As Tony described in his latest posting county cricket is gearing itself up for the start of the championship on April 8th with a number of practice matches up and down the country. The April edition of 'The Cricketer' was delivered yesterday with its wallchart of the summer's first class cricket fixtures plus limited over matches. Having blacked out all fixtures in the hundred it makes pleasant reading. If and when spectators will be allowed to see any of the matches is another matter.
I am a more confident that I will be able to see some league cricket, for with a bit of luck and within three miles of my house I should see action on April 10th when Green Hammerton of the Leeds and Wetherby League take on Barwick in Elmet. The L and W are this season's pace setters for the great majority leagues have stuck to the traditional third Saturday of April before making the first call of play and thus will not begin until April 17th although a couple of leagues still have to declare their hand.
Here is a list of leagues between Sheffield and Newcastle and their starting dates.
April 10th Leeds and Wetherby
April 17th NYSD, Yorkshire Premier South, North East Premier, Darlington and District, Aire Wharf, Huddersfield, Pontefract, Dales Council, Halifax, Craven and District, Bradford,
April 24th Yorkshire Premier North, Durham North East, York and District, Scarborough Becket, Nidderdale,
I can find no fixtures for the Langbaurgh League and the Bradford Mutual Sunday School League
Tomorrow March 29th is another key day in the government road map out of lockdown with further freedoms due on April 12th. The 'stay at home' rule ends tomorrow but many restrictions will remain in place and much will be left to the individual's judgement. On the government website the words NOT BEFORE before precede each date and data is more important than date in the plan's implementation.
The Lower Ure Valley has had some very dry weather in March a benefit of which is that my garden looks in reasonable shape and although today is cold and windy and rain is likely this afternoon, unseasonably high temperatures are forecast for a couple of days this week especially on Tuesday when 20 degrees is promised. Schools in North Yorkshire 'broke up' on Friday and talking to a neighbour yesterday she mentioned a possible trip to Saltburn, a fifty five mile journey, where it would be 'quiet'. Like Captain Pugwash's cabin boy Tom, I smiled and said nothing but it certainly takes full advantage of the relaxation of the stay at home rule and one person's quiet is another person's bedlam. The big test of the nation's responsible behaviour will of course come next weekend and fortunately, especially for Easter Monday, the forecast is not good.
The above paragraph is a long winded way of saying that I am concerned that perhaps fortified by the speed of the roll out of the vaccination programme people will throw caution to the winds and undo the good that has been done by the measures of the last three months. Should the result be a rise in cases then the roadmap may be redrawn and the dates for the start of league cricket revised. If you think that I am being unduly pessimistic then I draw your attention to the York Vale league website which stresses that an April 24th start is only Plan A and outlines Plan B and Plan C as back up.
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