Pandemic? What Pandemic?

 posted by John Winn

My last words as I left home on Saturday en route to Harrogate were to the effect that I might be home early as I was by no means sure that I would be allowed to enter Harrogate Cricket Club's ground at St George's Road given that the ECB have erected all manner of obstacles to prevent spectators watching league cricket during lockdown. I was somewhat surprised therefore on arrival at the ground to find almost twenty cars parked on the raised banking and watchers ringing the playing area. I was able to join my friend Les Pennington who was seated in front of the pavilion at a table marked 'reserved', for whom it was never established, and we had much to catch upon not having seen each other for the whole of 2020. 

I had missed an hour's play and the score was approaching 90 without loss but I am able to snare the hare that Tony set running yesterday and confirm that one of the Castleford openers was indeed Chesney Hughes, the very same Chesney Hughes who in 2013 carried his bat at Headingley scoring 270 out of a Derbyshire total of 475, the highest individual score for the county since George Davidson hit 274 at Old Trafford in 1896 and the highest score against Yorkshire 'on their home soil'. My records show I was there on the first day when Hughes was 171 not out at stumps. If you want to know more about Chesney you will need to enter his first name and two letters of his surname to get past somebody called Chesney Hawkes who as far as I know never played cricket. 

Hughes and fellow opener Liam Hyde, seemingly undisturbed by Harrogate's chirping, added 138 for the first wicket before Hyde was bowled by Cooper Smith, a new face, at least to me, in the home team. Hughes received good support from skipper David Wainwright and although the opener fell six short of his century Castleford's total of 317 for 9 looked very formidable. 

I stayed long enough to see the start of Harrogate's reply but despite an unbeaten 137 from opener Henry Thompson they fell well short at 235 for 8, Jack Young taking six wickets. Castleford will face tougher opposition next Saturday when they are at home to York while Harrogate will go east to Driffield who went down to Acomb on Saturday. These matches might serve as good pointers to the likely fortunes of the two teams I, and many others, saw in Saturday's opener.