posted by John Winn
Like the Village Cup the National Club Championship seems to be on course and tomorrow week, Sunday 19th will see matches being played to decide who goes through to the last 16. In the north east it is very much a clash of giants for two of the top sides in the North East Premier League meet at Ropery Lane where Chester le Street (winners in 2009) meet Newcastle outfit South Northumberland who were victors the following year. In Yorkshire there is an attractive match at St George's Road, Harrogate v Hanging Heaton.
Last year's winners, Blackheath have a short journey, just eight miles, to face Kent League Div II side Bromley Common. Another strong side from the London area, Ealing, are at home to Brondesbury. members of the Middlesex League .Group 8 has an enticing black country derby , Wolverhampton v Walsall. The full draw is available at ECB National Club Championship, play-cricket website.
I have read with a degree of envy Brian and Tony's accounts of their wanderings this week for I had intended to have a couple of days away myself but a troublesome toe, which requires twice weekly visits to my local surgery put paid to my plans. Today my wife and I are off to Tideswell in the Derbyshire Peak District for a family celebration and as the event does not start until 4:00 I thought there might be an opportunity to catch a bit of cricket in that area, alas not so, for Tideswell CC, who run just one team are away to Sheffield Super Kings in the Yorkshire and Derbyshire League Div 5. Our route does not take us close to Sheffield Transport Pitch 2, which in any case probably does not compete with rural Herefordshire for rustic charm.
Saturday, 11 June 2016
Rural Herefordshire and urban Worcestershire.
Posted by Tony Hutton
Tuesday 7th June
Day three of our tour took us further south than originally intended, again following in Brian's footsteps as he had been to see Hereford v Berkshire at Colwall yesterday and seen some tremendous run scoring in the visitors second innings of 411-5. A very different day today unfortunately as the sunshine of the previous two days gave way to a cloudy, sultry morning. Our journey south through Shropshire started well, quickly round Shrewsbury, over Wenlock Edge and mile after mile of wonderful scenery. However nearing Worcester, we encountered a long tailback of traffic trying to enter the city. So a diversion was called for and we arrived almost an hour late.
By this time, the home side who were chasing a target of some 440 runs to win had already lost three wickets for 90 runs. What followed was a total collapse which saw them to 101-8. The last three tailenders hit out and picked up a few runs but just before the scheduled lunch interval the game was over. Hereford all out for 179 and Berkshire had won by 269 runs. The main architect of this surprisingly easy victory was former Middlesex slow left armer Chris Peploe who took 7-66, with most of the runs coming in the tailenders final flourish.
So time for a picnic lunch on the Malvern Hills and a scenic drive along the Herefordshire side of he hills before returning into Worcestershire and again giving the Worcester city centre a wide berth. Now it was on to Stourbridge in the north of the county and on the fringe of the Black Country industrial area. Here Worcester 2nd XI were entertaining Durham 2nd XI in a three day championship game.
Durham were batting and had been piling on the runs during the sunny afternoon.
Muchall had already been out for a century and when we arrived Poynter and Weighell were laying about the bowling in fine style. Both were well over fifty after tea when we had a chat with Kevin Sharp, the former Yorkshire batsman, now coaching at Worcester. He was obviously enjoying things with so many young players doing well in the first team as we can tell from John Winn's report from Headingley.
However with approaching black clouds and rain imminent we made a hasty departure shortly before the players also went off with Durham in a commanding position. They batted on the next morning to make 450-8 and eventually won the game by an innings and 95 runs. Good to see Tom Fell back in action for Worcester after suffering from testicular cancer and also Ben Twohig, yet another Yorkshire exile.
Tuesday 7th June
Day three of our tour took us further south than originally intended, again following in Brian's footsteps as he had been to see Hereford v Berkshire at Colwall yesterday and seen some tremendous run scoring in the visitors second innings of 411-5. A very different day today unfortunately as the sunshine of the previous two days gave way to a cloudy, sultry morning. Our journey south through Shropshire started well, quickly round Shrewsbury, over Wenlock Edge and mile after mile of wonderful scenery. However nearing Worcester, we encountered a long tailback of traffic trying to enter the city. So a diversion was called for and we arrived almost an hour late.
Colwall, Herefordshire under the Malvern Hills
By this time, the home side who were chasing a target of some 440 runs to win had already lost three wickets for 90 runs. What followed was a total collapse which saw them to 101-8. The last three tailenders hit out and picked up a few runs but just before the scheduled lunch interval the game was over. Hereford all out for 179 and Berkshire had won by 269 runs. The main architect of this surprisingly easy victory was former Middlesex slow left armer Chris Peploe who took 7-66, with most of the runs coming in the tailenders final flourish.
So time for a picnic lunch on the Malvern Hills and a scenic drive along the Herefordshire side of he hills before returning into Worcestershire and again giving the Worcester city centre a wide berth. Now it was on to Stourbridge in the north of the county and on the fringe of the Black Country industrial area. Here Worcester 2nd XI were entertaining Durham 2nd XI in a three day championship game.
The Stourbridge pavilion
Durham were batting and had been piling on the runs during the sunny afternoon.
Muchall had already been out for a century and when we arrived Poynter and Weighell were laying about the bowling in fine style. Both were well over fifty after tea when we had a chat with Kevin Sharp, the former Yorkshire batsman, now coaching at Worcester. He was obviously enjoying things with so many young players doing well in the first team as we can tell from John Winn's report from Headingley.
One of the football stands which rather spoil the view
However with approaching black clouds and rain imminent we made a hasty departure shortly before the players also went off with Durham in a commanding position. They batted on the next morning to make 450-8 and eventually won the game by an innings and 95 runs. Good to see Tom Fell back in action for Worcester after suffering from testicular cancer and also Ben Twohig, yet another Yorkshire exile.
Friday, 10 June 2016
Rural rambles - proper cricket
Posted by Tony Hutton
Sunday 5th June
As Brian has already mentioned I followed in his footsteps through rural England to watch Minor Counties cricket which has been a passion of mine for over twenty years now. It has not lost it's original appeal with three day matches played on some of the most beautiful grounds in England, usually in the right spirit and with the ability to produce results which sometimes surprise us.
Along with Brian the first of our five days tour was at Tattenhall in Cheshire. It is an attractive village and the first time I had seen cricket on the splendid ground which has all the facilities required for spectators including a proper scorecard, a team picture of the home side and even free ice creams from the sponsors.
Sunday 5th June
As Brian has already mentioned I followed in his footsteps through rural England to watch Minor Counties cricket which has been a passion of mine for over twenty years now. It has not lost it's original appeal with three day matches played on some of the most beautiful grounds in England, usually in the right spirit and with the ability to produce results which sometimes surprise us.
Along with Brian the first of our five days tour was at Tattenhall in Cheshire. It is an attractive village and the first time I had seen cricket on the splendid ground which has all the facilities required for spectators including a proper scorecard, a team picture of the home side and even free ice creams from the sponsors.
Cheshire county cricket club
Brian has already described how Ash Davis, the quick bowler from Chester Boughton Hall, devastated the early Wiltshire batting and it took the West Indian Morrison from
the Corsham club and skipper Afridi from Pakistan to bring respectability to the total of 166. Even the in form wicketkeeper, the Germanic sounding Patrick Greishaber, who made a century the previous day for his club side Downend, could only contribute two. He actually comes from Bath rather than Berlin.
Sunshine at Tattenhall
Unusually, left arm spinner Dan Woods normally the leading wicket taker for both
Cheshire and his club side York only bowled two overs and did not take a wicket.
Rick Moore, like Woods a product of the Leeds/Bradford University side, started
well when Cheshire batted and the top three took the score to 128-2 before the
middle order collapsed on the following day to leave it to the tailenders to take the
score to 303 all out. Wiltshire did marginally better in their second innings on
day two but Cheshire were able to knock off the 98 to win in two days.
However it was a splendid first day in the hot sun and good to chat to Peter Davies who seems to be enjoying his travels even to the extent of following the Huddersfield Giants to such diverse venues as Perpigan and Widnes.
By day two we had passed on just down the road into Shropshire who were taking on
Dorset at Whitchurch, which is a pleasant market town with a large ground just off
the by-pass, with plenty of parking available as there was at Tattenhall.
Whitchurch cricket club
Shropshire had bowled out the visitors Dorset for 185 on day one thanks mainly to a very tall opening bowler called Wyatt who was previously with Leicestershire.
He had taken 6-69 and former Yorkshire and Derbyshire player David Wainwright,
who we had seen in action for Castleford on Saturday, had taken 3-46. Wainwright
was carrying on his good work with the bat when we arrived on day 2 and was putting
together a good partnership with former Worcester player Ralph, who went on to top score with 87. Sadly Ralph called Wainwright for an impossible second run and he was
run out by yards for just 23.
By this time Shropshire had a good lead on 254-6 and the tailenders cobbled together another 40 or so runs so that the home side were eventually dismissed for 296, a lead
of 111. One of the interesting Dorset bowlers was a well built young man called Rob Pack who I remembered seeing playing for Dorset under 17s in the Isle of Wight last season. He must only be 18 now but bowled his slow left armers with some maturity
and seemed unlucky to finish with figures of 1-62. I also remember him scoring runs
for the under 17s.
Rob Pack bowling for Dorset at Whitchurch
After a good opening stand of 63 the afternoon session became a procession as the spin of Wainwright and McIver brought about a collapse and shortly before tea Dorset were all out for just 119 leaving Shropshire just nine to win which they achieved by tea time on day 2. Wainwright took 5-30 plus a catch and a run out and McIver 4-34. We discovered that Cheshire were also on the verge of a two day victory so plans for Tuesday were to involve yet another Minor Counties game where Brian had gone today. This was Herefordshire against Berkshire at Colwall near Malvern, but more of that in the next blog.
Thursday, 9 June 2016
Yorkshire Academy restore some pride
Posted by Tony Hutton
Saturday 4th June
It has been a bad week for Yorkshire cricket at all levels, especially in the T20 format where both first and second teams have been beaten in every game they have played.
The first team beaten away at Worcester and Lancashire on successive nights and the second XI beaten twice by Durham at Brandon and then twice by Derbyshire at Harrogate in very cold conditions.
However today at Weetwood the sun shone and the Academy side restored some pride by beating Castleford in the Yorkshire League North by a comfortable margin of 126 runs. Admittedly Castleford are not the strongest, their very young side perhaps unfairly labelled David Wainwright and ten others. It was skipper Wainwright, former Yorkshire and Derbyshire county player, who showed some fight with the bat and prolonged the game into it's final stages.
There were two outstanding performances for the Academy first with the bat by young
opener Harry Brook. He batted almost throughout the innings to score a fine century, and despite being rather pedestrian in his approach played a splendidly patient innings
which won the match for his side. Thompson scored 28 and Ainsley 27 but no one else really went for the runs. The man who might have Matthew Fisher, returning from injury, had to retire hurt once more on 21. The final score of 233-5 looked well beyond Castleford's capabilities.
So it proved when acting captain Jared Warner, the England under 19 bowler, decimated the early part of the innings leaving the visitors on 15-6. in his sixth over Warner took three wickets, one caught in the slips and two clean bowled. Only Wainwright stood firm to prevent a very early finish. Warner took two more wickets and with eight under his belt was well on his way to all ten. However he needed a rest and left arm spinner Logan picked up the ninth.
Another twist to the game came with an unlikely last wicket partnership between Wainwright and the rather well built wicketkeeper Grant. Wainwright was never in trouble and batted for nearly three hours to finish on 63 not out, the only player to achieve double figures. He was well supported by Grant and together they put on 33 runs, the highest partnership of the innings.
In the end with only two overs and four balls remaining Warner returned to finish things off having Grant caught by Brook for 3. Castleford all out for 107 and Warner finished with the amazing analysis of 10.2 overs 3 maidens 9 wickets for only 19 runs.
Another surprising feature of this eventful game was the appearance of Josh Shaw, currently on loan from Yorkshire and playing for Gloucestershire. He turned up to watch his former colleagues and ended up fielding as substitute for the injured Fisher. He borrowed one of Warner's shirts so we had two number forty fives on the field.
Saturday 4th June
It has been a bad week for Yorkshire cricket at all levels, especially in the T20 format where both first and second teams have been beaten in every game they have played.
The first team beaten away at Worcester and Lancashire on successive nights and the second XI beaten twice by Durham at Brandon and then twice by Derbyshire at Harrogate in very cold conditions.
However today at Weetwood the sun shone and the Academy side restored some pride by beating Castleford in the Yorkshire League North by a comfortable margin of 126 runs. Admittedly Castleford are not the strongest, their very young side perhaps unfairly labelled David Wainwright and ten others. It was skipper Wainwright, former Yorkshire and Derbyshire county player, who showed some fight with the bat and prolonged the game into it's final stages.
Harry Brook hits through mid wicket
There were two outstanding performances for the Academy first with the bat by young
opener Harry Brook. He batted almost throughout the innings to score a fine century, and despite being rather pedestrian in his approach played a splendidly patient innings
which won the match for his side. Thompson scored 28 and Ainsley 27 but no one else really went for the runs. The man who might have Matthew Fisher, returning from injury, had to retire hurt once more on 21. The final score of 233-5 looked well beyond Castleford's capabilities.
Harry Brook celebrates his century
So it proved when acting captain Jared Warner, the England under 19 bowler, decimated the early part of the innings leaving the visitors on 15-6. in his sixth over Warner took three wickets, one caught in the slips and two clean bowled. Only Wainwright stood firm to prevent a very early finish. Warner took two more wickets and with eight under his belt was well on his way to all ten. However he needed a rest and left arm spinner Logan picked up the ninth.
Castleford's early collapse
Another twist to the game came with an unlikely last wicket partnership between Wainwright and the rather well built wicketkeeper Grant. Wainwright was never in trouble and batted for nearly three hours to finish on 63 not out, the only player to achieve double figures. He was well supported by Grant and together they put on 33 runs, the highest partnership of the innings.
Jared Warner
In the end with only two overs and four balls remaining Warner returned to finish things off having Grant caught by Brook for 3. Castleford all out for 107 and Warner finished with the amazing analysis of 10.2 overs 3 maidens 9 wickets for only 19 runs.
Another surprising feature of this eventful game was the appearance of Josh Shaw, currently on loan from Yorkshire and playing for Gloucestershire. He turned up to watch his former colleagues and ended up fielding as substitute for the injured Fisher. He borrowed one of Warner's shirts so we had two number forty fives on the field.
Warner Brothers? The real Jack Warner is bowling and the other No. 45 is Josh Shaw
HOW MANY COACHES DO YOU NEED?
By Brian Sanderson,
After a day off from cricket, I picked up Bob Procter today and went down to Loughborough University who were playing Leeds and Bradford University in a two day match.
I have always wanted to visit the college and yesterday the home side scored over 500 runs on a sunny morning.I met again Tony and Jennifer who were finishing their five day cricket tour.I was impressed by the size of the campus and found it very hard to park the car.
One of the Leeds players was Moin Ashraf, who used to play for Yorkshire.At the end of the day they had scored 309 for 7 and drew the match.
Across the campus we found a England Women trail match. At the match Mark Robinson was watching the match together with two other coaches. While we were there Steve Oldham turned who used to coach Yorkshire first team. It was good to see the new pavilion was named after the deceased coach of Loughborough team.
Driving across the town we found Loughborough Town ground were Leicester Seconds were playing Nottingham in a 50 over match. The away side had scored 335 and on the boundary was Andy Flowers and two other coaches. See at the start of the blog.
Leicester Angus Robson and Edmund Eckersley had put on over 160 by the time we left the ground.
One of the Nottingham player was Billy Root who had left Leeds and Bradford University to concentrate trying to find a spot in the Nottingham first team. Good luck.
Wednesday, 8 June 2016
SECOND TEAM CRICKET
By Brian Sanderson,
Leaving Malvern, I drove to Stourbridge to watch part of the first day of three between Worcester seconds and Durham.The town is in the borough of Dudley,in the West Midlands.The ground was not easily found and when we arrived we found it was shared with a football club. The best view was above with the church in the distance. Worcester coach is Kevin Sharp who used to coach Yorkshire seconds.
Durham batted first with Muchall and Hickey batting with no problem. We left after forty five minutes to move to see Yorkshire Seconds.They put on a opening stand of 189 and the team at the end of the day was 398 for 5. I am not a great lover of cricket/football grounds.
Moving on to Birmingham and the Edgbaston Foundation Sports Ground were Warwick seconds were playing Yorkshire who were batting. The ground was formerly the Mitchells and Butlers ground,on Portland Road. Warwickshire purchased the land from Persimmon for a £ 1 as the land has to be used in sporting use.
Yorkshire had started well with Calum Geldart scoring 45 in 42 balls. By lunch time they had reached 145 for 3 however Charlie Parker and Sunny Singh bowled them out for 261 by teatime.
A surprising Yorkshire player was Rafiq who has been playing for Rotherham after been released by Yorkshire two years ago. By today Warwick had reached 502 for 4 with Westwood 230 not out. Rafiq figures were 23-2-95-0.
After John's report of Tuesday, where do Yorkshire go from here.
SECOND DAY OF MINOR COUNTY CRICKET
By Brian Sanderson,
I drove about one and half hours from Shrewsbury to Colwall which is a small village in Herefordshire ,situated on the boarder with Worcestershire,nestling on the western side of the Malvern Hills .
It was the second day of Hereford against Berkshire.A weak Hereford side were 141 for 2 as we arrived. Berkshire had scored 276 on Sunday ,with Oli Wilkins had scored 159 not out after been dropped on the first ball f the day.
The morning session was dominated by spinners Euan Wood who is 17 years old and Peploe ex Middlesex.
They bowled Hereford out for 239.Second time round Berkshire wasted no time in increasing their lead,with Oli Wiliks and Waqas Hussain racing to 130 in 17 overs before Hussain was caught for 50 at long off. Wilkin was in awesome form,carry on being the dominate batsman.Hereford had five players guarding the boundary but Ollie was smashing the ball high over them or between them.
However, with his total on 163 he as bowled attempting another big hit.In a innings lasting just under three hours,he faced just 93 balls ,clouting eight 6s and 17 4s. His dismissal came in the 33rd over to leave the visitors on 259 for 2 and for the first time Berkshire had to live without Wilkin at the crease.
But there was no stopping the flow of runs and declared on 411 for 5. During the match we were able to watch the match under shade of a tree in order to get out of the strong sun.At this stage I drove to Malvern for our hotel. Another beautiful ground.
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