TRIP ROUND SELBY AREA

By Brian Sanderson,

On a sunny morning myself, Ron Deaton and Ron Stansfield set out from York to visit some local clubs as the weather forecast was good after the heavy rain.At York we meet Robert Proctor who runs the York fourth team but his match had been called off due to the poor state of the pitch.

The first match we went to was Cawood as the York and District League started at 1.00 P.M.They were playing Pocklington with the home side batting.

As you will see from the photograph they are trying to improve their ground.The club house is beeing modernised and a new scorebox is in place.

We moved back to Stillingfleet who were playing Copmanthorpe.They are one of the founding clubs of the league dated back to 1934.It has a feel of park ground with acorn trees round the ground.

In side the club house is a nice clock with the clubs name on it.As the top photograph shows.

Next ground is a beautiful ground at Keldfield  who were playing Fulfordgate in the York Vale League.You are met by a nice small sign with some flowers welcoming you to the ground. A nice touch.

A the sign says into next to the river. In each corner of the ground is small flower boxes with a little comic comment.

A ground which is loving looked after and is worth visiting.I which all grounds could be like this ground.

Next ground we called at was Selby were two sides should have been playing but the ground had been taken over by Rugby Union.Why can they put a message of the web-site to say the cricet matches were off.

Next ground was Thorpe Willoughby who were playing York R.I.It is a multisport complex were the football pitches had already been marked out.

The changing rooms ara a distance from the pich so they use the groundsman hut to watch the match.Contrast to Keldfield.

Driving back towards York we popped into South Milford who were playing Sicklinghall in the Wetherby League. A nice small ground with horse grazing in the next field.

A peaceful country ground with stone walls .

The final ground was in Sherburn who were playing Crossgates in the Wetherby League. The ground is a local park and there was a small fair playing loud music next to the pitch.

They do well to keep going with the problems of no security and a open park.

I took about fifty photographs so this are a few which I hope give a flavour of the grounds.

HOW MANY CRICKETERS ARE ALLOWED ON THE PITCH ?

By Brian Sanderson,

Yesterday was a sunny day and it was a pleasure to go to Trent Bridge with Brian Workman.The match was Nottingham against Warwick on the third day.We arrived with Warwick 27 for 2 with the hope that they could bat out the day.

We sat in the pavilion behind the wickets with a sparse crowd.It is always interesting watching Shahzad bowl as he is on his third county.He managed to get a wicket caught behind with a wide ball.However is figures at the end of the day was 17-1-70-1 and I did clamp his maiden over.At lunch-time I walked to the cateen and met Michael Missett and his wife.Michael lived in the same street as me and went to the same school which seem ages ago.At this stage Warwick were five wickets down and Durham had taken two Sussex wickets.

After lunch I called in to the Library to see Peter Wynne-Thomas ,the Nottingham archivist and is always worth a visit.During the afternoon the run rate became slow as Warwick just wanted to bat the day out and hoped it rained all day Friday.Maddy  came in with a runner and preceed to defied Notts for 53 overs for his
65 runs.

Above is photograph of him coming off the ground which may be his final first-class match.He had been joined by Pete McKay who also had a runner due to a ankle problem so there was 17 people on the field including the umpires which is the answer to the question in the title of the blog.

At the end of the day Fletcher took his fifth wicket and Warwick were bowled out for 271.Whilst Durham had bowled out Sussex for 116 so are now top of the Division one with a 10.5 point advantage.

As I write this blog it is raining and the forcast more rain so Warwick may be saved a defeat.

Will Colly avoid the brolly?

posted by John Winn

Two days in lovely sunshine at The Riverside can lull you into thinking that summer and the cricket season will go on for ever but Friday's forecast for heavy rain has been in spectators' and players' minds since Tuesday as it would seem to rule out any prospect of play tomorrow and thus Durham must do the business of finishing off Sussex today. If as seems likely Durham skipper Paul Collingwood has cast his mind back to April when he left Yorkshire all day to make over 300 and Joe Root made his calculations obsolete the decision when to declare will not be an easy one. On the evidence of their batting yesterday Sussex would appear to have no rivals to the England opener, indeed some of the tail batted more like Joe Pasqulae than Joe Root. Both sides have come into this match understrength: the visitors clearly short of batting and Durham missing three of the pace attack that played at Scarborough a week ago. So far Durham's second string bowlers have done better than the Sussex stand in batsmen. Coach Mark 'Smokey' Robinson has cleared worked no miracles with the batting skills of his last three batsmen who all collected noughts, leaving skipper and compulsive bail remover Ben Brown 21 not out.

There was a particularly good turn out of retired teachers in block 11 on Tuesday, St Gove's Day, when we think of pupils returning to school after the summer break and rejoice that they will have to manage without us. The day followed the template of virtually every first day in championship matches at Chester le Street this season. In short Durham win the toss, bat and are bowled out for about 250 and by close of play the opposition have lost wickets in reply. Stumps on Tuesday: Durham 245, Sussex 60 for 3.

By taking a different bus from Durham yesterday I missed only twenty minutes of play, enough time for Sussex to lose opener Wells to the Mustard and Onions combination and there after the visitors slid downhill to be all out shortly after noon with a deficit of 133. Three wickets for Claydon, recalled from a loan spell at Kent but set to return to Canterbury at the end of the season on a two year contract and three for 'Benny' Arshad, who with both bat and ball has shown signs that he may well prove an asset next season and beyond.

Jennings and Stoneman began brightly and indeed there was a levity about the proceedings that started us thinking that we might see a quick 200, followed by a declaration and a few Sussex wickets fall, all before we had to dash home for 'The One Show'. This silly idea was quickly punctured by the regular fall of wickets until at 90 for 5, Durham's two most seasoned campaigners found themselves at the crease and there was a clear change of tactics. Admiral Collingwood steadied his ship with help from the first mate Mustard and at stumps with help from 'Benny' they had stretched the lead to 345 with four second innings wickets left. There were some who felt Collingwood should have taken the chance to knock a couple of Sussex wickets over last night but we should perhaps remember two things. Firstly there are two days left and secondly weather forecasts have been wrong. I wonder if the Durham skipper dreamt of Joe Root last night.

SECOND CUP FINAL IN TWO DAYS

By Brian Sanderson,

This morning I had a short trip to Harrogate and Ashville College. The match was a thirty over final between Leeds Grammar School and Shelley College at under 14 level.The starting time should have been 11.00 but it started early.Tony Hutton had arrived before me and was trying to get out of the cold  wind.

When I arrived there was only two overs of the Leeds innings to go and they went on to score 126 for 8.Lunch took about fifty minutes as another umpire was required as the orginal  was called away.Shelley had beated Qwds and Bradford Grammar so they had a hard road to the final. At half-time the Shelley supporters were happy and they said they batted down to number 11.However they soon lost a wicket and 15 overs they were about 64 for 3.The only name I regonised on either side was a boy with the surname Dracup who,s father played for Pudsey Lawerence and was a good cricketer. After lunch we were joined by John Winn who had tales of his trips round England.

We spoke to a Leeds player who played at Kirkstall Educational and knew Dave Hodgson .the groundsman and President.In the last over Shelley required eight runs to win and the first ball was a wide.However they finished one run short with five wickets down.

Another excellent Cup Final and was worth watching.Well done Leeds Grammar.

SECOND PART OF SUNDAYS TRIP

By Brian Sanderson,

After the cup final we drove up the valley to Chopgate ground who are in the Langbaugh League  just to see a new ground. It has excellent views and we will visit hopefully next season. Above is stone roller on the ground which must have been there years.

Photograph of the view towards the village.

Next ground was Stokesley were Saltburn third team was playing. As we entered the ground I looked at the scoreboard and could not understand it again.

It stated 26 for 4 in 44 overs however the Saltburn fielder told us it should be 126 for 4 and they went on to score 141 whilst Saltburn scored 106.

Next match was Guisborough against Great Ayton in a another well kept ground.There is a large grass bank above the pitch were cars can be parked.We were able to obtain some tea here as there was still plenty of food left.Guisborough were batting and scored 168 for 6 beating Great Ayton 164.

The last match was at Maske were Normanby Hall Seconds were playing Redcar Seconds.Normanby ground is unfit for cricket to be played on this season so they  have to use other grounds.Walking round the ground I met the Chairman of Doghouses cricket club who are due to play at Arhington in OctoberMaske has been used by Yorkshire Seconds and I had not been on the ground  for about ten years ago.

Another interesting week-end with varied cricket grounds each with it,s own history.

FEVERSHAM CUP FINAL 2013

By Brian Sanderson,

Myself and Ron Deaton went to Duncombe Park cricket ground to see Slingsby play Spouthousesin the above cup.We had gone for the first time last year to see Slingsby and Gillamoor tie in the final.

Spouthouses won the toss and decided to bowl in the twenty-four over match.Two players in the Spouthouses side toss a coin to see who would wicket-keep and a comment by one his team mates was that they were both as bad as each other.Slingsby had only nine men and were soon  lost wickets and was up to A.Frank and F.Land to put a stand of 98 together with the help of five dropped catches.

This is a photograph of Frank scoring his 67 not out whilst Land finished on 26 not out in a total of 166 which seemed a excellent total.

Spout houses soon lost a wicket and Allott and Donaldson put together a  partnership of 136 which you would think would win the match but not so.Spouthouses needed eight of the last over with Allott in but was out for 76 in the last over being bowled by Land swinging at a stright ball.Land took another wicket and Slingsby won by two runs with Land winning the man of the match.

This a photograph of Land collecting his trophy.A excellent match which could have gone any way in the last over and no throwing of bats.Worth a visit next year so please come along.

Photograph of Slingsby waiting to collect the trophy.We then moved on to watch three other matches which will bog about next but the final was worth  a blog on its own.

At Lord's

posted by John Winn

 

The 8:55 from York took me to London on Thursday and by 11:30 I was in my seat at Lord's on what the weather forecast had rightly described as 'a perfect summer's day'. Missing thirty minutes play on the second day of the match between Middlesex and Somerset had not meant missing much excitement. On Wednesday Somerset had been rescued from 211 for 7 by a stand between recent overseas signing Piyush Chawla and Alex Barrow and Chawla had found another willing partner in Alfonso Thomas but, despite the proximity of the wicket to the tavern side, runs came only slowly.

 

'A must win game' is a rather overused expression, especially among football supporters: A Crystal Palace adherent thought it worthwhile to telephone the BBC last night to inform 606 listeners that yesterday's match with Sunderland fell into that category even though it was only the third game of the season but for Somerset I think we might just squeeze the trip to HQ into the mwg box. In this light their tactics during the morning session were a little difficult to follow: take Chawla for example, having gone to his hundred with a six into the Edrich stand he then scored just 11 in the forty five minutes before 'the luncheon interval'. Disappointingly we were not invited to 'perambulate' during the said interval.

 

Somerset batted on after lunch and the Chawla Thomas partnership ended on 99 when the former was out but with Overton (J), Thomas added another 32 to bring a total of 449, a sound platform for trying to bowl Middlesex out twice. How good a platform few could have guessed, for during the afternoon the Somerset attack sliced through the Middlesex batting to the point where they were 55 for 7 and Lord's can rarely have been so quiet as one after another batsmen returned through the Long Room to be met by silence. Only Rayner showed much idea how to deal with the West Country bowling and shortly after tea they were all out for 106 and following on. I was particularly impressed with Lewis Gregory and he started the rot in the second innings by dismissing Chris Rogers, recently returned  from Ashes duty.

 

By the close Middlesex were 52 for 2, still trailing by almost 300. Readers may well be aware that they fared little better on Friday and Somerset were winners by an innings and 179 and took 23 points from the match, a very important step towards avoiding relegation. It was their first win in championship cricket at Lord's for 30 years and they would have welcomed their deserved day off yesterday for their next opponents are Derbyshire who will be at Taunton on Tuesday but are still involved at the Oval today in a game they might well lose thus giving Surrey their first win of the season. A 'mwg' for both sides?

 

For Middlesex this defeat followed one by Derbyshire and would seem to scupper their feint championship hopes for they are now 35 points behind Yorkshire with just three games left.

 

Despite problems on the East Coast network on Thursday evening I was home by 10:30 and had enough energy left to make  the trip to Scarborough on Friday where Yorkshire's Antipodeans, Jacques and Williamson put together a stand that I thought would at least save the game. This we know now was not the case but what a terrific advert for four day cricket the Yorkshire Durham game has been, enjoyed by large crowds in lovely weather. Durham return to action when Sussex come to the Riverside for what is the home team's game in hand over Yorkshire. By Friday both teams will have three games left and my guess is that the title will not be decided until the last round of matches at the end of the month when Durham visit Hove and Yorkshire are at The Oval

 

Lord's having been the filling between two days at Scarborough I did some catching up yesterday but had time to pop along to Ouseburn to see them beat Dacre Banks by eight wickets with Sam Parker in the runs again, undefeated on 77. Nearest rivals Spofforth also won and Ouseburn lead the table by just one point with two to play. Close or what?