You get paid to score cricket matches, of course you do, not enough a few of us reckon, but there are odd times you feel you ought to pay for the privilege.
Hardly anybody charges to go on Lancashire League games these days so virtually everyone gets to watch, say, Jurie Snyman bat for nowt but on Monday enjoying the splendid hospitality of Richmondshire CC in North Yorkshire I scored a game between England Over 40 Lions and the UK Armed forces which was such a privilege to do I, notoriously tight-fisted, didn’t mind the fact that I probably made a loss on the expedition.
My wife Lesley picked myself and Rollo up after Accrington’s game at Great Harwood on Sunday night and journeying via Settle and the Ribblehead Viaduct we stayed in the George and Dragon pub at Hard Raw waterfall near Hawes, completing the journey to Richmond after breakfast on Monday. A pity there wasn’t time to explore the area further but we’ll surely return.
If travelling through the North Yorkshire moors and dales on a cool bright evening then a warm sunny Monday morning doesn’t gladden your heart, you’re hard to please.
Not for nothing do the Tykes refer to their shires as “Gods’s own county” and it’s difficult to argue although I’m sure nothing would make them happier than if you did.
The game was a good one too, the forces guys chasing down the veteran XI (though England have Over-50,60 and 70s XIs too) total of 257 for 8 with four balls to go and seven wickets down.
Adam Fisher, an RAF man who plays for splendidly-named Sheriff Hutton Bridge (which sounds like it should be emblazoned on a battered old barely-hanging wooden sign above a gateway in Blazing Saddles but is actually North-East of York) made a superb 128 not out, the last dozen or so with a runner after doing a hammy.
Earlier a lad named Neil Longhurst, of another Yorkshire side Whitley Hall and Geordie Kamran Mansoor of Maften CC both made 83 for the Lions. Seriously good players, Longhurst’s mastery of sweeping on the walk was a joy.
Will Purser once of Clitheroe was a familiar name in the Lions’ side.
It was a real joy to put on an England polo shirt to score in even if it was purchased by my daughter with staff discount at TK Maxx. The Forces scorer Sue Croxall was a brilliant companion, I would have willingly paid her my fee for the crash-course on advanced laptop scoring if we hadn’t needed it for parking and fuel on the way home! That’s another benefit of scoring payments I almost never need to use a card for patrol in summer.
You always find some common ground to talk about with a scorer you haven’t met before. Sue had scored a Yorkshire Ladies double-header the day before in which Accy’s own Alice Clarke had played.
Chris Mays, Lions’ hard-working factotum who looked after me had transformed the score box into something resembling Cape Canaveral with the bewildering array of cables, screens and cameras and other gadgets to offer online footage live. We’ll be doing it all again at Norley Park near Wigan on Wednesday.
It was nice to have Lesley close by all day, mainly knitting and reading in the shade with Rollo keeping cool.
Mrs Wilky loves a day watching the Test or Lancs but takes some persuading to visit a league ground.
I took her to Crompton watching Church once, an experience she described to our girls as “It’s just your dad and a load of other old blokes talking rubbish all afternoon. About grass and mowers and stuff. Then they get up and say ‘let’s do a lap,’ and walk round.”
She made the last knockings of the Accrington game at Cliffe Park on Sunday, seeing what’s now becoming almost a routine occurrence – Jurie winning the game with a six which takes him to his hundred.
It was actually a very good game all afternoon. Harwood’s ground is a splendid place to play and watch these days. The view from the box would be to die for with another three feet of window to the right of the away scorer but I kept going to the top of the steps to savour the full panoramic view of what’s a fine venue these days.
I remember a couple of old League grandees turning their noses up at the likes of Harwood and Darwen joining the fold on the basis their grounds weren’t up to it. They were shamefully wrong.
Noting what looked like a belting track and a rapid outfield Jacob Clarke won the toss and promptly inserted the home side, leaving one or two of us puzzled.
It looked even more eye-raising when Matt Oddie and Jack Hancock put on 67 at no great lick but relatively untroubled.
But an inexplicably soft run-out in the 23rd over gave Jacob and co the opportunity to apply Accrington’s version of Klopp’s ‘Gegenpress’ with Kian Farnworth getting Oddie to play on before drinks were taken – the genial Hancock even supplying us scorers with a fruit squash apiece as soon as he had got his pads off.
Harwood pro Thikshila Da Silva threatened to break the shackles with a rapid 37 despite losing Greenhalgh to a daft stumping and young Max Cocken run out to a piece of aggressive brilliance from Snyman, but in one of those ‘champagne moments’ Jacob, on for a second spell, induced an edge by the pro to keeper Haratbar stood up. The celebration told you it could be a match-turning moment and so it proved.
Spirited late runs from Kasirv Masood, Siraj Ahmed and Shiraz Ahmad defied the squeeze and got Harwood towards 200 but everyone knew that had Da Silva stayed longer, 250 or even 300 would have been a possibility on that deck.
I had a visit from my mate Greg from school, always a pleasure, at tea-time. We’ve been pals for 55 years or so. We used to be little lads taken to Ewood by our dads. Soon we may be bumping into each other visiting those dads in the same care home. Once a man, twice a child they say. I was very touched a couple of years ago when Greg text me to say we hadn’t seen each other one calendar year and this in his view was a bad thing which had seldom happened down the decades. I hope we see each other many more times as our own golden years beckon.
Graeme Sneddon fell first over when Accrington replied but Johnny Dack is in imperious form of late and though he lost Jacob pretty soon and himself fell to Da Silva, he’d made a fine 34 out of 79. He’s a proper opening bat is Dacky.
By that stage Jurie had watchfully and metronomically made his way into the 20’s and it was looking clear that if he stayed beyond the 30 over mark the visitors would be on their way.
After Emile departed leg before to Stuart Maher, whose run-up increasingly reminds me of old East Lancs bowler Roger Sharp these days, he found a good ally in Sam Malloy who assisted the paid man in a partnership of 67.
It was obvious by then that Harwood’s only hope was getting Snyman out with overs regularly going for 6, 7, 8, 9 and even 14 runs at one point. Kian fell but by then you had been doing that little equation as to how many were needed and how many of them Jurie needed for another ton for a while.
It duly arrived with a pulled six off Will Armer, the only six of another clinically measure, perfectly-pace innings of controlled power. Many more of these – that’s century number 4 of the season – I’m going to need the Thesaurus.
A fifty for Denton West subbing on Saturday means Jurie is beyond 900 runs for the season in all cricket. He subs for Littleborough again on Saturday.
It was another statement win with more than 12 overs to spare and justified Clarke’s faith in his side chasing.
Seeing the boys spread out on the Cliffe Park turf enjoying a quiet celebration was a lovely sight after grabbing a quick half-hour with my much-loved old Accy Ob boss Margaret Cheesbrough and husband Richard, whose sons Dan and Matt graced that turf for many years in the Ribblesdale League days. The family have had a great input in making the club the fine town institution it is today and they along with stalwarts like Maher have much to be proud of.
Margaret paid my writing a lovely compliment last year when I saw her and coming from someone steeped in newspaper history it meant the world to me. She was quite right never to bestow such praise when I worked with her. I had quite enough reason to be a bit of an arse back then without supplying me with more ammunition.
Another old Ribb League side, Cherry Tree took a bit of a hiding at the hands of Ribblesdale Wanderers on Saturday.
For Andreas Sudnik’s men, losing the toss and fielding led to a punishing afternoon.
They had a couple of opportunities with Wanderers at 131 for five and 176 for eight but a man who would suit that England Over-40s shirt, Mark Briggs marked his first appearance for a couple of years by making a vital and skilful 49 to steer Ribb to 232 for nine.
Sudnik had taken three wickets in his first over to precipitate a mini-collapse but Briggs and Charlie Windsor added 55. Ross Bretherton claimed five for 53 in his customary opening 15 over spell.
Cherry Tree never looked in the running and were shot out for 113.
This weekend Cherry visit Walkden (the joys eh – Richmond and the Dales to Bolton’s roundabouts and a huge deserted shopping centre) then host Earby in a rare NWCL double-header while Accy entertain Church, a fixture I cannot miss this time.
A week today it’s summer holidays for me and a couple of Lancs games at Farington (visited last week – verdict? Thumbs up) in my first full week off but if you need a sobering counter, in about 12 weeks it’ll be mid-October with the 2026 season finished and April 2027 a distant prospect.
So enjoy the cricket and any sunshine in between and the company you get out in the fresh air.
Last week’s quiz answer – James Hayhurst and Paul Barratt on 400 and 300 games for Accy.
This week’s quiz – a former colleague of mine made the last of his five 50’s for Accrington, 57 not out opening against Church, in 1986. He left at the end of that season and played just one more game for the club 12 years later, but finished his career 7 short of a 1,000 Lancs League runs. Can you name him?
