Rain does not rescue Green Hammerton

posted by John Winn

A five minute drive from my house on Saturday took me to Green Hammerton in time  to witness the players observing a two minute silence after which the Barwick in Elmet players left the field except of course for their two batsmen. The decision of the Leeds and Wetherby league to steal a march on nearly all other leagues and start the season on the second Saturday of the month meant that I witnessed my first live cricket of the season at the same ground as in 2020. 

The reorganisation of the league following the departure of a number of clubs to the York league has rather thrust greatness on Green Hammerton who last year found themselves in the top division possibly for the first time in their history. The other Hammerton, Kirk, having folded as a league side Green have cast their net beyond the locality in order to maintain league cricket in the two adjacent villages. One swallow and all that but on the evidence of Saturday's proceedings it seems they will have a fight on their hands to maintain first division status although to their credit they did finish fourth in last season's truncated campaign, one place above Saturday's opponents.

Although the afternoon was bright and sunny the easterly breeze had a keen edge. too keen for me to take advantage of the benches that provide a good raised viewing point and I spent most of the first hour patrolling the boundary. The early overs threw up a number of firsts for the season, the first four, the first wide and the first lost ball, the last of which caused a significant delay in play. Despite a drought in the area which has left crops in great need of rain the wicket seemed slow and Barwick's openers progressed at little short of four an over and another first, a fifty partnership seemed inevitable until what seemed like a good shout for lbw was rewarded with a raised finger. 

By this time I had been joined by my friend Arthur Bartle and we enjoyed a conversation that for the first time in months did not take place via zoom. A Green Hammerton source (fine leg) informed me that rain or even snow was expected by mid afternoon and this was confirmed by Arthur and my weather app. With this in mind it became 'advantage Aintree' and I retreated to my armchair. Alas for Green Hammerton rain did not rescue them and Barwick rattled up 225 for 7 to which in reply 
the home team were all out for 93. Top scorer for Barwick was Robert Nicholls with 72. Opening bowler Muhammad Kamran had the very respectable figures of 3 for 30. Nicholls completed a fine all round match with 4 for 21 while Hammerton's top scorer  Rob Wheatley was run out for 30. 

With most leagues starting up next Saturday I spent much of last evening wondering where I might wander to visit some new grounds only to read on social media in the last hour that as well as county championship matches pausing for one hour twenty minutes on Saturday afternoon 'we (ECB) are asking all recreational cricket clubs across England and Wales to pause play between 3pm and 4pm next Saturday.'  No comment.