A warm sunny day in March at Riverside

Posted by Tony Hutton

As a regular visitor to the Riverside ground at Chester-le-Street since Durham became a first class county, I have never before considered using a headline like this. Early season games in the past, either in April and May have often been a real effort of endurance, however many layers of clothing have been involved. However I am delighted to report that yesterday provided a warm enough day to remove outer garments and even the sun cream made an appearance during the early afternoon.

This is a library picture, but the sunshine and blue sky were still there yesterday. Pleased to say that the blue seats, which never really fitted in have been removed, no doubt with replacements imminent.

This of course was day three of the pre-season game between the Durham county side and Durham University where John Winn has already reported on the first day. Needless to say it was of course a very one sided contest with the University facing a real mountain to climb with 500 runs required in their second innings, when the county finally declared after some valuable batting practise.

After Will Smith's century on day one, it was the turn of South African Gareth Harte to reach three figures, although he had to work hard for it against a varied University attack which included no less than three slow left arm bowlers as well as a left arm seamer in Jack Campbell who has played for Durham seconds in the past. He was rather upstaged by wicket keeper Stuart Poynter, now of course an Irish international Test player, who made a rapid innings of 80 in contrast to Harte's much more measured progress.

However Poynter was out when Harte was on 99 after a partnership of 118. At this point the two workmen on the 'cherry picker' in front of the old scoreboard seemed oblivious to the drama unfolding behind their backs and managed to park their machine right in front of Harte's score. Obviously placing the large advertising sign at the top of the board was far more important.
Notwithstanding Harte completed a hard earned century just before the lunch interval when Durham declared.

                                                         Gareth Harte

When play re-started, with the spectators basking in the sunshine, you needed to pay attention straight away as Chris Rushworth removed Bedford's off stump with the first ball of the University's second innings .The luckless opener suffered the indignity of a 'pair' having been caught and bowled for nought in the first innings also by Rushworth. The other opener Dewes also went quickly caught behind by Poynter off Rimmington for six and the University were 8-2 in the second over.

This brought about the appearance of the inevitable drinks man onto the field at such an early stage, which together with the endless practice balls before any bowler starts a spell all helps to slow down the already pedestrian over rate. Umpires do seem unwilling to take action to speed things up, but I suppose this has been going on for so long now it has just become normal practise.

Not to worry as skipper Graves (no relation presumably) and Benjamin proceeded to make a welcome recovery after Powe and Scott had also gone rather cheaply to make it 48-4. These two put on a partnership of 75 with Graves making an accomplished sixty six before becoming yet another Poynter victim (he took nine catches during the match, as well as scoring 80 runs).We departed at the tea interval when the cold breeze had begun to strengthen and the innings began to fall apart with three quick wickets before tailenders Sidwell (42 not out) and Xavier Owen (24) added some respectability to proceedings by taking the score just beyond 200.

So Durham as expected were easy winners by a margin of 296 runs. In view of all the other results yesterday, no doubt the debate whether these games should continue to be ranked as first class matches will no doubt continue. Of course there is a further nonsensical item in that the first two rounds of such matches are currently first class but the third round of games are not! Only the ECB could write such scripts.

Finally and rather ironically of course the champion county game with MCC being played in Dubai was washed out by rain on the final day. This is obviously a rare event but perhaps a signal that this showpiece game should be restored to Lord's at whatever date fits into the crowded calender for the benefit of the supporters of whoever the champion county should prove to be. Sadly common sense does not seem to be part of the equation when cricket administrators are concerned.

Back in the old routine

Posted by Tony Hutton

Unlike John Winn we headed south rather than north to sample the opening day delights of cricket at Derby. Fortunately we too were aware of the rather last minute dictat from the ECB enforcing a sensible early 10.30 start, but one would have thought they could have announced this much earlier.
Derbyshire were taking on our 'local' team - Leeds/Bradford University in fine and dry conditions, but with something of a chill breeze to greet the sixty or so hardened enthusiasts sitting outside at the start. The total number of spectators increased to around the hundred mark with many taking advantage of the permanent, heated marquee where food and drink was readily available.

                                  Play gets underway at Derby.

Leeds/Bradford fielded a good few new names in their side, most of whom have either county second eleven or Minor Counties experience. Last year's skipper, Steve Bullen, now in his fifth season, was down as twelfth man and the side was captained by new boy Angus Dahl from Surrey. One notable newcomer is former Yorkshire Academy wicket keeper Johnathan Read. Cantwell, from Durham, and Neal from Hertfordshire were the opening bowlers.

Derbyshire batted with skipper Billy Godleman and Louis Reece, another famous Leeds/Bradford old boy to go with the likes of Gubbins, Roland-Jones and Scott, now all playing for Middlesex. Godleman himself of course also started with Middlesex, many moons ago now, but I remember seeing him as a fifteen year old at the Bunbury Festival in Nottingham when David English told me he was the one to watch for the future.

                                          Godleman at the crease.

The opening pair made a sensible start on what looked to be a rather green wicket and had put on 39 before Reece hooked a ball from Neal in the direction of long leg where the other opening bowler Cantwell held on to a good catch. Godleman looked to have played himself in when he rather surprisingly edged one from Holling, a Yorkshireman, to Ashraf at first slip who again held a good catch. So the University side must have been quite pleased with the opening hour, but Wayne Madsen, the county's South African stalwart for so many years now, aided and abetted by Tom Lace, who joined last season from Middlesex soon had matters under control.

The well heated marquee which proved a welcome refuge.

These two put on 64 for the third wicket before Lace was caught behind by Read, off Cantwell who had returned for a second spell, for a well made 30. Madsen, who took his time to play himself in played a proper, controlled innings never in a hurry. He lost his next partner Alex Hughes very quickly when he hit the ball straight to cover point Cornall off Holling for no score, but young wicket keeper batsman Harvey Hosein joined the proceedings in fine style. We remember seeing this young man keeping wicket for Derbyshire seconds at Barnsley at the tender age of 15.

The pair were still together at tea with Madsen having completed his 25th century for the county and Hosein well past the fifty mark. The University bowlers seemed to have tired somewhat at this stage, with four seamers and two spinners, Haynes and Dahl, doing their best to keep things under control.
We left at the tea interval to take on the ever increasing traffic on the M1 northbound, which did involve a diversion to avoid an accident at one stage.

The rather confusing smaller scoreboard. Top figures are batsmen's squad numbers. Madsen has 101.

Hosein went on to complete his century after tea with Derbyshire well in command and over the three hundred mark. So two centurions on the first day of the season was not a bad start and the day was all the better for meeting several cricketing friends from far afield, who had all felt like us that we should make the effort to travel despite such an early start to the season. By this time we had learned that Madsen was not the first to the century mark as Cook and Westley for Essex and Eskinazi for Middlesex had all got there before him. Hildreth of Somerset and Will Smith for Durham also reached the landmark before the day was out. So a good day for the county batsmen and no doubt it will be the bowlers turn today.

The longest season begins

posted by John Winn

At ten thirty yesterday morning the cricket season began, a season that will end in exactly six months time on the 26th of September. And remember that this is 10:30 GMT, clocks go forward this weekend and perhaps that is why the ECB had issued a directive that all six games that started yesterday should begin at that time. Durham v Durham MCCU was the fare on offer and  LNER trains and Go North East buses combined to get me to The Riverside shortly after 10:00, in time to enjoy complimentary coffee in the rarefied atmosphere of The Royal Caribbean hospitality suite where I was joined by my friend Alan Pinkney, our first meeting since the last day of the 2018 season when we had been present at the same ground for Collingwood's last stand which sadly proved to be a short one as Durham were beaten by Middlesex.

Durham won the toss and opted to bat, someone suggested that this was to get used to batting first which will be their lot in championship matches as visiting sides exercise their right to insert. A modest crowd saw acting skipper Lees open with Gareth Harte and the latter was soon on his way back to the comfort of the dressing room thanks to a sharp catch by Abhiras Singh in the gulley. The successful bowler was Xavier Owen, possibly the first Xavier to take a wicket at The Riverside in March. Next up was Ross Greenwell who gave Owen another scalp when he was caught behind. There followed a partnership of 116 between Lees and Will Smith. As befits their age the students looked very lively in the field and progress was little better than two an over. The PA announcer showed signs of early season rustiness, firstly by telling us that scorecards were available for £1 when in fact, like the coffee ,they were free and then advising that lunch would be at 12:45 when as we had anticipated it was at 12:30.

Shortly before lunch Singh was given a bowl and Lees tucked into his spin with relish. To his credit Singh stuck to his guns and finished the day with three wickets. Lees missed out on a century when a yes no interval with Smith was extended to include the word sorry and after a misfield a smart return from Sidwell saw him on his way for 74. Poynter, now with an Irish test cap to his name, and Pringle both went cheaply but Raine, Coughlin and Harding added useful runs with Smith who was unbeaten at the close on 148, when the county were 331 for 7. After morning sunshine the afternoon turned cold and tea at 3:10 was the signal for Alan and me to leave. Our next meeting will be on April 11th when Sussex will be the visitors by which time both counties will have seen championship action. Durham travel to Derby in the first round while Sussex entertain Leicestershire.

Cricketer magazine believes the second division 'is likely to be as tough as any in the last decade' but plays safe by predicting that the two relegated clubs, Lancashire and Worcestershire, will occupy the top two places, Sussex to finish third. Not surprisingly Surrey are expected to retain their title of county champions with Somerset most likely to threaten them. Essex predicted to finish third, will have Sir Alastair for the full campaign and he reminded us of his worth with an unbeaten 150 at Fenner's yesterday. Bottom two places are set aside for Hampshire and Kent, Notts 4th, Yorkshire 5th, which leaves Warwickshire in sixth.

I had hoped to type this while listening to commentary from Dubai on the Surrey v  MCC match but it has been washed out. Knew it should have been at Lord's.

Suddenly it's Summer

posted by John Winn

Like Tony I enjoyed Harry Pearson's talk last Tuesday since when I have picked up a copy of his biography of Learie Constantine at a knock down price for a book in pristine condition. A couple of days later came April's copy of Cricketer complete with its excellent spreadsheet of fixtures all of which has built up my enthusiasm for the new season which for me starts tomorrow. Suddenly it's back in the old routine with a trip to my local supermarket this morning to acquire the materials for a packed lunch and by 9:00  Tuesday morning I will be on the train from Northallerton to Durham, then the bus to Chester le Street and the ten minute walk to The Riverside which if the forecast is to be believed will be enjoying decent weather.

As I type there is barely a cloud in the sky, and while Durham v Durham University is hardly the cream of the crop the chance to hear bat on ball, chat to old friends who hopefully have wintered well and get the thing up and running as early as March 26th which for me will be my earliest start, nosing ahead of a trip to Loughboro' on March 28th in 2017, is too good to be missed.  After two winters when they lost players to richer counties Durham seemed to have stemmed the outward flow of players and while additions have been few in number the return of Ben Raine to his native heath is very encouraging. The county has undergone a shake up in its management and coaching setup with Marcus North coming as Director of Cricket and James Franklin as 'high performance coach'. The image makers have been busy too for my new membership card no longer carries the county badge but carries an image of a roaring lion and the slogan Durham Cricket.

Despite league cricket still being a week or two away there is plenty to rouse pcws from their hibernation with matches at six grounds starting Sunday and the county championship at six venues a week on Friday. A full complement follows on Thursday 11th before The Royal London Cup takes the stage for four weeks on the 17th. If white ball cricket is not your bag, just four days later there will be plenty of league cricket to entertain you. To encourage you further The Daily Star today forecasts a 26 degree 'Spring Scorchio' a forecast you might just like to treat with a little caution but be prepared, factor in the Factor 30 and enjoy the summer.

Voices from the past

Posted by Tony Hutton

A wonderful evening on Tuesday at the Northern Cricket Society's Spring Dinner. We have been blessed by a succession of excellent speakers at this function for some years now and Harry Pearson, the sage of Teesside, was no exception. I first came across Harry when he wrote his excellent book on football in the north east 'The Far Corner'. Since then he has written on endless different subjects such as the one I still have 'Racing Pigs and Giant Marrows'. In more recent years he has written two prize winning cricket books 'Slipless in Settle' on league cricket in the north of England and 'Connie' the story of Learie Constantine.

He stuck to the cricketing script on Tuesday on the theme of famous names, who followed Constantine into the northern leagues and did not bother to mention his most recent offering 'The Beast, The Emperor and the Milkman', which is sub-titled a bone shaking tour through cycling's Flemish heartland. The first surprise was to find out that he is six foot five inches tall, which I should have remembered as he mentions it in one of his earlier books.

He hardly stopped for breath in his remarkable speech, running through tales of the long list of international players who came to the north of England to ply their trade and to make more money than they could in county cricket, with the help of large crowds and consequent large collections for fifties and five wickets. There are enough stories about people like Cec Pepper, Bill Alley and Roy Gilchrist for yet another book one would think.

Another favourite cricket writer for many years, Martin Johnson, seemed to hit the nail on the head today in the new edition of the 'Cricket Paper'. With all the negative publicity regarding the future of the game, ahead of the imminent start of the new season, we need a little hilarity from time to time to keep our sanity. Mr Johnson has a timely dig at Harry Gurney, the four overs a match for loads of money merchant, who thinks that all club cricket should be in T20 mode. He describes T20's format as one which will eventually kill off all rivals, like the grey squirrel and Japanese knotweed, either taking over their natural habitat, or choking them to death.

Johnson also has a go at the IPL commentators and I like his comment that they force-feed you such a babbling stream of enforced jollity it's a bit like arriving sober at a pub and having to join in with with people that have had a ten-pint head start. His comments on the presentation ceremonies, not to mention the infamous Danny Morrison are also well on the mark.

So we are almost there, in fact Hampshire started a friendly with Middlesex yesterday apparently and next week sees games between some counties and university sides. To date the forecast doesn't seem too bad, but we will no doubt take several layers of winter clothing with us whether heading for either Derby or Chester-le-Street where action is due to start on Tuesday. Durham appear to have sprung a surprise by appointing new Australian signing Bancroft as captain, even though he has had another suspension since the ball tampering affair and will miss the first county game as he has been told he must attend a dinner in Perth. Liked the tweet yesterday which suggested he might be going to live in that well known Durham resort 'Tamper Bay'.

Be that as it may, we will probably again see more of Durham than Yorkshire in the coming season, particularly in view of the imports from far and wide who will obviously take the places of the up and coming local lads, many of whom did well on the pre-season tour of South Africa. We will continue to support the Yorkshire Academy most weekends and yet again later in the season the Yorkshire Under 17s who won the national competition last year and have many fine young players in their ranks. Just to remind you here is their title winning team photograph.

Alan Butcher - one Test wonder.

Posted by Tony Hutton

The Northern Cricket Society welcomed Alan Butcher as their speaker at Headingley last night.
The former Surrey and Glamorgan batsman is in the middle of a tour of Yorkshire Cricket Societies and said he had never eaten so many fish and chip suppers in his life. He may well be in for even more as he visits Hull tonight to speak to the East Riding Cricket Society.

                                                             Alan Butcher


Alan, possibly better known as the father of England Test player and Sky Sports pundit Mark Butcher, can be proud of his family's cricketing achievements. His brother Ian played first class cricket for Gloucester and Leicester and another brother Martin played just one match for Surrey.  As  well as Mark, with Surrey and England, his other son Gary also played for Glamorgan and Surrey. In addition his daughter has also played in women's county cricket for Devon.

So quite a family tradition of which Alan is justifiably proud. He talked very little about his own achievements which were quite considerable as a very consistent left hand opening bat, who captained both his counties. He was most unlucky to become a member of the 'one Test wonder' club, his only appearance coming as partner to Geoffrey Boycott against India in 1979. He was known as a good player of fast bowling and told many stories of the fearsome bowlers he came across during his time in county cricket. It appears he had been pencilled in for an England tour of the West Indies and told the story of how the then chairman of selectors didn't recognise Roland Butcher of Middlesex, who did make the trip, saying that wasn't the Butcher he had picked!

He mentioned the fine opening partnership he developed with Graham Clinton, who came from Kent in 1979, but possibly not wanting to upset his Yorkshire audience failed to mention their opening partnership of 277 against Yorkshire at the Oval in 1984, which resulted in an innings victory for Surrey. He spoke with great affection of his Surrey team mates of the 1980s, many of whom appear on the team picture shown below. One of the highlights being Pat Pocock's spell of bowling against Sussex at Eastbourne.

Alan retired from cricket after three years at Glamorgan in 1992 and then went into coaching with both Essex and Surrey. Things took a new turn in 2010 when he was offered the position of head coach of the Zimbabwe national cricket team, a challenging job if there ever was one. However despite all the problems, both on and off the field, he was able to rejuvenate the Zimbabwe side and produced results which ended a long period of struggle for them.

Again he did not say a lot about Zimbabwe, but was obviously very fond of the country and their people. He did not really promote his book 'The Good Murungu?'  which he wrote on his experiences in the country and which no doubt will be an excellent read. Apparently murungu means white man, and he took being called a good white man as a compliment.

Being of the same generation of much of his audience he shared their feelings about the current state of the English game and the problems which seem to be surrounding the ECB's future plans. Indeed his love of the game and it's traditions shone through and provided an excellent evening's entertainment.

Fixtures almost complete

In a posting I made a couple of weeks ago I updated readers on the publication of league fixtures for Yorkshire and the North East and listed four leagues for which at that time I could not find any  fixtures listed. The four were the Langbaurgh, the Wetherby, Nidderdale and Bradford Mutual Sunday School leagues. Checking the relevant websites this morning I am pleased to report that Wetherby fixtures are available, showing a start on April 27th. The Langbaurgh have also published with the first round on April 20th but with a warning in red ink capitals THERE WILL BE CHANGES, not may or might but WILL. Interestingly the league welcomes a new club for 2019, Danby CC, a ground I visited a couple of years ago only to find the game had been cancelled. Danby will begin their campaign with a trip to play Norton IV XI unless of course there are changes.

Nothing available for Bradford Sunday School or Nidderdale and the latter tweeted only yesterday to the effect that the fixtures will be 'published when they are ready. It has been a very difficult process this season and once they are ready you will all be informed. Apologies for the inconvenience.' I will try and throw on some light on the difficulties in a future posting.

Hard to keep up

Posted by Tony Hutton

There seems to be an awful lot going on in the world of cricket at the moment, with the domestic season still some weeks away. The proliferation of Test cricket and one day internationals continues unabated and it is very hard to keep up with it all. England win an unbelievably high scoring match one minute and then in the next get bowled out for 113. New Zealand score over 700 against Bangladesh in a game with remarkably few extras, but again the sad thing about that game was the few spectators who actually turned up to watch it, as was the case in the recent games between South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Plenty of news at home as well with Lancashire upsetting some of their members by taking a championship match outside the county to play in Cumbria, at one of my favourite grounds - Sedbergh School. They might be even more upset when they find out that Sedbergh used to be in Yorkshire before boundary changes. Yorkshire too will have annoyed some of their followers (not difficult that I must admit) by signing Duane Olivier, the South African as a Kolpak player. I for one believe they should give their home grown players a regular chance to develop, rather than bringing in people from elsewhere on generous three year contracts.

                                                             Sedbergh School

Social media has also been very busy this week with Harry Gurney stirring the pot by advocating that all club cricket should be either T20 or 'The Hundred' (whatever that is). This has brought a lot of re-action and Mr Gurney's response seems to be 'I am cleverer than you and have lots more followers', which hasn't gone down very well at all. He has happily pocketed a few dollars in Australia for bowling just four overs a game and should be happy with his lot.

However be that as it may, some important good news this week (for me and several of my cricketing acquaintances) provided by MCC publishing the full fixtures of all their out matches on the Lord's website. The number of games in a season is really quite mind blowing. They are mainly against school sides throughout the country, but also against league cricket junior sides and club sides celebrating special anniversaries. For the first time to my knowledge they play a game against the national club champions at Lord's which will be quite an occasion for Richmondshire CC from North Yorkshire.

                                                 Woodhouse Grove School

One very noticeable change to proceedings is that all the start times are given as 11 a.m. whereas for as long as I can remember the start times have always been 11.30. Not a big deal but just another symptom of how cricket feels things have got to change in all areas. These games are always played in an excellent spirit and provide a special day for the schoolboys who are given the opportunity to show their abilities against strong opposition. Have a feeling that things may have tightened up from the days when MCC always batted first, meaning the bowlers in their sides didn't turn up until lunchtime. Nearly all the games are played on a declaration basis rather than a specific number of overs, but still often provide close finishes. Most school grounds are wonderful places to visit and I would encourage cricket followers to sample these games before they too are swept away.

  

                                                  Giggleswick School