The deckchair gets an airing

 posted by John Winn

Yesterday, after lunch with my wife at a local pub, I returned home and on a beautiful afternoon, opened the shed, disturbed the deckchair from its winter hibernation, dusted it off and settled down to listen to BBC commentary from Headingley with occasional excursions to other grounds. Just three days earlier I had watched the first day of the Yorkshire/Glamorgan match wearing my cold weather jacket and not once did I feel like removing it. I did not stay long enough to see Yorkshire lose five wickets before close of play and a poor forecast for Friday put me off returning to LS6 for the second day when they were bowled out for 106. 

Saturday was a much warmer day and I travelled in hope to St George's Road, Harrogate where Sheriff Hutton Bridge were the visitors. I stayed a couple of hours catching up with my friend Les Pennington who I had not seen since January, but despite the sunshine there was no cricket as the ground stubbornly refused to dry sufficiently to allow play. Tea(sic) was taken at 13:15, numerous inspections followed but all to no avail and by 15:00 I was on my way home wishing I had driven a dozen miles further and gone to Headingley where I could have seen Labuschagne make 170 not out which went a long way towards the 492 Yorkshire were set to win. 

Back to the deckchair and Yorkshire kept the crowd and listeners to the commentary enthralled to the very end when Thompson, having reached his fifty, safely played out the last over from Neser while the injured Coad, who fortunately did not have to face, watched from the non-striker's end. Yorkshire travel to The Riverside this week, presumably without Coad but under a new captain, Shan Masood, who had such an outstanding season for Derbyshire in 2022.The forecast isn't great but I have every intention of being there  for the first championship match since 2016 between my county of birth and my county of residence. 

Headingley did not have a monopoly on close finishes yesterday. What would you have paid to see Broad facing Anderson and taking fifty balls to score three?  As if this was not enough "Ashes hopeful Olly Stone"*  was undefeated on nought having limped from the field earlier in the day. At Derby, Leicestershire showed plenty of spirit and scored just enough to make Derbyshire bat again setting a target of fifty four from three overs but after phone calls to the ECB and a twenty minute delay this was reduced to one over which was bowled by Ackermann and defended by Haider Ali. Elsewhere Northants thwarted Somerset, Surrey had three wickets in hand when stumps were pulled but an Essex victory had been a possibility until Jamie Smith and Jordan Clark stopped the rot. Earlier in the dayWarwickshire crushed Hants and are now level on points at the top of Division One with Surrey. 

                                                                            

And now for last week's homework for which you were asked to say how many of these clubs who were operating in the High Peak League about 80 years ago are still in existence today. Perhaps surprisingly only one of the clubs seems to have vanished without trace, Bradbury St M while Stockport SS** merged with Stockport in 1998 and Compstall seem to have become a feeder club for Marple. Birch Vale are now known as Birch Vale and Thornsett. New Mills, Dove Holes, Whaley Bridge, Hayfield, and Hazel Grove play in Derbyshire and Cheshire Div 1, Chapel (en le Frith) and Birch Vale in Div 2. Romiley are in Cheshire Div 2. 

* I newspaper's words not mine. 

** SS stood for Sunday School