End of season sunk without trace.

Posted by Tony Hutton

Arthington cricket club's traditional end of season festival was unfortunately curtailed somewhat by the weather. The game at Burton Salmon on Saturday 5th October (which I unfortunately missed) did take place, but the subsequent games scheduled for Harewood House were washed out by the rain. As I have been a regular spectator for almost the full thirty years of this happy end of season event, it is sad to record that the often sunny mid-October weather for once deserted us. We are assured that next season the festival will return to the club's own ground following the recent renovations supervised by the ubiquitous David Hodgson (groundsman supreme).

For the record Burton Salmon were bowled out for a modest 116 with three wickets each for Simon Mace and Nick Briggs and despite another duck for Andy Stoddart, Arthington cantered to a rather easy five wicket victory thanks to 32 not out from Andy Conboy. So there we are all done and dusted, with the next live cricket in these parts not scheduled until Boxing Day when as ever, and whatever the weather, North Leeds will take on the Northern Cricket Society.

Of course we are already well into the various cricket societies evening speaker's events and although the much anticipated visit of Fred Rumsey and Stephen Chalke to the Northern at Headingley had to be cancelled an excellent replacement came off the sub's bench at the last minute in the shape of Brian Sanderson.

Brian, who does an amazing amount of work for the Yorkshire Archives Committee, did a very interesting talk on the career of Ted Peate one of the first of Yorkshire's long line of slow left arm bowlers. He had a long and illustrious career but is most famously remembered for being the last man out in England's second innings of the final Test of 1882 at the Oval. With only seven required for victory he tried a big hit and was bowled rather than giving the more experienced batsman at the other end the chance to get the runs. It was after that game that the famous newspaper quotation created the notion of the 'Ashes' of English cricket which continues to this day.

While next season seems a long way off and is perhaps being looked forward to with some apprehension, I am sure that those of us who watch cricket at all levels will always find sufficient games of 'proper cricket' to watch throughout the season. It seems unlikely that we will spend much time watching Yorkshire's first eleven, as we are threatened by the powers that be with even more imports for next season. It did not actually happen last season, but Yorkshire could well have fielded a team of eleven 'imports' from other counties or countries. Hopefully a return to sanity might happen one day but somehow I doubt it. Winter well.