Short and to the point.

posted by John Winn

The ICC 2007 World Cup lasted just two days short of seven weeks, which according to Wisden was 'as long as the last Olympic Games and football World Cup put together'. If you prefer your cricket tournaments to be more concise than this then may I draw your attention to the World T20 qualifers which begin in UAE next week and in the course of twelve days and seventy two matches will reduce sixteen teams to two, who will qualify to be part of the World T20 to be played later this year.
The first games are on Tuesday when there are four games in Pool A and four in Pool B. Nothing like getting off to a quick start and the pace does not let up for there is cricket every day up to and including the 20th apart from a rest day on the 17th. The group games conclude on the 20th and the deciding playoffs are from the 22nd to the 24th inclusive. A full list of matches is available on the 'Cricket Europe' website together with squad lists. Familiar names include Porterfield, Rankin and O'Brien for Ireland,Coetzer for Scotland and from a Durham member's viewpoint the most interesing, Michael di Venuto for Italy.Reports, results and tables will also appear on the website.Six games in the latter stages will be televised by ESPN and fourteen group matches will be streamed by Quipu TV, a Scottish multi media company.

PARSEE CRICKET CLUB

By Brian Sanderson,

On Thursday Peter Davies invited a number of people to his birthday lunch in Huddersfield.I was pleased to go and had a excellent Indian meal with good company.
Before I caught the train back to Leeds, I went with Brian Senior to Huddersfield Library.In the local section there was a book about Huddersfield Cricket Club.On opening it I found a fixture against the Parsee Club in 1886.I wondered how this had happen they played a Indian Team.

On the next afternoon I was looking through Cricket magazine for 1886 as one does in afternoon in March. One of the articles mentioned the trip of the Parsee cricketers coming to England.They were to leave Bombay and arrive in London about the 18th of May.Fixtures in the North shown they played Harrogate, Elland ,Hull Middlesborough, Huddersfield and Scarborough.

Te first match was against Lord Sheffield X1 .They lost the match by an innings and
43 runs.It states that five of the team bowled, Messrs. Patell, fast under,Framjee,fast round,Bhedwar, underarm fast,Khambatta,left fast and Morenas.No comment on his bowling.

They played Harrogate on the 9 and 10 June 1886.Harrogate scored 211 and won by an innings and 13 runs.

The next article in the Cricketer on the 19 August heading The Farewell address of vthe Parsee Cricketers.It states the coming over of the Parsee cricket team to England at the expense of time and considerable outlay is a remarkable feature in the history of this country,and marks a new era in the annals of this noble game.They were highly flattered at the reception we received at Cumberland Lodge at the hands of Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Christain and also at Sheffield Parkby the Earl of Sheffield.

They stated the Parsees are unanimous in favour of British rule ,for they consider it best not only for themselves but for all the different communities of India.A different world to twitter.

Looking at the Cricket Archive web-site it has the list of the matches of the tour.
The Huddersfield match was played on the 9th and 10th July.Huddersfield scored 302 and the Parsees scored 75 and 59 for 2. It must have rain again in Huddersfield.
The scores were in the Huddersfield Chronicle paper.

Confessions of a twitterite

posted by John Winn

Worldwide there are over 350 million twitterites (users of twitter) and I'm one of them and have been for about three months. When I joined I sent texts to half a dozen friends who in the main were incredulous that I had taken such a step and I sensed that they thought I had been overcome by a very late midlife crisis. In those three months I have acquired just 13 followers of whom five are unknown to me and whose motives are, I suspect, entirely commercial and in three cases of a dubious nature.
Since it was founded as a social networking site in 2006 Twitter has expanded very rapidly and thanks to the likes of footballer Joey Barton, gained considerable notoriety and/or a reputation of being a vehicle whereby people publish comments on their daily lives of the 'got up, changed my library book, watched Countdown, had supper, went to bed' type.
It can of course be both these things and I would not deny that of the 226 tweets I have posted many will have made little impact beyond a very narrow circle, if as far as that, but of course I think they are terse, pithy and witty comments on the state of the world as seen from the Lower Ure valley. Where I have found twitter very useful, however, is as a source of information, especially cricket information. Of the thirty three individuals or organisations that I follow 13 are direct sources of cricket news and comment and a further five of a general sporting nature. With the use of a mobile phone or pc the touch of one button brings a constant 'timeline' of information, without having to use a search engine or website, from organisations ranging from the ECB to The Nidderdale League. So far today, and it is just early afternoon, I have received 14 cricket tweets, mainly updates from the Australia/Sri Lanka game but typical of tweets I have received in the last few days are as follows
:- Spofforth CC have got winter nets tomorrow
:- Headingley CC are looking for a friendly on 7th or 8th April
:- Total Cricket Scorer version two is now available for iphone and ipad
:- In 1889 the groundsman at Northfields Road, Southampton had his donkey stolen
:- Yorkshire Cricket Board has nearly 1000 followers on Twitter
:- Ossett CC want a local based pro
:- Idle CC need a first team scorer
Finally,and perhaps of greatest interest to the pcw, this season's Ingilby Shield fixture between The Nidderdale League and the league's overseas players will be played at Pateley Bridge on Sunday 8th July.

If all this has not convinced you that tweeting is for you then consider these two non-cricket snippets, Dana was at Frank Carson's funeral and my neighbour who moved to New York in 2010 went shopping at IKEA yesterday. Wow!

Good as I think twitter is for keeeping one up to date the most disappointing piece of news I have heard this week came not from a fellow tweeter, but in an email from Tony Hutton, to the effect that the match between Durham University and Middlesex,arranged for March 31st at Durham and which weeks ago I had earmarked for my first cricket watching of the season, has been switched to a Middlesex home fixture and will now be played at Merchant Taylors' school in Northwood.I am consoled by the fact that I will now be able to attend the Pennine Cricket Conference at The University of Huddersfield and that I need only curb my enthusiasm for cricket until the following Thursday when the curtain goes up at Headingley.Only 32 more days, roll on.

More signs of Spring

Posted by John Winn

Five weeks today is April 1st and the first class season will be two days old.League cricket will not follow until three weeks later, which seems rather a long gap but I am very reliably informed that for many leagues the third Saturday in April is the traditional start and this year as it is the 21st it is as late as it can be.
I referred in a posting made last month to Yorkshire's pre-season tour to Barbados where they will be joined by four other first class counties with a practice match beginning on March 15th. Pre-season cricket is not confined to warm climates however, for I note that the dragons of Somerset and Glamorgan will breathe fire over each other at Taunton on March 19th;they may need to to keep warm. At least the daffodils will be in flower.
In a couple of last season's postings I referred to my aim of trying to see each county play all other counties at least once in the county championship, a task which is now more than 80% completed. 2012 has thrown up a bumper crop of the remaining games, 12 in all,but their distribution, both in terms of the calendar and geography means that it will not be possible for me to see more than about 8 of them. April 19th presents the first opportunity when Surrey meet Worcestershire at The Oval. Tickets (at bargain prices)for the train journey are already in my possession, so fingers crossed for fine weather.
One more sign of the season's rapid approach is that I have received the usual request for match ball sponsorshipfrom my local club, Ouseburn CC. Happy to be able to oblige. Defending their title as champions of The Nidderdale League, won for the first time last season, will be hard, especially with Spofforth who defected from The Wetherby League last year now in the top division.
Finally Brian mentioned in his most recent posting that Howard Clayton had been appointed to be scorer for Yorkshire II. This is now reported on the YCCC website and brings to light a remarkable coincidence. I won't say anymore for if you can read this, you can read that, but it is worth a look.

VERITY MATCH IN OMAGH 1941

By Brian Sanderson,

On Wednesday 8th of February Yorkshire cricket Archives received two score sheets for match between Green Howards against Mr Walsh X1.The Green Howards included Norman Yardley and Hedley Verity.

The match itself was described in Alan Hill book called A portrait of a cricketer
Hedley Verity and there is photogragh of the sides together with picture of the wicket at the Tyrone and Fermanagh hospital.The Green Howards were on manoeuvers in Northern Ireland.They were beaten at cricket by a North-West Ireland eleven at the garrison town of Omagh in Hedley Verity last game on a British field. Verity took eight wickets for 55 runs to dismiss the Irishmen for 112 but the Green Howards ,cloaked in the anonymity of a "Miltary X1", lost by 21 runs.

There is also a copy of newspaper report of the match and an averages for Strabane Cricket Club for 1941 for whom Yardey and Verity played for that season.It was their most successful season since 1910. I e-mail the Strabane historical society to see if they could obtain details of these matches.It will be interesting if they can find any details.

I have put the details of the match on Cricket Archives for the season 1941. This will appear in the next few days.While looking at this excellent web-site ,I noticed they have recently put copies of The Cricketer magazines since 1948 on the site.You can read them as though it is a magazine. Brilliant idea.

You might also look at the Hillam and Monk Fryston cricket club web-site. On the home page there a link to Yorkshire Post article about the club which has been playing cricket for over 300 years. I hope to visit the club this season.

It is also the Centenary of The York and District Cricket League tis year.There is a cabinet full of celebratiing the fact in The Long Room at Headingley. I hope people will stop and look at during the coming season.

Latest news is that Howard Clayton is the new Second Team scorer for next year.

There is somebody out there

posted by John Winn

In a posting last summer I remarked on a peculiarity of making contributions to the blog was that one could not be sure if they were read by anybody and even if they were, who that person or persons might be. I did mention that some readers had been kind enough to say at the end of the season that they enjoyed the postings which was encouraging but yesterday however I discovered that with a little delving there is very detailed information available about the popularity of the site and the composition its readership.
Since its inception in May 2009 the blog has had almost 15000 'page views'*, 62% from the UK, 15% from USA, 3% from The Netherlands and almost as many from Russia! The peak month for 'hits' was July 2011 when there were over 1500 page views,devotees seeking a refuge from T20?, and perhaps most remarkably there have been over 400 pageviews already in 2012, including 75 in the last week. We may well have a Republican in our midst for there is one hit recorded at 3:00 pm on December 25th.
Postings are also listed by their popularity with number one being by Tony Hutton in 2009 describing cricket under the heading 'A wet bank holiday weekend', which had 264 page views. Perhaps not surprisingly four of the top ten have been for the monthly fixture lists provided by Tony.
Encouraged by all this I attach a few bits of information which might be considered the real business of the blog.
Most counties have published their second eleven fixtures although Durham appear to be keeping theirs a secret and in some cases venues are still to be confirmed. Yorkshire were quick off the mark and it is good to see Harrogate with four days cricket in April when Leicestershire will be the visitors.
With first class cricket beginning on 31st March and the championship a few days later, there a number of friendlies scheduled including Essex against Surrey on 21st March. For those who prefer their cricket in warmer climes and had better luck than I had at Wetherby Races last week, then YCCC start their pre-season tour of Barbados with a practice match on March 15th, full details of packages are available on the club website. Nearer to home and almost certainly colder, The Riverside hosts a two day friendly between Durham and Yorkshire starting on April 1st.
League cricket fixtures are also available with most competitions beginning on April 21st although I note that the NYSD Sunday league begins the previous week, i.e. April 15th.
If you can add any additions, clarifications or corrections to this fixture information then please use the comments section.

* apparently a 'pageview' is not the same as a 'hit' but you probably get the idea.

'Hallowed Homes of Cricket'

posted by John Winn

Happy New Year and I hope this mild January finds you well and looking forward to the 2012 season which begins in just 81 days. Father Christmas was kind to me, in particular because he delivered Chris Arnot's lovely nostalgic book 'Britain's Lost Cricket Grounds'. The front cover of the book shows the Central Ground at Hastings where I was fortunate enough to play on a number of occasions and to be present when the last first class fixture was played between Sussex and Middlesex in 1989. Although the ground sustained club cricket until 1994 it is now a shopping centre.The book was previewed via this blog in October by Tony Hutton and Tony described how he was approached by the author when he was researching the loss of the Fartown ground in Huddersfield.Tony's contribution to the text appears on page 161.

The idea behind Arnot's book is a simple one: find forty cricket grounds where the game is no longer played, visit the site of each one,talk to people who recall when cricket was played there and illustrate with photographs showing how it was and how it is now, the sort of idea that might have produced a mundane book with a few very familiar photographs. Fortunately Arnot's book is not like that. It is the work of a craftsman who has thoroughly researched the project, cares deeply that such grounds have been lost and he has used many lovely photographs which I suspect in many cases will be new to readers, especially those from the Edwardian era. Photographs, not readers!
Back to Hastings, which occupies the first chapter and in which two photographs commemorate the remarkable achievements of Denis Compton in 1947 when he eclipsed both Hayward's aggregate of 3518 runs and Jack Hobbs' record of sixteen centuries in a first class season. Compton achieved both these landmarks at the Hastings Festival that year. First he beat Hobbs' record when scoring 101 against the touring South Africans for the South of England and a few days later and again representing the South, this time against Pelham Warner's XI, Compton scored the 35 runs necessary to beat Hayward.How those large post war crowds must have enjoyed that week's cricket.
At the same time as Compton was entertaining seaside crowds in Sussex the Scarborough Festival was in progress at North Marine Road. When the original fixture list was published it had featured a match between Leveson Gower's XI and the South Africans but 'shipping conditions' compelled the men from the veld to return home early and the fixtures were rearranged with a North v South match taking the place of the tourists' match. The final match of that year's festival was between The Players, captained by Hutton, who comfortably beat The Gentlemen. One little peculiarity is that the 'Indisposition of Brennan left The Gentlemen without a wicketkeeper and (J.L.) Cheetham of Bridlington took his place'. This was to be Cheetham's only first class match and almost 10% of The Players' runs came in byes but he could perhaps have gained consolation from the fact that his only victim was England opener Cyril Washbrook, caught behind for 7.

In closing I should point out that Arnot's book is not just about the demise of county grounds like Hastings and Fartown, for these are in the minority, although they do include The Circle at Hull where Yoekshire played until the 1990s. Many of the lost grounds described were works' and village grounds. Arnot's description of such grounds will equally bring a tear to the eye of those who played and watched cricket there and perhaps to those who just love the game.