Cricket diary 2009 - Closer to home

Posted by Tony Hutton

Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th Jun - back from our travels only to find an unwelcome clash of fixtures back home. Yorkshire 2nd XI are playing MCC Young Cricketers from Lord's, who are now members of the 2nd XI championship, at Stamford Bridge and at the same time the Yorkshire Academy have a three day game with Ireland 'A' at the Leeds University ground at Weetwood, Leeds.

Inevitably we are in the wrong place on these two days. Wednesday is day two of the match at Weetwood and on a scorching hot day we opt to stay closer to home, the Academy having made 337 the previous day bowl Ireland out and make them follow on. So nothing much to write home about. Whereas if we had gone to Stamford Bridge for day one of the three day match there we would have seen Yorkshire II make almost 500 runs, with Gary Ballance scoring a double century and Johnny Bairstow 147.

However we move on to Stamford Bridge for day two in the company of two grand octogenerians, John Rex and Harry Jackson, treasurer and secretary respectively of the Northern Cricket Society. Three of of us were commentators on Leeds Hospitals Radio for many years and always greatly enjoy our days out together, particularly this one with lunch at the admirable Gold Cup in the next village, Low Catton. The conversation and the laughter continue all day but the cricket does not really match the weather.

MCC Young Cricketers all out 174 are also asked to follow on and in fact the game finishes late on day two with an innings victory for Yorkshire, so no play on day three. This is a great shame as matches at Stamford Bridge always attract large crowds which would amaze people from the south of England who usually see the proverbial two men and a dog at second XI matches. I understand that the car park here had to be closed for the one day fixture which preceded the three day one due to the size of the crowd.

Meanwhile back at Weetwood, we had again missed the best of the action. Ireland 'A' having followed on made a remarkable 399-7 declared thus setting the Academy 230 to win in 40 odd overs. This they proceed to do with yet another newcomer Billy Root, younger brother of 19 year old Joe Root who was playing for the seconds at Stamford Bridge, getting a century in a dramatic three wicket win. The grandfather of these two very promissing batsmen was commuting from one venue to the other in the hope of seeing both of them bat - we hope he succeded.

Cricket Diary 2009 - Two days at Brockhampton

Posted by Tony Hutton

Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd June - after yesterdays tour of the Cotswolds time to settle down and relax at the perfect venue for Minor Counties cricket - The Park at Brockhampton in the Wye Valley between Ross and Hereford. Visitors to these parts are often confused by the other Brockhampton further north in the county and even those who find the sign to Brockhampton church still have to negotiate narrow country lanes before you come across a drive which says 'Stables and Cricket Ground only'.

Once there you will be delighted with the ground surrounded by trees, the old fashioned pavilion with hanging flower baskets and the more modern clubhouse and bar which does not detract from the ideal surroundings for watching cricket. It was a visit here in the early 1990s which really got me into Minor Counties cricket, something I remain grateful for to this day. Some years now since my last visit but I was not disappointed.

Herefordshire were playing Cornwall in this three day championship match and had brought a fair few committee men and supporters with them which all added to the event. The Reverend Canon Ken Rogers, the Cornwall President, sat next to us for a while but failed to pull out one of our tickets when the raffle draw was made.

We recalled our visit to St Just, as near to Lands End as you can get to watch cricket, when the big event of the day was the announcement that the pasties had arrived. Obviously the Cornish equivalent of the Lancastrian 'The pies 'ave come'. There is a lot of cricket played in Cornwall, which suprised me at first but the strength of today's team reflected that.
Indluded in their ranks was none other than leg-spinner Michael Munday who we had seen performing for Somerset at Headingley only a week ago. He did not really have a great match there but did bowl Johnny Bairstow with what was described as a 'donkey drop', which hit the off bail.

He had more success here and it was really his bowling along with that of his off-spinning captain, Tom Sharp that won the match for Cornwall. The foundations though were laid on the first day by a splendid innings from an unknown 19 year old, Dan Davis, who made 153 in splendid style. I was told that he was a bowler until an injury made him concentrate on his batting. Keith Parsons, the former Somerset player, joined in with 84 and Cornwall made a very satisfactory 384 all out in only 83 overs.

Herefordshire's best bowler was Charlie Griffiths (no, not the West Indian of long ago) a left arm spinner who took 5-98. This set the tone for the rest of the match with spin bowling dominating and keeping up both a very brisk over rate but a fast scoring rate as well. Perfect for old fashioned cricket watchers like me. In reply Hereford's first innings was quite respectable with 299-8 in their 90 overs. This was thanks mainly to David Exall's splendid innings of 98 not out.

Exall was unlucky to be stranded just short of his maiden championship century, due in my opinion to the scoreboard not showing his individual score. I am sure he did not know how many he had got during the last over, although we did being sat just in front of the scorers' caravan.
He got to 97 with two balls remaining and took a single which could have been turned into two even with the risk of running out his partner, but he declined and did not face the last ball.

A minor point perhaps, but a better scoreboard could have added to the day. The spinners Munday and Sharp had bowled 61 overs between them and taken 7 wickets. The action continued fast and furious as Cornwall added to their first innings lead with 69 from opener Mark Robins and another 63 from first innings hero, Dan Davis. Griffiths the Hereford spinner took 5 more wicket to make it 10 for the match, but Cornwall set a target of 356 when they declared on the last morning and Hereford subsided to defeat with 231 all out. David Exall got some consolation for missing his hundred with another 46 not out.

Captain Sharp led from the front bowling 35.3 overs in the second innings and taking 5-78, whereas Michael Munday bowled only 29 overs and took 5-96. So the Cornishmen went home happy, as did most of the spectators after a real feast of Minor Counties cricket in the best possible surroundings. Roll on next season - we will be back.

Cricket Diary 2009 - In the footsteps of Nico Craven

Sheepscombe (above) and Cheltenham College (below)

Posted by Tony Hutton

Saturday 20th June - for those of you unfamiliar with the works of Nico Craven, he is a prodigious cricket author (now retired) who wrote my kind of cricket books. At least one slim volume appeared every year describing cricket and it's characters at all levels. Despite living in Cumbria his passion has always been Gloucestershire, notably cricket at the Cheltenham festival and in the Cotswold villages.

Having met him several times watching Minor Counties cricket and corresponded with him since, I was determined to take this opportunity of following in his footsteps. Advance research on the computer revealed a morning start at the delightful Cheltenham College ground, where the College were taking on the Free Foresters, a famous old club of public schoolboys.

The ground was a picture with it's back drop of the College chapel and without the temporary stands and tents which will circle it later in the summer when Gloucestershire come to visit for the traditional festival. The college piled up the runs during the morning against a side which included their own cricket coach, none other than Mark Briers formally of Leicestershire and Durham , wearing his Durham sweater proudly no doubt still celebrating their championship title of last season.

However, after an early lunch and reunited with my wife after her tour de shops in Cheltenham, it was off to the Cotswolds to have a look at some of the grounds written about by Nico Craven.
First stop not far out of Cheltenham was Ullenwood cricket club, near the Air Balloon pub roundabout. In a hollow, surrounded by trees, and adjacent to the Crickley Hill country park it is a delightful spot. Little time to linger as Ullenwood took on Down Hatherley in the Gloucester County League division four, but Monday's paper reveals a three run win for the home side.

Next it was something like a treasure hunt to find a ground I had read about for years. Sheepscombe is not only a favourite of Nico Craven, but of many others who delight in out of the way village cricket grounds. Climbing the Cotswold escarpment on the main Gloucester to Stroud road, you eventually see a small signpost to Sheepscombe off to the left. You follow a narrow country lane for several miles with no sign of a village, until eventually you turn a corner and there is the landmark you need - the Butcher's Arms, Sheepscombe.

Passing the pub you take a no through road to Far End, before turning left at a sign to cricket club up a narrow track, which eventually leads you to a dead end in someone's garden. I had done what many must do on the first visit, missed the steep left hand hairpin bend which takes you up a narrow, unmade track, complete with boulders and no good at all for your suspension.

At this point my long suffering wife, said that if she had asked me to visit a shop up this track, I would have refused and turned back ! However, although she may have been right (she usually is), as it was a cricket ground I persevered. Soon the bumpy track gave way to a grassy plateau and there it was a long wooden pavilion perched high above the ground, which sloped away towards the marvellous view across this gently wooded valley. What a sense of achievement,
after years of reading about this heaven on earth, I had finally made it.

The ground is known as the Laurie Lee field, after the poet and author who came from the neighbouring village of Slad. He bought the field and leased it to the club free of charge. We later passed through Slad (no cricket ground), but a large wedding going on bringing traffic to a halt. It looked like the sort of event the great man would have written about.

The view from the pavilion balcony was stunning as Sheepscombe batted against Walls Crescent, an Asian team from Gloucester, who had done remarkably well to get eleven men and several supporters to the ground. The bowling was hostile and the home side soon in trouble at eight for three. The young man who was given out caught behind for the third wicket was disappointed by what looked a questionable decision from the pavilion. However he did not throw his bat or slam the door as so many do these days, but said the umpire was an experienced player who must have heared a noise, but he had not hit it.

A walk down the slope to third man at the far end revealed the other hazard of playing here. The fielder on the bottom boundary cannot see the bowler running in at the top end and only the upper half of the batsman. A six suddently flew off down the hill as if to emphasise the difficulty of fielding here. So an hour or so later it was time to move on, Sheepscombe making a slight recovery but Monday's paper again revealed the bad news, 66 all out and Walls Crescent won by five wickets. The splendidly named Fazalekarim Fadra was man of the match with 6-18 and 26 runs.

On now to Frocester,a very small village, just below the Cotswold edge, but a much higher standard of cricket - the Western Premier League no less. Frocester were taking on the might of Bath and putting them to the sword in emphatic fashion at their newish ground, Pound Close.
The man doing most of the damage was former Durham and Gloucester county player, Nick Trainor was made 128 in fine style out of a total of 234-8 in 55 overs.

The modern clubhouse had excellent facilities, but for me the best spot was opposite the pavilion where you could park under the trees with another fine view of the wooded hillside. This rural retreat was not far from the main line railway from Cheltenham to Bristol and a ride down the lane, crossing the railway, took us to the old ground, now used by the third eleven. This was St Peter's field, at the back of the church, with fine views across the Severn plain to May Hill a landmark in the Forest of Dean.

Our final call was to the village of Frampton-on-Severn which supposedly had the longest village green in England. The old cricket ground on the green, adjacent to an attractive pub has very short boundaries, but sadly was not in use today. The club has moved just up a lane opposite to a bigger ground, where the match was in progress, but nowhere near as scenic, being blighted by a line of electricity pylons. Hoever the groundsman was working on the old ground and there would be a game on Sunday, but we would be elsewhere by then.

We had been lucky with the weather, another splendid day and grounds anyone would want to go back to, although I have doubts whether my car would make it to Sheepscombe again !

Cricket Diary 2009 - Worcester memories

Azeem Rafiq returns to the pavilion after scoring a century (above)
The famous view of Worcester (below)

Posted by Tony Hutton

Friday 19th June - a long planned cricketing holiday based in Herefordshire means an early start down the motorway for the last day of the four day game between Worcestershire and Yorkshire at the county ground, Worcester.

This high scoring game was already destined to end in a draw, but such is my affection for the ground that I was determined to be there. The sun shone and the bonus was the fact that young teenager Azeem Rafiq was 60 not out overnight. Was there a chance that this very talented all rounder would reach his maiden century ?

Indeed there was, thanks to some stout support from Matthew Hoggard. The former England bowler hit a stubborn 56 not out in a partnership of 150 with Rafiq for the ninth wicket. Rafiq's century came of only 95 balls with 13 fours and three sixes - a remarkable achievement.
He was out almost immediately and received a great ovation from the relatively few Yorkshire supporters still in attendance.

Yorkshire passed 500 in reply to Worcester's 415 and the game drifted predictably to a draw during the afternoon, Worcester's second innings ending on 203-3. However the sun continued to shine and you could walk around this always pleasant ground and explore the brand new Graeme Hick pavilion, built on stilts to be above the flood level. Talking to some Worcester members not everyone is happy with it - one suggesting that it was suitable for storing aircraft underneath in the large empty space. Inside it is very welcoming, still with the unchanging view of the cathedral. The steep steps down from the dressing rooms to pitch level might be something of a hazard for the players.

Walking round the ground, you could see two schoolboys games going on through the hedge on the adjacent school fields. Also a detailed wall display at the back of the Basil D'Olivera stand with pictures of players from the past and a long list of all international players who have played for Worcestershire.

This set me thinking about my first visit to Worcester, as a schoolboy, back in the 1950s. A check back into Wisden reveals Saturday 16th June 1951, Worcestershire v Cambridge University. I can remember vividly the bus journey from Birmingham, the walk over the bridge across the River Severn and this marvellous ground, still very rural and undeveloped then with the stunning view.

The cricket was pretty good too, in the days of county stalwarts like Reg Perks, a very good quick bowler and prodigious big hitter who was the schoolboys' favourite. Roley Jenkins, the leg spinner, who bowled with his cap on, and was very succesful for England in South Africa. Don Kenyon was the backbone of the batting for years and Hugo Yarnold the tiny wicketkeeper was another long serving regular.

The opposition was pretty special too. David Sheppard and Peter May were to become outstanding England batsman. Raman Subba Row and John Warr also played for England and the young off spinner Robin Marlar went on to captain Sussex and write on cricket for the Sunday Times for many years. So memories galore and perhaps everything has changed except the cathedral, but it remains a very special place for all cricket enthusiasts.

Delph drizzle

Posted by Peter Davies

A fleeting visit to Delph and Dobcross on the way back from an Oldham tour (Crompton and Austerlands). My Dad stops at D&D for a few overs when he's crossing the Pennines by car and there's a game on...so it's one of his favourite local grounds. Holmfirth were the visitors and had scored 231 for 9 in their overs. But Delph were easing to victory with few alarms. As we circled the ground we could spot HCC stalwarts Bruce Jakeman and David Whiteley in earnest conversation - the tall and the short of it, with the latter towering over the former by at least a foot. I've been to D&D several times but I don't know it that well as a club or a ground because it's just outside our project area. As a big Lancashire fan I'm always impressed by their Red Rose connections - with Kyle Hogg a regular in their side. And many other Lancashire and ex-Lancashire players have turned out for them too. We arrived at the same time as a rain shower and the players came off fairly adroitly. To be honest, though, it was only a bit of drizzle and I thought Premiership players would have been made of sterner stuff! But off they went for a short time. I went in search of refreshments but there were none to be had in the clubhouse or tea room (hard to avoid this particular facility with TEA ROOM painted on its roof in very large letters!).

MCC in town

Posted by Peter Davies

Wednesday 1 July

A couple of hours at Lascelles Hall for the extremely prestigious friendly match between Huddersfield New College and the MCC. The standard of cricket was very good, as would be expected, and lots of curiousities too: a wicketkeeper in his 70s, a piece of New College publicity which, inadvertently, featured a photo of legendary Headingley-based Professional Cricket Watcher Brian Senior, and belting hot sun. My pals Tony Hutton, Mick Bourne and David Thorpe were perched in the shade near the scorebox, with MCC pulling off an unlikely victory as evening fell. On the boundary edge there was talk of the ICC Centenary Conference in Oxford, the soon-to-be-published Northern Cricket Society booklet for 2009, and Andy Murray's amazing progress at Wimbledon. In the pavilion there were still leftovers from teatime available: onion rings, egg mayo slices and some of those gorgeous mini-sausages - with fruit pie, fruit cake and other delicacies to follow. The MCC sure did hire a top tea lady for the fixture! She turned out to be an acquaintance from Hopton Mills/Ossett, and her son, Stevie, was playing for the New College XI. The ground looked a picture - it was as if nothing had changed with the scenery (rolling hills and farmers' fields) since the 19th century. The New College umpire exerted quiet authority throughout the afternoon - Dave Robinson, Mr Thorpe's friend who switched from Golcar to Meltham a couple of years ago but who has now retired (sort of) and taken up umpiring.