COLD AND RAINY DAY AT PUDSEY

By Brian Sanderson,

We set out on a cloudy Saturday lunch time to go and see Pudsey St. Lawerence against York.Pudsey has a strong connection with Yorkshire cricket going back to Tunnicliife in the 1890,s.There were two old Yorkshire players today Paul Hutchison and Garth Clough.

On the way to the ground we were joined by the Procter family of whom Robert is a York legend as confirmed by Dan Woods ,York,s captain.Another person to arrive was Tony Hutton and later by Brian Senior.These two people wrote "Off the Beaten Track" along with the recent deceased Mick Bourne.

York had a mixture of first and second team with Yorkshire Second team player Coad not allowed to play.There was a cold wind blowing which made it uncomfortable to watch cricket.We were forced inside when the rain arrived and Pudsey had to finish their innings in the 38th over after scoring 163.

Walking round the ground after tea I was able to speak to Jack Leaning ,Yorkshire Second player.He had spent the winter in Australia playing grade cricket and had been to Sri Lanka with Yorkshire.Great to be a modern cricketer.

The rain was still falling and we were getting colder so we went home with York 40 for 0 wickets.In this temperature bowler could pull muscels.Hope the weather is better tomorrow.

Above is a nice photograph of some flowers on the wall in a nearby house.

ARE YOU EVER AT HOME ?

By Brian Sanderson,

On Wednesday morning I set out at 8.30 A.M to pick up Brian Workman in Sheffield. We had decided on Tuesday night at Wombwell to go to watch the fourth day at Trent Bridge.The photograph above is of Trent Bridge ,my favourite championship ground, and  is the view we had of the cricket from the pavilion end.

When we arrived Lancashire were at the overnight score of 7 for 1.Sitting down I noticed a few professional cricket watchers who had turned out for a first championship match for 2014. Soon we were joined by Peter Davies who had arrived by train from Huddersfield.One of the first incidents of the day was Michael Lumb dropping Kerrigan,who was the night watchman, at gully.Kerrigan went on to frustrate Nottingham until just before lunch.

At lunch time Brian was able to obtain some signature including Phil Jaques who last season played for Yorkshire.During lunch Peter Siddle, Australian Test bowler ,was running round the pitch with Ajmal Shahzad. More signatures for Brian. I had gone into the Nottingham Cricket Library  to Peter Wynne- Thomas and to read some cricket scrapbooks.

Soon after lunch Lancashire were 112 for 6 with prospects of going home early. However Ashwell Prince and Tom Smith put together a  excellent stand of 147. Prince was missed on two occassions but he looked a class batsman.Tea arrived and another visit to Library and another chance for signatures.

After tea when the new ball was available Nottingham started taking wickets with Fletcher and Gurney.
The final wicket Prince fell wth 11.1 overs to go and Lancashire wanting 45 runs. I am always impressed by Gurney who bowls left arm medium. He is a ex Leeds and Bradford University player and Yorkshire could have done worse to sign him. This was the first home win for Nottingham sice May last year.

Just a note of the new changes to the las this season. The heavy roller can only be used once  by each time  during the match but a light roller has to be available.Points system is 16 points for a win , 8 points for a tie and 4 points for a draw.

After the match I went to Burley Rugby club for a Leeds Hospital quiz with Tony Hutton and David Thorpe.We came third even though we could not answer any questions on Leeds United.For example what was Leeds first fixture this season?. Our answer was not bothered . The corect answer was Brighton. Arrived hame at 10.15 P.M. Tired.

The question which started the blog was by Mick Pope at Wombwell on Tuesday night when we were trying to fix a date for the next neeting during the cricket season.

Just a note is that I bought my Playfair book yesterday at Waterstones in Leeds whilst W.H.Smith had not received them yet. Also it was reduced by £3.

not as lucky as Brian

posted by John Winn

Like Brian I had hoped to see some club cricket over the weekend but Saturday morning brought an email from Tony Hutton to say that the game at New Rover was cancelled and a tweet from Knaresborough Forest to confirm that the outfield at The Union Ground was too wet to allow their friendly with Ripley to go ahead. So that was Saturday accounted for and with yesterday set aside for a visit to my wife's family in Derbyshire the first weekend of the season provided no cricket for inclusion in this posting. Today I had intended to travel to Chester le Street for the opening day of the first class season at The Riverside but a pessimistic weather forecast from BBC North East yesterday evening left me in little doubt that I would spend more time watching  rain than cricket so it's tuna sandwiches for lunch at home.

The forecast for the next few days is better which is good news for pcws and people holidaying in Upper Teesdale and as I fall into the latter category from tomorrow until Friday 'that's all good then'. My plans for Saturday involve a double header in WF10 with Castleford CC entertaining Goole in a pre-season friendly and a challenge match at Townville where Cleckheaton are the visitors: CYL champions against Bradford League winners.

Looking much further ahead Tony Hutton* has pointed me towards some interesting possibilities in Essex in June when ICC Europe Division 2 T20 tournament will be held over four days on grounds in Chelmsford, Southend and Billericay. The competing nations are Gibraltar, Germany, Isle of Man, Austria and Norway. These five will be joined by the winners of Group 3 who will play off in Spain at the end of this month. Contenders are Belgium, Finland, Greece, Israel and Spain. The first match in Essex will be at Chelmsford when the winners from Spain will face Gibralter with a ten o'clock start. The full fixtures for the tournament are available on the Austrian Cricket Association website.

Finally Thursday sees the publication of Wisden and the announcement of the five Cricketers of the Year for 2013. For a bit of fun two friends and I wrote down our five predictions and for what it is worth my five are Ryan Harris, Vivat Kohli, Joe Root, Charlotte Edwards and Moeen Ali. The predictions were made before the mayhem down under and without giving too much away the one we all have in common is Harris with Charlotte Edwards, Moeen Ali and Joe Root each receiving two votes. Have a go: you've got till Thursday.

*And Tony was tipped off by two men from Huddersfield.

FINDING CRICKET IN EARLY APRIL

By Brian Sanderson,

The weather forecast was dry with a chance of showers so decided to going to Knaresborough. Knaresborough Forest were due to play Ripley however going to the open gate there was nobody about  even though there was ten minutes to start of the match.The sign on the gate confirmed the match but not to  be so moving on to Ripley were the seconds should have been played still no match .

Third match was due to be at New Rover in Leeds but still no match. The last chance was at Glen Road were Headingley/ Bramhope were playing Church Fenton and going through the gates whitr figures could be seen.

Headingley who play in the Wetherby League were playing Church Fenton who also play in the same league. I was met by John Tipley and Steve Bindman  who were watching the match.Headingley were batting on a very good wicket at the start of the season.The outfield looked like a  football pitch but it was good to see some cricket.Headingley scored 164 in the forty overs in between showers of rain.

After a cup of tea Church Fenton  lost two wickets. However when I left they had scored 44 for 2 wickets in twelve overs.Above a photograph which belonged to Tony Woodhouse showing the orginal Headingley side who played in another ground which is not used now for cricket.

Start of the club cricet for 2014.

Horace sets Tony thinking

posted by John Winn

My reference earlier in the week to the poet Horace set Tony Hutton thinking about cricketers called Horace. Two came readily to mind: firstly the Yorkshireman Horace Fisher who played 52 games for his native county between 1928 and 1936. Unlucky to be understudy to Hedley Verity he was the first bowler to get a hat trick of LBW scalps when he took 5 for 12 against Somerset in 1932. Alex Skelding was the man who raised his finger three times. This Horace died at Middlestown in 1974.

Tony's second Horace was Horace Hazell who had a lengthy career either side of the war with Somerset. Born in Brislington, near Keynsham ( and older readers will know how to spell that), Horace had a trial for Gloucestershire but it was his native county who took him on and he developed into an excellent slow left arm bowler and an obdurate number 11. Horace, a rotund figure, died aged 80, back where he started in Brislington. Asked by Trevor Bailey how he passed the winter he replied 'I never get up before 12'.

Diverging from Horaces for a moment but pursuing an alliterative theme, in David Foot and Ivan Pontings 'Sixty Summers', a history of Somerset from 1946 to 2006, on the opposite page to their tribute to Hazell is one to  a man whose career with the county overlapped almost identically with that of Horace, Bertie Buse, unlucky enough to have a benefit match that failed to go as far as the second day. I can still here those poetic names rolling off John Arlott's tongue: will the cricketers of the future be called Horace and Bertie ? Not while parents are saddling their offspring with names like Zanzibar and Tait.

Beyond Messrs Fisher and Hazell the internet provided the long room think tank with more Horaces as we watched Sidebottom score 2 in three quarters of an hour. First was the Jamaican, Horace Miller, aged 24 and a left-hand bat and wicketkeeper and going further back we have Sir Horatio, but always called Horace in Scores and Biographies, Mann. MP for Maidstone and a patron of Kent cricket this Horace had his own ground at his seat, Bourne House near Canterbury. Bishopsbourne Paddock., as it was known, last hosted cricket in 1790 when Sir Horace's XI lost to Mr Stephen Amherst's XI by 130 runs. Wikipedia informs us that 'Sir Horatio moved out of Bourne House shortly afterwards'. The Baronet's equivalent of taking his bat home.

Finally  and a somewhat tenuous extension of the theme of Horaces, the umpire in the photograph above, John William Marshall, was a forebear of one Horace Marshall, who did much to revive my father's old club after the war and lived to be nearly 100. Sadly I have no photograph of Horace to hand. John Willy does not look like a man who would give three LBWs in a season never mind off consecutive deliveries.

Horace  Fisher

THREE DAYS AT HEADINGLEY

By Brian Sanderson,,

I have had a busy three days at Headingley and my cricket has started.The photograph above is of the scoreboard with the new sponsors.The players did not have the new sponsors name on their shirts.

I was joined by my nephew from Melbourne for the first day and we sat in the sun in the afternoon enjoying the cricket. In the evening I did a talk at the Northern Cricket Society about the 1914 season and  the death of Major Booth on the Somme on the 1 July 1916.

Second day I was joined in the morning by Mr and Mrs Dodgson from Cumbria who brought some photographs of the 1948 Australian advertising Moss Brothers in Leeds.

The photograph above shows Keith Miller, Sam Loxton, Ron Saggers and Arthur Morris trying on different hats.In the afternoon I sat in the LongRoom to watch the cricket as it was to cold to sit out side. Lyth and Ballance got their centuries for  Yorkshire  with the match finishing early for bad light.

Next day after obtaining Lyth , Ballance and Hodgson signature on a scorecard , I met Peter Davies  who first started this web site. Great to see him in good health. Also arrived was Howard Clayton, the  Yorkshire second team scorer who was delivering the Second Team Annuals which he produces.This box tells you about the bacground to Second Team players which is very usefully when watching second team cricket.
Beenwhile Bairstow went on to score 123 and Yorkshire were bowled out for 454.The main wicket taker beening Mac Queen with 4 for 116.

The annual states that he has played for Surrey,Hampshire and Northants so for a 21 year old cricketer he has a lot of experence,The weather was cold again and watched the cricket from the Long Room. There was good company with John Winn  and Tony Hutton so the cricket talk was good.

I left at tea time with Leeds at 63 for 2 with Gubbins  and Vanderspar not out.It was very dark and I had to collect my car . The car required a service to get ready for the mileage I will travel in the next few months subject to the weather.

The final photograph is Hassett the Australian captain trying on another hat and smoking. How things have changed.At least  the computer has allowed me to put three photographs on the site after last week trip to Sheffield.

A sunny start at Headingley.

posted by John Winn

Heavy overnight rain spreading eastwards delayed the start of the cricket season at Headingley today but diligent work by the ground staff and the emergence of the sun allowed play to start fifteen minutes after noon. The delay allowed a very good gathering of pcw, including our Hartlepool correspondent, to renew acquaintances with old friends and pick up scorecards, now free to members,

Yorkshire won the toss and stand in skipper Ballance chose to give his bowlers first turn and the Leeds Bradford students the chance to bat on a wicket which he might have expected to harbour some moisture. Things got off to the worst possible start with Gubbins dismissed in the first over and  by lunch  Leeds Bradford  were reduced to 30 for 4. Skipper Will Vanderspar, down to open on the card, delayed his entrance to second wicket down but he was the only one to make a fist of things and he was undefeated on 60 when the last wicket fell on 139, made at a little over two and a half an over. Vandespars's cv is an interesting one, Eton and Leeds Met, but he has experienced second XI cricket with Middlesx and few, if any, of the decent sized crowd begrudged him his well deserved fifty.

Balance gave five bowlers good early season workouts and each got amongst the wickets. Yorkshire looked sharp in the field and Ballance and Lyth held difficult  chances at slip. Lyth and Lees added 94 for the first wicket in reply but the latter fell to the persevering Ivan Thomas, who if he isn't Welsh ought to be, just before the close. Lyth will look forward to tomorrow and hope for a repeat of the lovely sunshine which left the long room unusually deserted for the time of year. Memories suggested the opening day had never been like this and  the postings I made this time last year for the corresponding game describe a long room providing shelter from the cold on the first day but warm sunshine on the second.

Today's Headingley match is one of six such MCC University games being played as curtain raisers to the first class season and in all of them the students have been predictably outplayed. Durham bowled out for 67, Cambridge for 54 and Cardiff 34 for 3 chasing 301 for 4 against Glamorgan. Oxford can take some credit for dismissing Notts for 237 but are still over two hundred in arrears having lost two early wickets. Readers will no doubt make their own minds up as to the value of such matches.