Driving back from South Cave, it struck me that I will quite possibly never play cricket there again. The York Vale Cricket League is on its last legs, with most teams moving into the Yorkshire Premier League North next season. It seems unlikely that a team in suburban York and a village team in the wolds west of Hull would be placed in the same division again. After over a decade of enjoyable games with the gents of South Cave & Brantingham CC, against whom I scored my first club cricket 50, I felt rather sad.
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| This match report from the York Press might not have been entirely factually correct. |
The day had a distinctly end-of-season feel to it. Drizzle set in not long after I'd left traffic-jammed York, and didn't set out again. Upon arriving at the Bull Field, the outfield looked as lush and green as a sloth's coat. Clearly no cattle had grazed here recently. Then Cave's captain explained that their mower had been stolen the previous week, and I felt a bit sheepish.
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| The drizzle sets in on the Bull Field, South Cave, Sept 7th 2024. |
After an hour of sitting around, the rain showed no sign of abating. Surely we were going to be washed out. Another half-hour passed, and I was ready to get back in the car. Then the drizzle eased slightly, and the captains agreed to try a 25-over match, starting at 2.30pm. And somehow, despite conditions remaining gloomier than Keir Starmer's appraisal of the country's post-Tory finances, the entire 50 overs were bowled, and the game went down to the wire.
Our innings started slowly, but Noah Morgan and Oli Dodson built up a century partnership. Noah top-scored with 50-something (our scorer's exact words), whilst I enjoyed batting with James Mason at the end: we put on 23 in the last three overs to take our total to 145-6.
Not bothering with tea, we went straight out again. My highlights in the field were:
- Benji dropping a catch off a no-ball.
- Me dropping a catch off a not no-ball (same batsman, same bowler).
- Me chasing a ball into the outfield, getting down to grab it, and sliding way past it on the wet grass.
- Benji celebrappealing for a caught behind, which their umpire gave, and which their batsman swore he hadn't hit.
- Me fielding on the long-on boundary, their new batter slogging the ball, probably in my direction, and me being completely unable to see it in the dark trees until it was about 10 yards in front of me, and then hurtling forward to try and catch it. The ball smacked straight into my right hand, bobbled up, and then dropped to the grass. I have the seam marks imprinted into my palm.
- Me hurtling round to field a straight drive and having it thump me square in the chest on the third bounce. I have the seam marks imprinted between my armpit and nipple. Had it hit me square in the sternum I would have shattered like a vase.
- Benji bowling a spell of two halves: the first half, from the motorway end, being absolute pies; the second half, from the pavilion end, being absolute pearls.
- Oli Dodson taking two cracking catches at extra-cover off Owen's bowling.
- South Cave needing 17 to win off the last over, and us just about managing to defend it.
My season was finished with a memorable match. It had been worth the slow drive and the steady drizzle. And then I learnt that Cave's captain had apparently been so incensed by his dismissal that he'd resigned his position there and then, stormed off to his car and gone home. Unfortunately he'd taken the pavilion keys with him, so the rest of his former subjects were now trying to work out how to lock up. What a York Press match report Lord Cole would have written.
After all the fun, the only right and proper thing to do was to go to The Bear for a drink with some friends who live in South Cave. Hopefully I'll be back, one way or another.
(If you want to peruse the match scorecard, you can do so here.)
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