Posted by Tony Hutton
Monday 16th May was the day when, in theory at least, spectators were allowed back into watch cricket matches. As we have learned to expect in recent times nothing is straightforward. It depends what sort of cricket you want to watch. Certainly nobody seems to have thought it through in respect of county second eleven games, which have always been played in front of very modest crowds, although not quite as small as the mythical two men and a dog.
Yorkshire county cricket club's second XI game against Nottinghamshire second XI was scheduled to take place at York cricket club for four days. No information whatsoever about the game appeared on the county website, so off we went on Monday morning with our picnic chairs and packed lunch ready to renew acquaintance with the handful of regulars who attend such games.
On entry to the pavilion we were greeted by the staff with a fine 'welcome back to York Sports Club', asking us to take a seat, complete the track and trace procedure and take advantage of the waiter service for morning coffee and refreshments if required. It was then announced that this was a private event and spectators were not admitted unless seated in the hospitality area in front of the pavilion and taking advantage of the food and drink readily available. We were not allowed to use our own seats or to consume our own food on the premises.
After an hour's delay due to the weather play finally got underway at mid-day and we were delighted to have front row seats (benches only) to actually watch some cricket. So our first county second eleven cricket since 2019 actually took place. Yorkshire batted in far from perfect conditions and their fairly youthful line up faced some experienced bowling in the shape of Brett Hutton and Zac Chappell. James Wharton was the first to go caught behind by Schadendorf, not as you might think from Germany but from Zimbabwe.
Will Fraine stayed in for an hour making 34 before being caught at slip off change bowler Pettman, from Oxford University, just before lunch. This brought together the two former Sedbergh School boys, Matt Revis and George Hill. It proved to be slow going against some accurate bowling which remained the theme for the rest of the day against the all seam attack, with Evison and Hayes completing a full set of pace bowlers. Hutton dismissed Revis for 20 and eventually Hill for a hard earned 47 in almost three hours.
Tom Loten who was rather thrown in at the deep end as number three in the first team at the start of the season, has been out of form, but from the beginning of his innings he got his head down and was determined to stay at the crease. Rain interrupted proceedings for an hour and twenty minutes around tea time and then called an end to the day with Yorkshire on 162-5 with Loten having grafted his way to 28. On day two, when we were elsewhere, Loten carried on his marathon innings to be last out for 92 which had taken him five hours and 20 minutes and Yorkshire finished on 296 all out.
We were surprised to learn that Yorkshire, despite looking short of bowlers, managed to bowl out Notts for a total of 115 on day two and although they lost 2 wickets for 27 at the end of the day were well ahead when we turned up again for more hospitality on day three. Yorkshire ground out a considerable lead thanks again to George Hill with an epic innings of almost four hours, scoring 77 in the process and putting on a partnership of 71 with the elder Sullivan brother for the ninth wicket. Yorkshire 201 all out setting Notts a daunting target of 382.
Needless to say the weather had the final say on day four (Thursday), when Notts had reached 125-5 and the game was abandoned as a draw with Yorkshire robbed of victory by more rain.
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