When Ranji came to Gilling

Posted by Tony Hutton

Sunday 28th April and a leisurely day watching cricket at Ampleforth College, in the North Yorkshire countryside, one of my favourite all time venues. A season without a visit here is never complete. A slight delay as the schoolboys returned from Mass and then had to complete their warm up programme, which now seems to be compulsory in all forms of cricket - even Sunday friendlies. However at 11.45 the umpire rang the bell and the players took the field.

The school were playing their first game of the season against Emeriti, a wandering side made up of former Catholic public school boys. The visitors batted first and were putting on a good opening partnership before the first wicket fell with the total in the sixties. By then it was time to adjourn down the road, through the forest of rugby posts to the neighbouring village of Gilling East for a leisurely Sunday lunch.

When I saw the village church, almost opposite the pub, it reminded me of a visit here some ten years ago when my friend the late Mick Bourne told me of an article in the Dalesman magazine about a visit by the famous England and Sussex batsman Prince Ranjitsinhji in 1908. Details of the match he arranged to raise funds to repair the church tower are still on show in the church and I was able to take pictures of the documents and team picture which tell the story.

Back row:- Umpire, C. Charlesworth (Warwicks), W.G. Quaife (Warwicks), A.F.A. Lilley (Warwicks),
H.L. Simms (Sussex), C.L.A. Smith (Sussex), G.W. Beldem (Middlesex).
Front row:- C.B. Fry (Sussex), J.B. King (Philadelphia), K.S. Ranjitsinhji (Sussex), J. A. Lester (Philadelphia) and A.C. MacLaren (Lancashire).

Apparently Ranji's tutor at Cambridge University was the vicar of Gilling and lived in Gilling Castle which is now St Martin's school, the prep school for Ampleforth. Ranji regularly came for holidays and on learning of the need to raise funds arranged a special cricket match with some of the most famous names in English cricket of the time agreeing to play. Ranji's XI played the Gentlemen of Yorkshire, in what turned out to be a rather one sided encounter. The great man even went so far as to hire a special train to get all the players there in time.

The ground at Gilling Castle today.

Ranji's team batted first in a two day game and made the grand total of 361 all out with one of the two Americans, J.A. Lester making 115 not out. On the second day the Yorkshire Gentlemen were all out for 48 and followed on losing six wickets before rain stopped play and the game was officially declared a draw. As well as paying for the repairs to the church tower Ranji was also able to purchase a new clock and details of the amounts involved are shown on the following document.

So after gleaning all this information we were able to return to Ampleforth to find that the visitors had been dismissed for 161 and the school were well on their way to victory when we left. I was later reliably informed by one of the visitors batsmen (via the internet) that the school won by six wickets.

Another pleasant surprise awaited following our visit to the Abbey tea room and shop when I discovered a post card with a view of the cricket ground. Last year I searched the shop for such an item without success and suggested to the lady behind the counter that the should produce one.
When I retold this story I was given my 50p back and told I could have it for free as it had been my idea. I thought it better not to pursue the thought of royalties on all future sales.

A shock for Sessay

posted by John Winn

I have posted from Sessay CC near Thirsk on several occasions in recent seasons reporting on their exploits in the Village and National Cups and last August on their successful struggle to retain their Premier status. My plans to visit the attractive village and ground on Saturday were scuppered by the day's rain but another opportunity presented itself yesterday when Eppleton from the North East Premier League were visitors in the first round of matches in Group 1 of ECB National Club Championship.

On a day when it was just about bearable to sit in the open air I arrived in time for the start before which Eppleton had rather surprised their healthy contingent of supporters by electing to bat on winning the toss. Early progress was slow on a green wicket which appeared to assist the seamers and Luke Henderson was caught behind for 0 off the bowling of Stuart Pierse. There followed a good stand between Marcus Brown and Sam Dinning with young Brown particularly impressive until he was lbw to for 49 to Kavikara after an appeal that might have been heard in Thirsk. Dinning continued to bat steadily but the pace was stepped up by skipper Dean Musther in a partnership with Gary Burlinson. An interesting entry at no 6 was the tall figure of Josh Coughlin who earlier in the season  I had seen playing first class cricket for Durham and whose brother Paul jumped the Riverside ship in 2017 to join Notts. Coughlin was another safely pouched by keeper Till when chasing a wide one from Pierse but Musther stayed until the conclusion of the 40 overs.  A total of 220 for 8 was felt to be about par by the Eppleton faithful most of whom expressed allegiance to Sunderland FC apart from one brave soul who uttered the NU words. When questioned a Sessay boundary fielder was non committal about their prospects. Spinner Navin  Kavikara had the best figures with 2 for 28 off his permitted 8 overs.

Circumstances meant that I had to leave at the interval and my feeling was one of regret that I might miss an interesting finish. Not so for Sessay were never in the hunt with Couglin showing his pedigree with 3 for 6 off 5 overs and only Joe Watson and Stuart Clark reaching double figures. 93 all out was the summit of their achievement and a defeat by 127 runs has so far not provoked any response on the club's twitter feed. Eppleton will travel to face holders Richmondshire in the second round which I believe will be in two weeks time. A stiffer task indeed.

An interesting sideline from yesterday's game was that the scorer for Eppleton was youngster Sam Blacklock who has just returned from duties in the UAE and will be scoring for Bangladesh in the forthcoming World Cup. Sam, who lives in Sunderland graduated from Teesside University this year and would seem to have an interesting future as a scorer ahead of him.

Rain stopped play

Posted by Tony Hutton

We have been amazingly lucky with the weather so far this season and were watching our twenty second day of cricket when the rains finally arrived at Harrogate on Thursday 25th April to curtail day two of the Second XI championship game between Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. The rain also returned yesterdy and condemned the game to a draw when Yorkshire were on the verge of declaring their second innings to set Notts a target to chase on the final afternoon.

The sad scene at St Georges Road, Harrogate.

The game had begun on Wednesday with Yorkshire batting. The veteran left arm seamer Mark Footitt, who seems to have been around for ever, took an early wicket having youngster Finlay Bean, from York, lbw for eight. Fraine made a solid 35 but once again the main man proved to be Academy captain Tom Loten, who has been among the runs on a regular basis already. This time he made 75 before becoming becalmed in the seventies and falling lbw to Notts skipper James, who was the seventh bowler to be tried.

This precipitated something of a late order collapse in which Footitt returned to see off the tail very quickly, finishing with five wickets for 51 (four of which were lbw). There were three other leg before decisions to very much a left arm bowling attack with Footitt, Wood, Cohen and Patterson-White all falling into that category. Footitt just missed out on a hat trick, dismissing Barnes and Warner with successive deliveries. Yorkshire all out for 278,

The next day saw Ed Barnes missing and being replaced by Dominic Leech of the Academy. We later learned that Barnes had been dispatched to Sussex on loan and was playing for their first team today at Lord's. On day two Notts were fairly rapidly losing wickets after a delayed start and they finished the day, after a another rain break during the afternoon, on 137-9 when the rains returned in the early evening.

Yesterday morning Warner took the final wicket by clean bowling Cohen, knocking back his middle stump with the first ball of the day, so those few spectators who had not been paying full attention were rather surprised to see the players returning to the pavilion so promptly. Yorkshire's second innings began in rather pedestrian style, after the early loss of Bean, and Fraine in particular seemed somewhat out of touch in the very windy conditions. Loten began to push things on a bit and got to 43 not out when the rain returned shortly after lunch. Yorkshire had got to 87-1 and were contemplating a declaration but the rain continued and the game was abandoned as a draw in mid-afternoon.

However, our cricketing day was far from over. We were able to catch two century makers for Somerset in their game against Essex on Sky Sports and finally saw the exciting conclusion to the game at Headingley on live streaming, when the game between Yorkshire and Derbyshire ended in a tie. Full marks to the visitors, particularly skipper Billy Godleman, but again questions must be asked of Yorkshire's current policy of importing players from far and wide instead of sticking to their home grown players.

Run-fest at York

Posted by Tony Hutton

On Tuesday 23rd April Yorkshire second eleven took on Nottinghamshire second eleven in a one day trophy match at Clifton Park, York. Despite his recent century for the first team in a Royal London Cup game, Harry Brook was given an outing with the seconds. When Yorkshire batted first he and Will Fraine both looked in excellent form. Fraine, who is Yorkshire born and learned his cricket in the Huddersfield League, is a newcomer to the county side this season having had a brief spell with today's opponents Notts after his time as captain of Durham University.

Both Yorkshire openers into the fifties. Must have been quite a feat to get all of the fielder's name onto his shirt.

The pair scored at the same pace and both brought up their half centuries soon after the hundred partnership in the fourteenth over. They punished all the Notts bowlers including experienced left arm seamer Mark Footitt and another left armer, Mike Cohen, a new face from South Africa, who has joined Notts this season. The partnership was eventually broken, shortly after Brook had gone to his century, as Fraine was caught on the long on boundary off left arm spinner Patterson-White for 92.

Harry Brook goes to his century with a straight six.

They had put on 219 together and Brook's century came in only 87 balls. He was finally out in the 37th over, playing on to former Durham man Paul Coughlin for 144 with the total on 299-2. Brook's powerful innings, taking advantage of the short pavilion side boundary, included sixteen fours and seven sixes.

Brook celebrates his century in the style of West Indian Chris Gayle.

Thomson, Waite and Leaning (with a fine 51) all helped to keep the scoreboard ticking over at the same rate until the 400 came up in the final over, when Tom Loten was out trying another big hit.
The final score 402-6 in fifty overs must be one of Yorkshire's highest and put them well on their way to their second victory in this competition, having already beaten Lancashire at Scarborough last week.

Yorkshire opened the bowling with Ben Coad and Matthew Waite and it was the latter who soon made a breakthrough. He bowled first teamer Nash for 13, then had Patterson-White and Budinger caught for 11 and 14 respectively. Notts had stumbled to 40-3 and never looked like recovering. Waite finished with 3-30 off five overs and Warner, Carver, Thompson and Leaning were all among the wickets which fell at regular intervals. Leaning took the last two in the final over (the 26th of the innings). Coughlin was absent hurt so only nine wickets fell, but a very comfortable Yorkshire victory by 264 runs.

League start blessed with beautiful weather

posted by John Winn

Those leagues that stuck to the traditional start day of the third Saturday in April even though this year it clashed with the Easter weekend were rewarded with weather that surely can never have been bettered for opening day. I dipped my toe into the relatively calm waters of Division Two of the Nidderdale League and a match at Lightmire Lane where Ouseburn II were entertaining Thornton le Moor I. A small crowd had assembled before I arrived

but as the afternoon wore on the excellent viewing area in front of the pavilion filled up with familiar and unfamiliar faces and the bar staff were kept busy. The ground lies in Great Ouseburn, a village which lost its pub four years ago, so for those seeking to slake parched throats the cricket clubhouse affords a welcome oasis. 

On the field Thornton, aka 'The Curlews', were batting and helped by some short stuff which suited those whose propensity is to hit to leg reached 214 for 7 with Tom Stead hitting 70 and new signing Craig Easton a useful 48 not out. Ouseburn were handicapped by an injury to opening bowler Jonathan Webb which necessitated a trip to A and E and thus batted one short. Skipper John Moorhouse who has recently undergone knee surgery batted down the order and despite 39 for Stephen Raine and 52 for Harry Smith Ouseburn fell 26 short when they were all out for 188. The afternoon was not without drama for one of the Thornton fielders collided with the sightscreen when attempting a catch and he too had to be hospitalised. 

Earlier in the day whilst shopping in Northallerton I picked up a copy of the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald, some way off its home patch but unlike papers in  the Harrogate Advertiser group it found space for some cricket news. One item of interest was a name change for the North Lancs and Cumbria League, now to be known as the Cumbria Cricket League. Clubs playing in the Premier Division include Workington, Cockermouth, Carlisle, and Furness (based in Barrow). Much of the article focused on Keswick and an interview with club official Keith Richardson lamenting the delayed arrival of the season's pro, Sri Lankan Geeth Kumara. In his absence Keswick started with a heavy defeat at the hands of Millom. 

An item of interest to pcws concerned the arrival of a 53 strong touring party of Australian cricketers from Victoria who are coming over to watch the Ashes but will be staying in Keswick for a week and will compete in a T20 competition on 4th August at Fitz Park, Keswick's ground. 

As its title suggests the paper has a wide brief and a lengthy piece brought news of the Northern Premier League which too started on Saturday. Clubs playing here include Blackpool, Fleetwood, Barrow and Penrith. The last of these were in action against St Annes. Pro for Penrith is Asher Hart who left Durham for Hampshire in 2017. He picked up two wickets on Saturday in what was a narrow defeat for his new club. 

Excellent start for Yorkshire Academy

Posted by Tony Hutton

The faithful few who follow the fortunes of the Yorkshire Academy were all well in place for the start of the new season with a friendly game against Woodhouse Grange at the Leeds University ground, Weetwood. The weather was perfect, with a clear blue sky and a complete absence of the normally ever present Weetwood wind. In fact it became so warm by mid-afternoon that some spectators had to retreat into the shade of the pavilion.

The newly appointed Academy captain, Tom Loten - all six foot seven of him, lost the toss and the visitors decided to field first. One of this season's newcomers Will Luxton, from Bradford Grammar School and Steeton cricket club, opened the batting with James Wharton, who did so well last year.
Unfortunately Luxton did not last long falling lbw to Tom Young for just one. Wharton made a steady 26 before being caught off spinner Jackson. So at 45-2 skipper Loten, who has already been in good form in practice games, came to the wicket to join wicket keeper Harry Duke.

Loten on strike, with Ramkumar at the other end.

This partnership came to an unfortunate end when due to a misunderstanding they collided in mid-wicket and Duke was run out by some distance for just 20. This brought to the wicket Arjun Ramkumar, from Adel cricket club, who played a few games last season as well as for Yorkshire under 17s. Today he batted as we had not seen him before, with a splendid confident innings that really took the game away from Woodhouse Grange. In partnership with Loten they put on 125 runs before an impetuous reverse sweep cost Ramkumar his wicket, bowled by James Finch for 81.

Loten on the way to his century.

Loten, who had been the quieter of the two, now took control, despite losing Bean and Revis very quickly. Harry Harding stayed with him to the end of the innings when a sudden burst from Loten managed to take him to a well deserved century in the last of the fifty overs. Yorkshire finished with a very useful total of 274-6.

Loten applauded from the field on 104 not out.

Woodhouse Grange never really threatened the Academy total despite useful cameos from Andrew and Chris Bilton. Skipper James Finch, a former Academy player in the past, top scored with 37 closely followed by Simon Tennant with 37. Another newcomer to the Academy ranks Edward Booth finished off the tail with figures of 3-41 and there were two wickets each for Mukerjee, Loten and Harding. Woodhouse Grange all out 206 with eleven overs to spare. A nice start for the youngsters but sterner opposition comes next week with the opening Yorkshire League North game at Harrogate.

Good cricket at a lower level.

Posted by Tony Hutton

Regular readers will be well aware of our liking for cricket at all levels. In fact the more obscure the better we like it. This week proved to be right up our street with a surfeit of our sort of cricket, mainly close to home with the exception of our first expedition of the season to Scarborough.

Sunday 14th April and our first womens' match of the season, which we stumbled across on Twitter.
Yorkshire women were taking on Notts in a pre-season friendly match at Methley cricket club now prominent members of the Bradford cricket league. This is a pleasant spot with a bit of a village green atmosphere, a well appointed pavilion, good scoreboard and plenty of parking on the grass at one end where you can sit in the car on cold days, which this one certainly was.

 The pavilion at Methley.

Notts batted first and struggled after a bright start against some useful Yorkshire bowling, particularly the two spinners Levick and Thompson. They had to be winkled out gradually and it took 37 overs before they were all out for 97. Yorkshire struggled early on and had been reduced to 38-4 before a fine partnership between Kasperek (42 not out) and McDonald (25 not out) saw them home to victory in only 27 overs. Relief for players and spectators alike to return to the warmth of the pavilion, where we lucky enough to get the last bacon sandwiches during the interval.

Notts batting at Methley.

Monday saw us back to base so to speak in what has seemed like an early season Weetwood cricket festival at the Leeds University ground. Today's visitor's were Bristol University for a 50 overs a side BUCS game. They had made the long journey north and would also be travelling to Durham for another game the following day.

Leeds/Bradford were given an early scare when Bristol showed that they were not overawed by their powerful opponents. In fact they dismissed last week's centurion, Batchelor, for only 9 early on and then Ashraf and Dahl also went for single figures to leave the home side on 60-3. However today's centurion proved to be opener Taylor Cornall, from Lancashire, who took his time early on but played a very correct innings, only cutting loose near the end with two big sixes.

 Cornall brings up his century.

Cornall was well supported by another Lancastrian, Ben Pearson who plays for Todmorden in the Lancashire league. He made a fine 73 and put on 129 with Cornall before being caught going for a big hit. Haynes (32), Ironside (13) and Killoran (20 not out) all give Cornall good support until he was out in the penultimate over. The home side finished on 316-7.

Bristol in the field.

Bristol lost two early wickets and their run chase looked a forlorn hope but the number three batsman, K. Smith, had other ideas and raced to a hundred in 113 balls, with ten fours and a six. Despite his efforts and a good middle order 50 from Cameron, Bristol were never really up with the rate and they ended 72 short on 244-8 in their fifty overs. However they performed well and contributed to a fine day's cricket. We have now seen six centuries already at Weetwood this season.

Tuesday brought a change of scene with a trip to Scarborough for Yorkshire seconds against Lancashire seconds in a two day friendly. Both teams agreed to bat for 96 overs on each day, irrespective of the number of wickets that fell. Really just glorified net practice. Lancashire fielded a very young, inexperienced side and were always going to have the worst of things.

Ben Birkhead about to take a catch behind the wicket at Scarborough.

They were in trouble against the seam attack of Warner, Taylor and Thompson and were reduced to 48-5 and then 119-8, but Greenwood with 44 and Hartley with 54 brought some respectability to proceedings and the tenth wicket went down at 182. The two openers re-appeared and were both dismissed twice in the day with Lancashire ending day one on 258-13. However nice to be sitting in the sun at Scarborough so early in the season and to enjoy the pavilion balcony bar when it got a little colder later on.

Yorkshire seconds return to the pavilion after a good morning's work.

Wednesday and back at Weetwood again for another BUCS fifty overs game with Cambridge University, who had played two T20 games here while we were at Scarborough. In actual fact the visitors were virtually all students at Anglia Ruskin University, anyone from a Cambridge University college is a rarity these days. Probably the warmest day so far this season with hardly any other spectators, as most people had gone to watch Yorkshire v Leicestershire in the Royal London Cup at Headingley.

Groundsman Richard Robinson surveys the scene at sunny Weetwood.

Peace and quiet reigned and the cricket was pretty good as well. Cambridge 223-8 and Leeds/Bradford not having it all their all way until Cornall with 55 and skipper Dahl with 51 not out saw them home with a couple of overs to spare. The most remarkable over was the very first of the day bowled by Neal, who got an lbw decision first ball, then hit the stumps with the second but the batsman had pulled away at the last minute so not out. His third ball hit the batsman on the ankle, causing a delay and finally he yorked him with the last ball of the over to make it 0-2 and it could have been three.

Durham in the field at Weetwood.

Finally on Thursday Leeds/Bradford entertained Durham second XI again at Weetwood. A very strong Durham side with plenty of first team experience made this an unusual experience for the university side who have carried all before them so far this season. Durham made 318-7 mainly due to new recruit from Leicestershire, Ned Eckersley with fine innings of 108. Veteran Will Smith came in towards the end and hit 61 in 34 balls, with four huge sixes and four fours, Durham ending on 318-7. The university were never in the hunt and were bowled out for 222. Two wickets each for Josh Couglin, Cameron Steel and Ben Whitehead.

Ned Eckersley returns to the pavilion with 108 on the board.