Yorkshire County cricket at all levels.

 Posted by Tony Hutton

The last few days of continuing fine weather have given us the chance to see all three Yorkshire cricket sides in action. The first team of course have been playing Sussex at Headingley, the Second eleven played Durham at Leeds University in two T20s on Thursday and the Academy side entertained Sheriff Hutton Bridge at the same Weetwood venue on Saturday.

The first team somehow managed a hard earned innings victory late this afternoon after many, including ourselves, had written the game off as a certain draw at the tea interval. Of course one of the joys of cricket is it's unpredictability and as wickets began to tumble in the final session we were able to tune in to see the final stages on the admirable live streaming.

Without wishing to pour cold water on a fine victory for the home side, it should perhaps be pointed out that the Sussex side, as mentioned in my previous blog, was not very experienced and contained a good number of youngsters, two of whom Ibrahim and Orr were making their first class debuts. Both distinguished themselves with half centuries and another youngster Atkins, the opening bowler, had good figures of 5-98.

Alastair Orr batting for Sussex on the last day at Headingley.

Many people will be unaware that one of Yorkshire's latest young hopefuls was on the field for much of the final day as a substitute fielder. This was the current Academy captain Will Luxton, who has had a fine run of form recently culminating in two centuries this week, one against Durham Academy at Morpeth last Thursday and the other on Saturday in the Yorkshire League North match with Sheriff Hutton Bridge at Weetwood.

Will Luxton (Yorkshire Academy)

The outstanding feature of Saturday's game was a partnership of 208 for the second wicket between Luxton and team mate Matthew Weston, after losing a wicket to the first ball of the match. We had seen Luxton make runs before, but I think this was the first time Weston had passed fifty, although he has always looked to have a correct technique. This is a very new intake of Academy players and they have already made an excellent impression in games against much more senior opposition. Both players reached the century mark and celebrated appropriately.

Will Luxton celebrates his century.

Matthew Weston follows suit.

So far then good news on both fronts, but after half a day at Headingley on Thursday we made our way to Weetwood where Yorkshire Second eleven were in action with two T20 games against Durham seconds. Durham had already won the first game during the morning and we saw the second match during the afternoon. Unfortunately it did not last long and one wonders about the benefits of this type of cricket in developing young players. Apparently there has been some debate about playing two games in one day and many of this season's second team fixtures have only a one game per day format, which again seems a pointless exercise often involving long journies.

The Durham dressing room at Weetwood.

In game two Yorkshire quickly bowled out Durham for just 83, although Paul Coughlin had to retire hurt with an injured hand and could not continue. The Durham batsmen appeared to show little interest and Yorkshire's bowlers all took cheap wickets. In reply Yorkshire won by seven wickets, their innings of 9.4 overs taking just 37 minutes to knock off the runs.

One note of defiance as Trevaskis hits a six for Durham.

Sadly the whole occasion looked like a waste of time and certainly did little or nothing to enhance any of the players' reputations. Surely our young cricketers should be encouraged to play more long format games to gain experience of 'proper cricket', although of course you can see that many of them will be tempted by the financial rewards available to those who succeed in the shorter form.