Not long now?

 posted by John Winn

If you think you recognise the title for this posting then you have a remarkable memory for with one small exception it is the same title as I used on my very first posting in March 2011. The 'small exception' is however an important one for ten years ago I was feeling confident and there was no question mark either in my mind or in print that the cricket season was going to start in a few days time. In fact writing on March 28th I was slow off the mark for Tony had already seen cricket at Weetwood a few days earlier. 

It was not hard to be optimistic  for 'the last week has been unseasonably warm, lawns have been mown, clocks have sprung forward' and only five days later I was at New Rover where Olicanians were the visitors. The blog was a rather different animal in those days for my March 28th posting was the first since Tony had punched the keys on January 25th with a list of fixtures for April, mostly from cricket's hidden agenda. 2011 was the first year the blog had gone entirely electronic although its founder Peter Davies had bid on line followers welcome as far back as December 2008.

This is the cover of the last year the blog appeared in print with its cover photo of Copley CC.  

Back to the beginning and an explanation for my hesitancy about the 2021 season. Fixtures for the remodelled championship were published before Christmas and in my mind at least I made tentative plans for a trip to Taunton in April, plans which were scuppered when the present covid restrictions were introduced. Plan B is now on the table and the reverse fixture at Bristol is in May, starting on May 20th  three days after, if all goes well, restrictions will be eased to permit some spectators and hotels will be able to provide accommodation. But will they be eased sufficiently to allow me to travel from North Yorkshire as a non-member of both counties to watch some part of the match?  And this speculation hinges on 'if all goes well' and we stick to the current regulations and the relevant data continues to move in the right direction.  Schools have gone back today, not without risk, and four weeks today it will be Easter Monday when ironically and bearing in mind the crowds that flocked to beaches last summer, the last thing we want is good weather for the weekend if it should precipitate that kind of behaviour. 

Enough of this gloom for the prospects for grass roots cricket seem much brighter. The Leeds and Wetherby Cricket League has confidently published its 2021 fixtures beginning on April 10th and just down the road from where I live Green Hammerton are scheduled to take on Barwick in Elmet, wickets pitched 13:00. That's better.