Circumstances kept me close to home this weekend but I did manage a couple of hours at Lightmire Lane the home of Ouseburn CC on Saturday afternoon. The opposition for the champions of the Nidderdale League were Bishop Thornton who were promoted due to the withdrawal of Hampsthwaite CC and have found life in the top division so far an uncomfortable experience. Not so before tea on Saturday however when their batsmen feasted on some of the worst bowling I have seen from Ouseburn and towards the end of the innings the fielders' body language suggested that whatever the final total it would prove beyond Ouseburn's reach.
248 for 7 at innings closed seemed even further away when the openers were back in the hutch for 11 but led by former skipper Adam Fisher with good support from Jamie Bryant and Alex Boyle OCC reached the target with four wickets in hand and two overs to spare. The table this morning shows Helperby and Goldsborough setting the pace with Ouseburn fifth and only Knaresborough Forest keeping Bishop Thornton out of bottom spot. Curlew Park, the Bishops' ground, might be an interesting place to be next week when Goldsborough come to town.
Village activities ruled out any cricket for me yesterday but had I been free I would love to have been at Sessay for their National KO match with Chesterfield. Delighted to see on 'play cricket' that they won by five wickets and will go to Doncaster on June 3rd when the winners will go through to the last 32.
Meanwhile the County Championship continues to enthral while its fixture list continues to infuriate. Worcestershire supporters, who suffered the ecstasy and agony of defeat by Essex yesterday have taken to Twitter this morning, not to grumble about their team but to express their dismay at the organization of the competition. It will be 38 days before The Pears are next in four day action when Lancashire are at New Road and for those who can only watch cricket at the weekends there remain but two days this season when Worcestershire will play at home on a Saturday or Sunday.
I have used this analogy before but the championship is rather like an Agatha Christie play when the first act has you wondering what might happen next but the interval is of such length that you have forgotten who got murdered. Looking at yesterday's action and away from New Road where at 160 for 5 I fancied Worcestershire, Grace Road was the unlikely setting for a thriller in which de Lange and Hogan put on 52 for the last wicket before the South African fell for 90 leaving Glamorgan three short to give The Foxes only their third win since 2012. Four matches still in progress today and only at Derby would a draw seem the banker. For Yorkshire, still 43 behind, much depends on Bairstow and Leaning if they are to save the game at The Oval, Gloucestershire are similarly placed at Lord's, only two down but still 179 in arrears. Perhaps the most interesting day in prospect is at Taunton where Vince and Amla have given Hants a fighting chance of a draw with an unbroken stand of 139. Vince has probably ensured he will be named in the England squad for next week's test while Hildreth can only watch and wait.
Finally in the run fest at Derby, Richardson and Poynton, both wicketkeepers, added 278 for Durham's sixth wicket thus erasing the stand of 249 by Muchall and Mustard, only one of whom kept wicket, at Canterbury in 2006 from the record books.
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