First competitive match of 2020

Posted by Tony Hutton

The Headingley Evening League got underway last night with my first competitive match of 2020.

The league now has only seven teams, so each Thursday night until the end of August there will be three games, with one team without a game. A return to my old stamping ground of Church Lane, Adel saw the home side entertain near neighbours St. Chads, with all start times for this T20 competition brought forward to 6 p.m.

Cricket 2020 style with Adel players locked out of their own pavilion.

St. Chads, not quite resplendent in their now customary coloured clothing batted first against Adel, who at least looked more like cricketers in their more appropriate whites. One noticeable difference to the ground since Sunday's inter club practice game was the strange appearance of the square which looked as if it had been completely shaved very closely by some local barber just returned to work.

The visitors lost an early wicket but looked to have recovered somewhat until wickets fell at regular intervals, particularly towards the end of the innings where Sam O'Sullivan took three wickets for fifteen runs to complete his four over spell. St. Chads ended on 76-8 in their allotted twenty overs.

Not a challenging total you might think, and so it proved as openers Tom Harrison and Ed Watt set about the St. Chads bowlers in fine style. Harrison was eventually out for 32 with the score on 62-1, but Watt continued on his merry way with three fours and three sixes in his 39 not out. Adel raced to a nine wicket victory in just ten and a half overs and the evening's entertainment was soon over.

A fine evening in familiar surroundings made all the more pleasant by catching up with old friends and feeling that the despair of the first half of the season has been replaced by anticipation of the months ahead.

Results from elsewhere, from the league's admirable website, showed that New Rover (all out 55) lost to Rawdon by ten wickets in only 4.2 overs and Horsforth Hall Park knocked up 205-5, with an opening stand of 169, to beat Leeds Modernians (88-8) rather easily. The team without a game this week were Cookridge.