealand Test batsman Ken Rutherford during the Scarborough cricket festival of 1986. As was then the custom the touring side played their last match of the season at Scarborough and for many years the opposition was a high class side of Test players forming H.D.G. Leveson-Gower's XI or T.N. Pearce's XI. The games were often given the label of a sixth Test Match.

Celebrity spectators at Scarborough - Norman Yardley, former Yorkshire and England captain and Ray Lindwall and Neil Harvey who were both members of the famous 1948 Australians.

By 1986 standards were not quite the same and D.B. Close's XI, led by the former Yorkshire captain who by then was into his mid-fifties, was somewhat below the quality of the immediate post-war period. However some critics have questioned the value of Rutherford's innings suggesting the opposition was a hotch potch of league cricketers and others past their best. This was not quite the case as Close's team contained no less than eight Test cricketers.

Brian Close and Bob Taylor lead the home side out.

Of the other three Franklyn Stephenson, although never picked to play Test cricket by the West Indies after going on a 'rebel' tour to South Africa, was an outstanding county cricketer, particularly during his time with Nottinghamshire when he became one of Wisden's five cricketers of the year and was the last player to achieve the double of a thousand runs and a hundred wickets in a season.
Although the other two had played first class cricket, they had only played league cricket in England.
Mark Harper from Guyana was the brother of West Indian Test player Roger Harper and Rod Estwick, a quick bowler from Barbados, who had been professional at Bradford Park Avenue and Todmorden, was the half brother of Sylvester Clarke of Surrey.

So not really a bad side and when you see that Rod Estwick dismissed opener Edgar for one, Martin Crowe for one and skipper Jeremy Coney for a duck, New Zealand were struggling somewhat at 113-4 before Rutherford, partnered by Evan Gray turned things round with a vengeance. The two of them put on a partnership of 319 with Rutherford very much the dominant partner. He was in fact the next man out scoring 317 from only 245 balls, which included forty five fours and eight sixes.  Gray made only a modest 88, but was happy to give Rutheford the strike at every opportunity.

Rutherford and Gray come out again after lunch.

New Zealand eventually declared on 519-7, made in only 94 overs, in reply to Close's XI's score of 257 all out, of which Boycott made 81 and Javed Miandad 41. The bowling figures were obviously nothing to write home about, Estwick the best with 3-95, but Stephenson only 1-90, Chris Old 0-46 from only eight overs, and Dilip Doshi, the Indian slow left armer 1-142. Doshi, who played county cricket with Warwickshire went for four sixes in one over.

A first for the Scarborough scoreboard - 300 up.

Close's side managed to salvage a draw by batting through the last day for a very comfortable total of 358-5, notably from the two Pakistanis - Sadiq Mohammed with 77 and Javed Miandad with 102 not out. Harper made 55 and Collis King, the West Indian, 48 before being run out by the much younger Miandad. Bob Taylor of Derbyshire and England kept wicket for Close's team but did not have a lot to do as very few balls went past the bat.

                                                        Ken Rutherford

For the record Rutherford's innings was the fifth fastest triple century of all time and the second fastest ever in England, bettered only by the Australian McCartney against Notts in 1921. It was also the highest ever innings at Scarborough, beating Jack Hobbs 266 in 1925.

Yorkshire cricket - past seems better than present.

Posted by Tony Hutton

When you reach my advanced age living in the past often seems better than the present and this is certainly the case where Yorkshire cricket is concerned. Sunday afternoon saw an excellent presentation by Brian Sanderson at the Yorkshire Supporters Association meeting in the Long Room at Headingley. Brian had brought some very interesting items of memorabilia with him and talked at length about Edmund Peate, Billy Bates, F.S. Jackson and Len Hutton.

All four had outstanding cricket careers and were brought to life by Brian's admirable research and items such as Len Hutton's bat used in his record Test innings of 364 in 1938, supported by some very interesting archive photographs. Peate came from Yeadon, Bates from Lascelles Hall, Jackson was born in Chapel Allerton, Leeds and Hutton of course in Fulneck, Pudsey.

Unlike Hutton's old house which has a blue plaque on it, Jackson's house is tucked away and therefore has no access for people to see a plaque if there was one. Similarly Peate, although buried in Yeadon has no marked grave. A fascinating afternoon and a good start to the winter season of cricket speakers. Next on the agenda is historian Jeremy Lonsdale, author of an excellent book on the origins of Yorkshire cricket.

He will be speaking on this subject at Leeds Central Library (3rd Floor) on Wednesday 31st October at 1p.m. admission free. The next Northern Cricket Society meeting is on Tuesday 6th November in the Long Room at Headingley at 7.45 p.m. when Nick Cook, former left arm spinner and first class umpire will be the speaker.

Returning to the theme of Yorkshire cricket in the present, former players Alex Lees and Liam Plunkett have both got married recently. Johnny Bairstow has injured his ankle playing football in Sri Lanka (no surprise there) and is out of action for a while. Josh Shaw had been given an excellent recommendation by none other than Waqar Younis of Pakistan and tucked away at the end of this article on the Yorkshire website was the bald statement that James Wainman has left the club.

This is another very sad state of affairs for a young man who progressed through all the Yorkshire age group sides to the Academy and Second Eleven, but despite a few one day games was never given a chance by Yorkshire in proper first team cricket. He deserved a far better opportunity to prove his worth and it is sad to see him go, especially considering the signing of other county's rejects.

Down to the last over at Castle Park

posted by John Winn

By the summer of 1991 I had got the bit well between my teeth in pursuit of membership of the 153 club and towards the end of August in that summer I took in three matches in three days starting on the 20th with my first trip to Edgbaston where Warwickshire entertained Glamorgan. Solid batting all the way down the order saw the hosts reach 358 for 8, skipper Andy Lloyd top scorer with 86, before declaring in time to see the back of Glamorgan opener Steve James by the close. Warwickshire with an attack including Alan Donald finished runners up to Essex that year. A slow pitch ensured this game ended in a draw.

Next day it was over to the East Midlands and a trip to  Derby where Derbyshire faced Leicestershire. Just in time as it happened for by close of play on what was the second day it was all over with the visitors winning by an innings and 131. To quote Wisden 'Leicestershire, and Millns in particular took control on a green pitch....Millns, bowling fast to an excellent length made marvellously effective use of the conditions to take 9 for 37 the best return in England since D.L. Underwood's 9 for 32 at The Oval v Surrey in 1978.'

On the day I was there The Foxes built on their overnight 160 for 5 to make 392, a lead of 275. Top scorer  was Peter Whitticase with 93. Derbyshire were soon in trouble again with Millns picking up another three and he received good support from Australian Craig Wilkinson. Derbyshire who included Barnett, Adams, Azharuddin and Cork in their team fared only marginally better than in their first innings and were all out for 144.  Given that result it is perhaps surprising that at the end of the season Derbyshire finished third and Leicestershire second bottom. Lots of runs for Azharuddin, Morris, Barnett and Bowler and wickets for Mortensen, Cork and Malcolm helped The Peakites to their best position since 1954. Some of our Yorkshire readers (and Derbyshire) may recall their victory over Yorkshire at Chesterfield in the last match of the season. Whilst perhaps not too happy to be reminded of the result an unbeaten century by Simon Kellett may bring back a warm glow.

And so next morning an early start from my in-laws' home in Tideswell and a long drive to Colchester for my first appearance at Castle Park for the third day of three. What a day, lovely sunshine and one of those rare occasions when all four results were possible when Phil Carrick, for Yorkshire were the visitors, started the last over. Those there on the first day had seen another double hundred for Moxon, 200 not out at stumps when Yorkshire were 363 for4, support from Kellett and Blakey, and Moxon's score eclipsed the previous highest by a Yorkshire man at Castle Park, 156 by Sir Leonard in 1950.

Yorkshire added another 70 or so on the second morning but Stephenson and Prichard each got centuries in reply before skipper Neil Foster declared and I was lucky enough on the third morning to see another lovely innings by Moxon before a third declaration left Essex to get 319 from 68 overs, a more formidable target then than it would seem now. At 293 for 5, Stephenson falling just 3 short of his second hundred, it looked like Essex's game and I thought about leaving to make the tortuous journey back to my then home in East Sussex. What convinced me to stay, I remember not, but to this day I am glad I did not for the champions elect lost their last five for 22 and fell four short of their target. The wickets were shared equally, four apiece, between Carrick and Batty (J), but it was Carrick who took the last wicket with four balls to spare and make my journey home seemed much less tortuous.

I did return to Castle Park for in 1999 Peter Sixsmith and I based ourselves in accommodation at The University of Essex in anticipation of seeing a couple of days action with Durham the visitors. Alas the two days we had set aside were washed out and our very scant consolation was watching Colchester FC reserves take on their Brighton counterparts at Layer Road. Essex continued to play regularly at Castle park until 2016 but have not played championship cricket there for the last two seasons.

Saffron Spice

posted by John Winn

Living as I did for almost 30 years within a thirty minute drive of Eastbourne I was a regular visitor to The Saffrons  ground where Sussex had first played first class cricket in the late nineteenth century. Its unusual name derives from its use at one time for growing saffron, a spice derived from the crocus flower and which apart from its culinary use was also grown for dyeing and medicinal purposes.

A match that I particularly remember from those days, not least because it was played in 'wilting heat' as Wisden described it', saw Yorkshire as visitors in the championship in August 1990. Only one division in those days and three day matches .Sussex were strugglers at that time, they finished bottom of the table for the second time in four years and while Yorkshire rose from 16th to 10th a few months later the committee voted to relax the 'Yorkshire born' policy. Sussex had played Warwickshire in the first championship  game of 'the week' and lost by six wickets while Yorkshire had travelled down from Leeds on the Tuesday evening having been rescued from defeat in the roses match by a century from Ashley Metcalfe which left Lancashire needing 148 in 13 overs, a task in which they fell short by only 15 runs with three wickets in hand.

After the rigours of the previous evening's journey Yorkshire must have been pleased that skipper Moxon won the toss and even more so when he made an undefeated 213, the highest individual score for the county since Boycott had made 233 against Essex in 1971. Receiving good assistance from Metcalfe, Sharp and Robinson Moxon declared on 400 for 3 shortly before stumps on the first day. This left time for Sussex to be bowled out twice, nine wickets for Phil Carrick, six for Paul Jarvis. Sussex had needed to bat out the final day to escape defeat but once a good opening partnership between David Smith and Jamie Hall was broken  there was little resistance apart from 53 from Martin Speight. I remember being there on the last afternoon and thinking how pleased Yorkshire would be to get an early start on the notoriously poor East Sussex roads as they were due to play Essex at Middlesbrough the following day.

The defeat rounded off a poor week for Sussex for they had also lost their Sunday league match with Warwickshire by just two runs. Their batting averages that season were headed by Neil Lenham and Paul Parker, neither of whom played against Yorkshire. They were captained by Colin Wells, brother Alan top scored in the first innings. Peter Moores was wicketkeeper. Richard Blakey was behind the timbers for Yorkshire and he took nine catches in the match.

Things improved for Sussex in 1991 for under the captaincy of Parker in his last season before leaving for Durham they finished 11th. For Yorkshire however the reverse gear was selected and they slipped from 10th to 14th. A highlight of that season for me was being present when they won a nail biter at Castle Park Colchester against Essex. More of which in a future posting.

The Saffrons

Damp end to the cricket season

Posted by Tony Hutton

As it looks as if the Arthington Festival is coming to a damp and dismal end I can perhaps look back on some of the memorable moments of 127 days of cricket watching this summer. It was all a bit of an anti-climax last weekend when visitors King James' of Bishop Auckland called off early in the week due to that bane of cricket clubs everywhere - 'a stag do'.

So last Sunday we saw Arthington play a Stephanie Hewitt Memorial XI in memory of a young lady who unfortunately died at an early age. It got distinctly cooler as the afternoon progressed with nothing very special to report and we decided to leave between innings with the hope of more cricket to come this weekend but the weather had the final word.

Arthington scored a very reasonable 220-7 with a few batsman reaching 30 but no further. Andrew Stoddart, bowling in his cap, had an impressive economical bowling performance with figures of
8-3-19-1, but the afternoon felt something like going through the motions in front of the hardy band of spectators.

In reply the visitors rather fell apart after being 14-3, despite a fine innings of 38 from Asif Iqbal (a famous name) they slumped to 106 all out. Wickets were equally shared with three for Tom Conboy, two for Andy Conboy and two from Adam Pothecary. However the magic moment arrived right at the end of proceedings when Pothecary junior (young Adam) got a wicket by having the last man, Richard Wright, stumped.

The season started somewhat late due to the wet weather in April and the first championship match was Durham v Kent at Riverside, when the New Zealand Henry got twelve wickets to give Kent an easy victory. Then there were lots of runs in the Leeds/Bradford University season at Weetwood.
May brought us eighteen consecutive days of cricket, ending with a long awaited return to Hartlepool, before setting off on a tour of the Midlands.

Hartlepool cricket club.

A few new grounds to add to the list, as we visited Kenilworth Wardens, Hagley, Himley, Barnt Green, Lutterworth and Edgbaston in wonderful weather. A few impressive displays by Yorkshire Ladies at Harrogate took us into June with another Durham victory, coming back from the dead against Derbyshire. Late June saw good days out at Belper Meadows and Sedbergh School (always a delight).

Hagley Hall, Worcestershire.

We were then off on another trip this time to Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire for league and Minor Counties cricket, making the most of the continuing sunshine. Into July with a memorable trip to the north east to see Yorkshire over 60s at Shotley Bridge and the over 50s at Darlington on successive days. Then a look at the talent of the future with England under 19s at both Scarborough and Riverside.

Burghley Park, Near Stamford, Lincolnshire.

Late in July another Minor Counties game at Barrow, with lots of league cricket in Cumbria on the way there. Then it was into the Under 17s season, where Yorkshire excelled winning the trophy in the end with fine performances from skipper James Wharton. Throughout all this we were regularly watching the Yorkshire Academy on Saturdays where Wharton, George Hill and Tom Loten were consistently among the runs.

Yorkshire humiliated at Scarborough.

August brought more good performances from all Yorkshire's age group sides, only marred by the Yorkshire first eleven's dismal showing at Scarborough where Worcestershire really took them to the cleaners. They redeemed themselves somewhat in September by winning the Roses match at Headingley, but the highlight was really Durham's victory over Sussex when Chris Rushworth's bowling in both innings won them the match.

Cricket at the Riverside.

The Yorkshire Champions Trophy Final at Headingley proved to be a non-event, but then after a farewell to Paul Collingwood against Middlesex at Riverside, it was off to Arthington with five matches only due to the weather, but memorable as always.

So no more cricket to report on until Boxing Day at North Leeds, but John and I will try to find a few memorable moments from the past, or even some predictions for the future, to keep you entertained during the long winter months ahead.

Arthington Festival continues

Posted by Tony Hutton

Since my recent blog on the first game of the Festival, cricket has been coming thick and fast and helped by some very reasonable weather the regulars, and a few visitors from far and wide, have enjoyed the special end of season atmosphere.

Sunday 23rd September saw the visit of Halifax Nomads, of which little is known as they do not have a website and the club history published some years ago seems to be no longer available. However they had a few useful performers, one of whom Nigel Ling made top score of 58 putting on a good partnership with opener Kevin McGuiness who made 48.

The varied Arthington attack stuck to the task well with five bowlers, including veteran Dennis Nash, each taking one wicket and restricting the Nomads to 174-5 in their forty overs. Despite an accurate opening spell by Simon Mace for the visitors, Arthington cruised to a comfortable victory following a century opening partnership between Andrew Stoddart and Kamrosh Khan. Stoddart played the sheet anchor role for once and remained 65 not out at the end, whereas Khan was a little more adventurous and hit eight fours and three sixes in his innings of 60.

Two veteran cricket watchers in the background - picture by Mike Latham.

Arthington won by eight wickets with five overs to spare, but the following Saturday 29th September they were put to the sword by a strong Hawks team with a sprinkling of well known Aire Wharfe League players, as well as one of the top Bradford league performers in Charlie Parker of Pudsey St Lawrence. However another Parker destroyed the early Arthington batting taking 3-18 and reducing the home side to 46-5 at one stage. Joe Nash, the Arthington skipper stopped the rot with 29 but it was left to an eighth wicket stand of 60 runs to give the score some respectability.

Simon Mace (33 not out) and Adam Pothecary (30 not out) helped themselves to some more rather friendly bowling at the end of the innings. A shame that Pothecary's young son, Owen, who had been padded up for a long time, never got a bat, but no doubt his turn will come soon. Among the spectators today was Dave Lewis who used to bring his now defunct Doghouse side on regular visits to Arthington.

What followed could be described as total carnage, as the Arthington bowlers were put to the sword in no uncertain manner by Tom Lester and Charlie Parker. Sixes and fours flowed in all directions, many into the adjoining garden. Parker offered to retire when he reached fifty but his colleagues apparently told him to carry on. He was finally bowled to the delight of Andrew Stoddart, the only bowler to take a wicket, for 69 with seven fours and five sixes.

Charlie Parker offers to retire - but no takers.

Tom Lester also carried on regardless, hitting another five sixes and eleven fours in an innings of 85 not our. The Hawks winning this very one sided contest in only the sixteenth over. Fortunately in view of the early finish another match was in progress just up the road in the grounds of Harewood House, where St Georges Church were playing Cookridge Hospital. Two travelling professional cricket watchers from Lancashire were in situ, Mike Latham, who had also visited Arthington and Ian Cockerill.

Tom Lester finishes the match with another huge six.

Arthington photo by Mike Latham.

Harewood House photo by Mike Latham.

Sunday 30th September brought more 'foreign' visitors in the shape of our Hartlepool correspondent, Mike Taylerson and non other than Tony Day, aka 'Jesus', a very rare appearance after many years of absence. He hadn't changed a bit and was horrified to learn that my partner had stayed at home to watch the Ryder Cup golf on TV. Arthington were playing the Druids and managed to bowl them out for 129 with the help of South African guest star  James Van der Merwe, who took three wickets.

Dougie Jones also had three wickets and informed us that his father, Grand Master Rupert Jones, was out of the country playing chess for Papua New Guinea in Georgia, the Russian version rather than USA. Amazing what you learn at an end of season cricket match. Yet again we had an early finish with this time Arthington Knocking off the runs after being 9-3 mainly due to Van der Merwe with a quickfire 75 not out. Arthington winning by five wickets.

Hopefully today's scheduled game with Andy Stoddart's Mutineers will go ahead despite light morning rain and tomorrow we should see Kings James' XI from Bishop Auckland in action. The final weekend of the season sees games on Saturday and Sunday again 13th/14th October.

More about Betty

posted by John Winn

In July I reported on a visit to Colwall Cricket Club in Herefordshire and was attracted by this plaque on the club pavilion. At the time I promised there would be more about Betty and here it is. To any fans of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, I can only apologise for any disappointment.

Elizabeth Alexandra Snowball was born in Burnley in 1908 and played cricket for England and squash and lacrosse for Scotland, The Scottish connection came through her father, a doctor and Betty was educated in St Andrews and later at Bedford College of Physical Education, now part of The University of Bedfordshire. After qualification she taught at St Swithun's School in Winchester, a school with a strong sporting tradition. Among its alumnae are the philosopher Mary Warnock and the radio presenter Fi Glover. 

Betty was encouraged to play cricket by her father and for a time, and I assume this was in his Lancashire league days, she was coached by Learie Constantine. She made her test debut at Brisbane in 1934 and played her tenth and last at The Oval in 1949, statistics which illustrate the paucity of women's test matches at that time. Her greatest achievement was in scoring a century at Christchurch NZ in 1935 when she made 189. No slouch either for the runs came in 222 minutes. That score remained a record in women's cricket for over fifty years. 

After her cricketing career Betty moved to Colwall where she taught Mathematics and coached cricket at The Elms School in the village. She died in Colwall in 1988, aged 80. The plaque is no more than such a distinguished cricket deserves. There are some further photographs of her opening the batting for England  with Myrtle Maclagan including one at Stanley Park Blackpool in Cricket Archive.  Her obituary appears on page 1214 in Wisden for 1990. 

Betty Snowball 1908 to 1988

End of the season or end of the road.

Posted by Tony Hutton

John Winn has already summarised the end of season game from Riverside, which I also attended, and has appropriately delved into the past which often throws up arguments which we need to recall in today's debate about county cricket. So many people are opposed to the ridiculous proposal for the so called 'hundred' and wish to protect the historic county championship that surely the powers that be must take notice.

We need to think who the 'powers that be' really are. It is not just the much maligned Messrs Graves and Harrison, but the counties themselves whose representatives attend the decision making meetings. It seems to me that these people do not really represent their clubs and supporters but merely nod their heads in agreement as soon as large sums of money are mentioned. It really is a failure of their duty of care for a very a precious commodity which has caused the current uproar.

As John has rightly pointed out the finish of the one game which went into the final day was happily televised by Sky, after a whole series of intriguing games around the county which all finished in three days. There currently seems to be a swell of opinion in favour of a regular county championship highlights programme, which I have long advocated, to promote the game which means so much to so many people. I can only commend an article by Jonathan Agnew in the new Wisden Monthly which recommends a return to a one division championship, something I agree with wholeheartedly.

However the outlook is not good and one cannot help wondering whether next season really will be the end of the road for county cricket as we know it. However rather than end on a pessimistic note I will give a few thoughts of my own of the game at Riverside, where Durham who were in the ascendancy for so long, contrived to lose the game at the death with a spectacular collapse.

Autumnal sunshine greeted spectators at the Riverside.

Durham v Middlesex has great memories for me as I watched the entire game some three years ago at Lord's when the Welshman James Harris had a memorable day taking 9-34 to help Middlesex to victory. This after Rushworth and Hastings had demolished the home side very cheaply. Harris will not remember this week's game with much affection after being hit on the head and withdrawn from the game for concussion checks. He did however manage to make top score in the Middlesex first innings with 31 out of a lowly total of 121 all out.

The most spectacular dismissal of the innings was that of James Fuller, yet another South African, once of Gloucestershire, who went down the wicket to Salisbury, played a dreadful cross batted heave and had his stumps re-arranged. Salisbury was the best bowler with 6-37 confirming the good impression he has made since joining from Essex, via Hampshire, earlier in the season.

Last man in and Middlesex soon to be all out.

Durham's first innings was built around another South African, Gareth Harte, who scored a workmanlike century, which included good partnerships with both Richardson (50) and Collingwood (32). Collingwood was given a resounding welcome from the Riverside faithful and the Middlesex side, who gave him a guard of honour. He played some characteristic shots, such as the push through mid wicket for easy singles, and a specialist cover-drive standing up tall to drive the ball to the boundary.

Paul Collingwood, always a tower of strength for Durham.

The crowd were momentarily silenced when Collingwood was given out lbw to the lively Ethan Bamber, one of several Berkshire products on the Middlesex books. They were soon on their feet however to applaud him all the way back to the pavilion. At that stage Durham were 201-4 but the momentum continued well until Harte was ninth man out for 112 and Durham had a first innings lead of 189. Thoughts were already turning to the possibility of an innings victory for the home side.

Chris Rushworth, Durham's player of the season will have a testimonial next year.

It was not to be and the final session after tea on day two saw the game swing back very much the visitors way. Not only did they clear the deficit, but were 66 ahead at the close of play with still eight wickets in hand. Steve Eskinaze batted beautifully until the nervous nineties struck and he was caught at slip by Collingwood for 96.  Middlesex added two hundred runs in the final session. Earlier Collingwood brought himself on to bowl and broke the stubborn opening partnership by clean bowling Robson to general acclaim.

The sun still shone on the last day of the season.

Nick Gubbins gave Eskinaze valuable support, while not scoring at quite the same rate. Having been 90 not out Gubbins fell early on the third day lbw b Rushworth for 91, but skipper Malan helped by Martin Andersson pushed Middlesex to a commanding total of 355, which meant that Durham required 167 to win. Thoughts of the extra half hour being claimed to produce victory for the home side were soon put on the back burner when Lees who had started brightly was out for 25.

Steel went into his shell completely and with Harte and Richardson soon gone as well it looked as though captain Collingwood was the last hope of victory. Despite another great welcome he was soon out bowled by Andersson for only 10 and took his last farewell. Durham were 67-4 and despite some resistance from Poynter the rest of the side subsided rapidly to the four pronged Middlesex pace attack of Murtagh, Bamber, Fuller and Andersson. 97-5 and as the long shadows from the pavilion reached the wicket Durham were all out just before six 0'clock for a miserable 109. Middlesex the winners by 57 runs.

Paul Collingwood strides out into the sunshine for his final innings.

Only three overs of spin were bowled in the whole match, by Durham's Steel and subsitute Rayner was not required to bowl, despite snaffling three excellent slip catches. A fascinating game throughout with the twists and turns which make championship cricket such compelling viewing.
The crowd wended their way home, with many farewells and wishes of 'winter well' all around the terraces. The fondest farewell of all of course to Paul Collingwood. One wonders how Durham will fare without him next season.

'Colly' says goodbye for the last time.