posted by John Winn
The cognoscenti who sipped ale after Tuesday's match at York were agreed that Yorkshire needed at least three points from their RL Cup games on Friday and yesterday to retain interest in the further stages of the competition. Given Friday's forecast a draw against Notts at Clifton Park seemed the safest bet and this needed to be followed by a win at Queen's Park Chesterfield on Sunday. and that is exactly what happened.
Undeterred by the predictions of torrential downpours and together with my friends John Fisher and Arthur Bartle I was at Clifton Park on Friday to see Yorkshire take the field against a Notts XI several of whom were unknown to me. Solomon Budinger fell into this category.Born in Colchester, educated in Southport, joined Sussex in 2016 and after two years moving to Trent Bridge makes an interesting cv and boy can he bat, matching his opening partner Ben Slater in a stand of 146 at just over six an over.'Sol' finally went for 71 including seven fours and four sixes during which time Yorkshire's fielding, which I praised on Tuesday, became increasingly ragged and there were ironic cheers when Coad held a straightforward chance at long leg to see the back of Slater. 152 for 2, seemingly a good launching pad, proved not to be so, for Pillans, in the side for Olivier, took the first four wickets for twenty six and with Sullivan* removing Patterson-White, in five overs the game had swung back Yorkshire's way.
One interruption for rain had already shortened the game and just before 3:00 a downpour drove the players from the field and most spectators to their cars. No surprise that there was no further play and Yorkshire took one point. A point gained or a point lost? Who knows? What is certain is the that the man parked next to me had superior deck chairs.
Yesterday a family event took my wife and I to the Derbyshire dales via a route that goes within fifty meters of Queen's Park where Derbyshire and Yorkshire were due to play at 11:00. Given that most of our visit to the village of Tideswell in the Peak District, just fifteen miles from Chesterfield, was spent watching torrential showers it is to the credit of the ground staff at Queen's Park that shortly before five o'clock a ten over game got underway. Derbyshire's 108 for 6 looked a decent total but largely thanks to Will Fraine who hit 69 off 32 balls including four sixes Yorkshire won by 8 wickets with 8 balls to spare.
This leaves Yorkshire second in the table level on points with Somerset who have a game in hand. Yorkshire's final game is at Cardiff on Thursday against table toppers Glamorgan. In the meantime Somerset will have played their outstanding game at home to Leicestershire tomorrow before travelling to Edgbaston on Thursday.
Meanwhile 130 miles north of Chesterfield at Chester le Street another Yorkshireman Alex Lees, but one who left Headingley three years ago, was playing a winning hand for Durham which took them to a two wicket win over Essex. Like Fraine Lees opened the batting and he finished on 126 not out with no other batsman scoring more than 24. Durham now lead Group A by one point from Lancs. Durham's penultimate game is at New Road tomorrow and they finish with a visit from Hants on Thursday. With 16 counties in action that day and a reasonable forecast there should be some exciting games but whether that will be conveyed to the public is doubtful given that yet another test match starts on the same day. There is also a match in another competition being played at Headingley which will no doubt generate the usual hysteria and hypocrisy associated with that genre.
* Leeds born Josh Sullivan took four for 11 in his two overs at Chesterfield yesterday.
No comments:
Post a Comment