Golden Oldies out in force at Cawthorne.

 Posted by Tony Hutton

On Wednesday last 21st July, in perfect summer weather, it was a joy to re-visit the picturesque ground of Cawthorne cricket club which is situated in an attractive village not far from Barnsley. As so often with the more obscure fixtures on the cricketing calendar it was difficult initially to find out the venue for the Over fifties championship game between Yorkshire and Cheshire. For some reason Yorkshire over 50s tend not to publish the venues for their home games and their activities seem unknown in advance to the Yorkshire cricket board, who do however publish full scores of all their matches.

It was left to me to contact the Cheshire cricket board who proved to be much more efficient and responded almost immediately, also very kindly inserted the venue of Cawthorne onto the play-cricket website which is normally done by the home club. This may have helped produce a larger than average attendance, although the fact that a majority of the Yorkshire side were from South Yorkshire clubs may also have had something to do with it. The ground is at the end of Dark Lane, which is very narrow and takes a bit of negotiating but when you get there it is well worth the effort. An absolute delight.

The Cawthorne pavilion.

The Yorkshire over 50s have been the leading lights in this county championship for many years now to such an extent that some of the players have graduated to the over 60s with equal success. There is now even a Yorkshire over 70s team who actually lost a game to Cheshire at Grappenhall the day after this encounter at Cawthorne. Personally I am still waiting for them to start an over 80s team!

Cricket on a perfect summer's day.

However the Yorkshire team at Cawthorne certainly contained some familiar faces to followers of league cricket over the years. Outstanding among them was Steve Foster, the skipper, who is still scoring runs and taking wickets for Treeton in the Yorkshire Premier League South. Steve is a regular in the England over 50s side and played in the aborted World Cup in South Africa in 2020 which was eventually cancelled due to the Covid outbreak. Another Treeton player, wicket keeper  Paul Fenn, who is a mere youngster has just made his way into the England set up and looks a very capable performer.

Wicket keeper Paul Fenn waits for the back foot to raise.

Other well known names were Nicholas Gaywood of Sheffield Collegiate, Kevin Bradley a prodigious run scorer for Clifton Alliance and Barbar Butt an absolute legend at Pudsey Congs. The side contained no less than three left arm spinners in Jason Meadows (Elsecar), Leigh Beaumont (Stockton) and the evergreen Luke Jarvis (New Farnley). Haider Jahangir is a noted all rounder who has played for several South Yorkshire sides over the years and the side was completed by late arrival Adrian Meadows from Sheffield Collegiate and Mark 'Jocky' Wilson who seems to have been bowling for Wath on Dearne for ever.

Mark Wilson bowls the first over.

Cheshire won the toss and elected to bat, but progress was initially slow particularly against 'Jocky' Wilson who bowled his spell of nine overs unchanged. Five of them were maidens and he finished with remarkable figures of 1-7. He then retired to the shady side of the ground to give loud vocal encouragement to his team mates. All the spinners bowled well with the best figures going to Leigh Beaumont with 3-18 from his nine overs.

A seat in the shade was a wise move.

Chris Beckley from Cheadle Hulme anchored the Cheshire innings but with a middle order collapse had to take his time over an innings of 44 which took up 104 balls. Some welcome acceleration came at the end with Tim Jackson from Alderley Edge making 31 not out, but a final total of 131-6 at the end of the 45 overs was well below par. The strength of the Yorkshire batting line up can be judged by the fact that skipper Steve Foster only came in towards the end of the innings at number six.

A rare boundary for Cheshire.

Gaywood and Bradley put on 70 runs for the first wicket and the game was effectively over at that point.  However Nigel Muirhead, from Toft cricket club, chipped in with three wickets but the game was won in the thirty first over when Foster and Fenn saw them home comfortably with a partnership of 31. Yorkshire winning by five wickets with fourteen overs to spare. What an enjoyable day it had been to be able to watch cricket in whites, with I think only one or two helmets on show all day, in such pleasant surroundings