NMR delights again

posted by John Winn

I joined a queue outside Scarborough Cricket Club at 9:15 on Sunday morning with the forecast indicating a full day's play. After six overs, when Yorkshire were 13 for 4 with the cream of their batting back in the pavilion, 'full day' took on a new definition and those who had booked 'digs' for three nights began to look a little uneasy. As most of you will know our pessimism was unnecessary as Yorkshire's innings was rescued by two home products, Tattersall and Bresnan with a stand of 121 for the sixth wicket and minor contributions from Patterson and Olivier boosted the total to 232 all out. Not world beating but handy enough against a Notts' side whose batting mercenaries have performed badly for much of the season.

On this occasion the visitors' top order shaped rather better than has been the case and Slater and Libby saw them through to the close at 41 without loss. Monday saw me at The Riverside to see a day's play that Tony has described in his latest post, but in my absence Notts reverted to type being bowled out short of a batting point, 48 runs in deficit to Yorkshire with Coad and Olivier getting most of the wickets. On Tuesday morning a late running, overcrowded train took me back to the seaside along with other cricket followers and others bound for the beach. The journey was enlightened by young George who managed to scream from Malton to Scarborough and whose lungs were still giving it what for as we left the station.

Despite the delay I missed only one over as Yorkshire built on the overnight score of 177 for 2. Some fine bowling from Fletcher made life difficult but a mature innings from Kohler-Cadmore and some lusty blows from Maharaj got the total to 338, a lead of 386. Slater was first to go and those of us sitting in front of the Notts' dressing room were treated to a display of petulance that surpassed that of Frain on the first morning. Nash showed some resistance and Duckett mixed aggression with patience to be there at stumps but those who returned on the fourth day, and I was not amongst them, got the right balance between a comfortable Yorkshire victory and enough cricket to make it worthwhile. Notts'  winless run in the championship now extends to 18 matches and in a week that has seen Samit Patel go on loan to Glamorgan and Luke Wood opt to go to Lancashire rather than stay by the River Trent next season these are troubled times for Mick Newell's outfit.

So Scarborough is over for another year. It  has attracted large crowds to see two matches that have gone to the fourth day, one of which went within two overs of the distance, and two pitches  that have produced the right balance between bat and ball. As they left on Tuesday evening people were saying to friends 'see you next year' but quite what next year's fixture list has in store we can only wait and dread.