Whoever writes the scripts for the eventful few days just gone in the wonderful world of North of England cricket must get a top award in the field of soap operas, eclipsing anything from Coronation Street, Emmerdale or even Eastenders, to whose territory Yorkshire ventured today.
It all started last Saturday when Durham were forced to put out more or less a second eleven in a championship game with Derbyshire at the Riverside. At least half a dozen players, including skipper Paul Collingwood, were injured and two had gone off to play for Ireland. On the first morning put into bat Durham, with four new caps Harte from South Africa, Salisbury from Essex via Hampshire,
Jones from Lancashire via Scotland and wicket keeper Davies from Kent via Somerset. were predictably bowled out for 96. Derbyshire's South African opening bowlers doing the damage with 5-20 for Olivier and 3-30 for Viljoen.
Most followers of Durham thought another defeat imminent and play unlikely to last until the third day, never mind the fourth. How wrong they were as Durham repeated their back from the dead success against Leicestershire with another amazing victory, despite the fact Derby had a first innings lead of 110. The heroes of the Durham second innings were initially New Zealander Latham and even more so debutant South African Gareth Harte with a splendid 114, ably supported by Aussie Rimmington with whom he put on 104 for the eighth wicket and another new boy Matt Salisbury who added 99 for the ninth wicket. Olivier this time had figures of 5-105 which were a bit different from the first innings.
Derby were left 268 to win on day four and needless to say the ever reliable Chris Rushworth 5-47 and Salisbury 4-69 saw Durham home to yet another famous victory by 95 runs. We were present on the first day of this game - last Saturday. On Sunday we had very different plans closer to home as the Yorkshire Premier League North were staging the first round of their T20 competition at four different venues with three matches scheduled at each. We chose Harrogate, where the home side were due to play Driffield and Yorkshire Academy.
On arrival at the ground we discovered that late the previous evening the Academy had dropped out meaning that only one match, Harrogate v Driffield would take place starting at 10 a.m. then no more. We saw Harrogate despatch Driffield with some ease and therefore progress to finals day at Scarborough quite easily. The reasons for Yorkshire Academy's late withdrawal only became apparent during the next few days when we learnt that five Academy players had innocently played in the Bradford League T20 on Thursday nights. As all the winners of each league's competition go forward to a national club T20 they were considered to be cup-tied and therefore not eligible to play.
Added to this several of the young players had exams on Monday and others were injured so it was impossible for Yorkshire to field a side. The other side of the coin being that even if Yorkshire Academy had won the Yorkshire League North competition they could not play in the national rounds as they are regarded as contracted players. The small group of Academy followers, some of whom had travelled considerable distances were obviously not pleased, but we were able to move on to York to see two further games later in the day.
Tuesday seemed to pose no problems as off we went to Southport on the Lancashire coast for a second eleven three day championship game, Lancs v Yorks. Two nights hotel booked, forecast good although it might change on Thursday. All seemed well with the world on day one, except for the fact Yorkshire seconds were bowled out for 76 with quick bowler Liam Hurt (5-17) doing most of the damage and a few comments were made about the state of the pitch. However when Lancashire batted no apparent problems and they advanced to 266-3 with all their batsmen making runs.
It is hard to make excuses for Yorkshire's rather woeful batting, but it must be pointed out that they suffered from the knock on effect of six players from the first team being away on international duties (if you include the rather ineffectual Indian Test player). This will shortly rise to eight absentees when Kohler-Cadmore and Fisher join the ranks of England Lions.
The Yorkshire side at Southport included only three specialist batsmen. One of whom is sadly out of form and the other two are very inexperienced. The rest of the team comprised six bowlers and two wicketkeepers. Lees withdrew overnight to travel to Chelmsford to join the first team squad and a late replacement in the shape of Chris Wood, a county under 17 batsman from Woodhouse Grange was called up. He got as far as joining in the warm up but never actually got on the field of play.
Next morning to our surprise Lancashire had declared when expected to bat on at least for another bonus point. They soon dismissed Hodd and then Rafiq was hit painfully on the hand and after a long discussion between the umpires and coaches the match was abandoned because of the dangerous state of the pitch. A band of four travelling supporters all the way from Huddersfield had just arrived as the players were leaving the field after only quarter of an hours' play on day two of a three day game!
The Lancashire supporters were not in a good mood already many having seen the first team collapse in dramatic fashion on Monday to lose to Essex at Old Trafford.
Lancashire very quickly issued a statement on their website (more than can be said about Yorkshire after Sunday's fiasco) to the effect that this was a new strip which had suffered a rapid deterioration due to the very hot weather and this would not affect the county championship game to be played in August on the number one strip which had been previously used.
Fortunately about a dozen refugee spectators, who had been tipped off the previous day about two games being played at Northern Cricket Club, Crosby - not far down the road from Southport, between Myerscough College cricket academies based in both Preston and Manchester set off there to enjoy some cricket in the sunshine.
The umpire from New Zealand had stern words following dissent from an outgoing batsman.
Added to all this came the rather startling revelations in the business pages of the press regarding Yorkshire cricket club's chairman faced with a huge fine and a fifteen year suspension from the accountancy profession.
As I write this there seems to be some good news coming through from Chelmsford where Yorkshire are almost on the point of victory in their quarter final at Essex - surely that one can't be abandoned as well!
The next thrilling instalment may well concentrate on the vital county under 17s game between Yorkshire and Lancashire at Weetwood, Leeds on Sunday which will decide which county goes through to the national semi-finals. Other attractions available that day include an ECB XI against India A at nearby Headingley, a three county women's T20 competition at Harrogate and the Scarborough Beckett League XI v Halifax League XI at North Marine Road, Scarborough. Spoilt for choice once again.
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