Perhaps it is yet another sign of old age, but for once we decided not to join the throng at Scarborough and to settle for a quiet life watching cricket as it used to be played. Quite a bit of travelling involved in our latest journey but all well worth the effort.
We set off south down the A1 into Lincolnshire and watched a very mixed bag of league cricket on yet another perfect summer's day. First stop was Bourne in the Lincolnshire Premier League, a ground I did visit many years ago but could not really remember. The Abbey Lawn ground is near the centre of the town and adjacent to the Abbey Church of which little can be seen through the trees. Bourne batted first, as we arrived precisely at twelve noon, against Alford and District, who are lingering dangerously near the bottom of the league table.
Today however belonged to the visitors from north of Skegness who managed to skittle Bourne out for a rather poor total of 110 in 34 overs. Only two players reached double figures, opener Jack Berry with 34 and Lincolnshire's Minor County wicket keeper and captain Carl Wilson with 39. The men who did the damage were Alford's opening bowlers Steve Kirkham with 5-35 and Nick Bennett 3-41.
A pleasant ground, adjacent to the local football club, with a welcoming club house and plenty of parking with room to partake of our picnic lunch with only a handful of hard core supporters. We learned later, after our departure, that Alford scraped home by three wicket with a score of 111-7 to earn a valuable twenty points.
Next stop was Burghley House near Stamford, which had long been on my wanted list. A slight delay in traversing the town centre of Stamford due to the town's carnival parade getting under way at two o'clock and able to make our way into the park, despite a Rolls Royce owners event taking place elsewhere in the extensive grounds. This was really back to basics with Burghley Park second eleven taking on Blunham third eleven in division four of the Huntingdonshire county cricket league, even though I think we were still in Lincolnshire, but only just.
Here we were greeted by a picturesque black and white pavilion looking down on a sloping outfield, with an outstanding view across to the spires of Stamford town centre. The cricket at this level was obviously not of the highest standard, but with some very young players on view their enthusiasm was good to see. After an early collapse Blunham recovered well thanks to Shabz Hussain, who top scored with 42 in an innings which ended on 147 all out.
Burghley Park made short work of chasing down this modest total to win by nine wickets in only eighteen overs. There were fifties for both David Platt (not the footballer) and George Holmes. A wonderful setting for cricket and a nice quiet atmosphere well away from the razzmatazz of the Rolls Royce contingent far away on the other side of the park.
Out into the countryside next down the road to the attractive small village of Barnack, yet another Huntingdonshire county league side, but this time a little higher up the scale in division two. Their mainly Asian side, were again very welcoming in their modern pavilion. The home side were batting against visitors Godmanchester Town second eleven and making a pretty good job of it with an all out total of 190 boosted by a joint top score of 39 extras!
We appeared to be the only two spectators present and disappointed them by not accepting their kind offer of asking us to join them for tea, explaining that we had unfinished business elsewhere.
Our final stop of the day was at Market Deeping, back in the Lincolnshire Premier League and facing visitors Sleaford in what proved to be a high scoring game. This ground on the outskirts of the town is part of a large sporting complex, next to an industrial estate, but quite pleasant with its' trees on two sides, helping to mask the traffic noise from the nearby by-pass.
The home side had batted first when we arrived just after the interval and had made what looked very much like a winning score with 294-8 in their fifty overs. Opening bat Josh Smith had made a century with 129 runs to his name and it looked as though most of the bowlers had taken some punishment.
Sleaford were not daunted and set off like a house on fire, both openers making scores in the sixties in very quick time and peppering the boundaries with several sixes. After we departed to Wisbech, our overnight stopping point, they obviously continued in this vein and won comfortable by four wickets with five overs to spare.
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