I awoke this morning feeling physically shattered and overwhelmed by 36 hours of intense experiences and inclined to stay at home rather than take the ferry to North Shields and the free bus service to Tynemouth for the start of the Mouth of the Tyne festival. I have played some chess against the computer without making irreversible mistakes and will shortly enjoy a pre-packaged breakfast of egg, bacon, sausage beans and hash brown. Part of the inclination to stay was the wish to write separately about the Louis Armstrong’s early music recreation show at the Sage Newcastle on Thursday evening, my day at the cricket at Headingley Leeds yesterday or the impact of the last two episodes of Torchwood, coupled with overhearing a conversation between two men at the cricket one of whose parents were both General Practitioners and who had expressed concerns about the impact of the spread of Swine Flu on the ability of the Health and public services to cope.
I will start with the visit to Headingley but may transfer to something else as the day progresses. I decided to stick with what I had started and leave the more rewarding Jazz and Fireworks and the Armageddon pieces till Sunday.
I have been trying to remember the first occasion that I visited the Yorkshire County Cricket which is located at Headingley, a small area of the greater Leeds city conurbation. I do not think I visited when I lived and worked in Yorkshire based at Wakefield and living at Lofthouse midway between Wakefield and the City of Leeds for a year 1969-1970. More likely it was after moving to the North East in 1974 and deciding to go for a day to a Test match although I believe I also went to watch Yorkshire in a domestic championship game or two before Durham became a first class county. I believe the last Test visit was in the early 1990’s but there have been almost annual trips since for at least a day, sometimes a couple for matches between Durham and the Yorkshire County.
My interest in the Yorkshire Cricket club arose in the in late 1940 and throughout the 1950’s when my local club Surrey won the championship 1952 1958 and Yorkshire their main rivals outside of Middlesex in London regained the championship in 1959. There is a special display in the new Member’s lounge and viewing area at Headingley commemorating the event of 50 years ago. Then Yorkshire comprised the likes of fiery Fred Trueman, a young batsman called Brian Close who went on to captain the side in its most successful post second world war years in the 1960’s, the spin bowler Ray Illingworth and Dickie Bird who became the famous international Test umpire, and took the title from the seven successful Surrey years, whose team included Locke and Laker, the Bedser twins all bowlers and the England great batsman P B H May. The equally great Sir Len Hutton had retired by 1969 but I have a signed copy of his book just my story, and where I saw a similar one in the collection of cricket books, scorecards and other memorabilia which is also on show and for sale in the Member’s lounge.
On Friday I had set off late, closer to 9am than 8 which has been my traditional preference although I did stop for a breakfast twister sold by the K.F,C as a tortilla but is more like a pancake filled with egg bacon and tomato. I should have also drank some of the prepared coffee but decided to get on the way. It was bright morning for most of the trip and I alighted from the car in warmish sunshine two hours later. However that jump in the tale covers getting lost in North Leeds on the way to ground and for which there is no excuse because I had a large map and a detailed street map book with me.
On the journey I noticed the progress which is being made in converting the existing two lane A 1 dual carriage way between the junction with the A19 back towards the famous Scotch Corner and where shortly afterwards the road becomes the A1M again all the way close to Durham City, the Riverside Ground at Chester Le Street before forking to the edge of South Tyneside and into and around Newcastle before joining up with the A19 to continuing as the East Coast route to Edinburgh, the capital City of Scotland. This next bit is likely of interests only to me or those with an interest in the history of the British motorway network!
At the age of four I made the journey from Wallington in South London by ambulance along the original A 1 to Catterick army camp in North Yorkshire, now the largest military complex in Western Europe. In the mid 1950’s someone at the office where I worked said that it took him and his family to travel the 500 miles to where they were staying in Scotland and mentioned Scotch corner. This is located in Yorkshire some 100 miles from the Scottish border. The reason for name is that at this point one can take a road which leads to the west of the UK into Scotland and Glasgow.
It was in the 1960’s that the first stretch of the parallel motorway to the A1, the M1, although to say parallel is a loose expression, was created between London and Leeds and I can remember taking journeys from Oxford in a near deserted motorway. It is only recently that the M1 has been extended around Leeds to the East side and joins in with A1M, close to where the M62 traverses the country from the east at Hull, through Manchester and on towards Lancashire and Liverpool where it is in turn bisected by the M6 going north towards the English Lakes, Carlisle and Glasgow and South through Manchester towards Birmingham, where the M5 goes to the South West and M40 towards to Oxford and London.
For sometime I had noticed that the fencing of farmer’s fields between Scotch Corner and the A19 junction had been moved away from the roadside and then that properties began to be boarded up. For several decades one marker was where there were Little Chef restaurant services stops on both sides of the carriage way. Then one was closed and demolished. The on a recent use of the roadway I noticed the creation of machinery compounds and the clearance if stretches of field revealing various coloured earths. When I lived at Seaburn it was easier to go into the Sunderland City Centre and taking the east ring road around the city until it joined the A19 from Northumberland, through the Tyne Tunnel to Jarrow and then Bolden in South Tyneside, and then motor past Middlesborough and the turn off to York and Hull before reaching where the A1M commences as a three lane motorway. Since moving to South Shields the A1M from the outskirts of Hebburn was a faster and therefore a quicker route.
From the junction it was a fast track all the way to the new vast service area called the Wetherby/York services to mark the road between Wetherby and York. KI came off for Leeds at this point and made he mistake of taking the road which led into the north side of the pleasant Yorkshire town by a horse race track and with its nearby racecourse and which has a centre of old pubs and residential housing much loved by those with brass who used to play football for Leeds united or cricket for Yorkshire. I could have done without the delay from slowing down for the 30 miles per hour limit and traffic lights. Eventually the road came out on to the south east of the city and the roundabout with a hotel on the corner which had been my original intention. It is about 12 miles from here into the city centre although my purpose was the northern ring road.
This road is again slow but even the short spells of freeway at 70 miles an hour and become 50 and included stretches at forty and third through small villages and residential areas. I passed a couple of pub restaurants where I have taken lunch or an evening meal on journeys to or from London in the past before the M1 extension was built around Leeds directly leading to the A1M/A19. The first part of the northern ring road is also speed restricted and there are traffic lights for turn offs into the Leeds, to Roundhay Park which holds a major music festival each year at the same time as at Reading. I made the mistake of taking a turn before the junction to Harrogate and went too far south towards the city centre or so I thought before cutting diagonally into Headingley adn then seeing a sign Headingley I followed the road and coming to a T junction with no sign post turned right and north when I should have gone south and left. I found myself in pleasant countryside and back onto the ring road so I travelled a little way further in my original direction of travel and took the first turning left and bingo within a short distance I was at the first traffic lights just before the Arndale shopping centre building on Headingley High Street. The next but is of interest only to those who wish to visit the Yorkshire Cricket ground and have never visited before, or those who have not been since the various changes commenced which are transforming the ground from a revered but dilapidated place into an twenty first century arena for the best of International cricket viewing.
Had I found the correct road I could have parked in a side road at this junction among a tree lined avenue of large stone mansion houses which was the closest I dared to park for Test matches at the Yorkshire ground. For domestic cricket it was sometimes possible to find a space within 100 or 250 yards of what is known as the Kirkstall Lane entrance close to what was known as the Winter Shed stand. To get to the ground it is necessary to turn right at a second set of traffic lights at the other end of the Arndale shopping street, passed a pub which has become popular with students and a building converted into a trendy night club and bar and to the Kirkstall Lane. The ground is on the left but on the right there are terraces of tall multi occupational houses and here if you arrive early enough to can find a car parking space or two. Although I had made the detour into Wetherby and around North Leeds and had set off just before nine I had made the 100 mile journey within two hours arriving just as 11 was striking. I would have witnessed the opening over had it not been for the fact that the entire West and North stand, now a continuous huge bank of bright blue seats was closed together with the food concessions stalls in the walkway around 95% of the ground around the inside of the stadium. Fortunately the Gentleman‘s toilet was not blocked off so I made myself comfortable for the rest of the morning.
The first point of entry into the playing arena was at the end of the blue seat stand which now occupies a good third of the arena to where one of the most curious viewing stands in the United Kingdom was built in the early twentieth century. This is the Main Rugby Club stand, Leeds being a northern city Rugby League which has more in common with American Football than American Football has with British Soccer, or with British Rugby Union, except the players do not wear any padding but sometimes looked padded from muscle weight. Yes this is a stand with two sides. The cricket side comprises a lower tier of seats at either end separated by the area of sight screens as this side of the stand looks directly over wickets from the bowlers running up to the wickets. There are one way screen from which the players can watch the game from their respective dressing rooms. There is also a continuous top tier of seats but you can not now enter these from the cricket side of the stand. You have to go to Rugby pitch side of stand and climb to the high level and then go through doors into the cricket side. It is a fair climb. The stand is the same as when it was built which means it is ready to be pulled down along with most of the rest of the cricket stadium had this not been done or was in the process of being done. The North and West Mound of a stand was a collection of rotten seats when I first attended in 1974 adn even when improvements were made there was a plan to build a stadium for the 21st century on a Greenfield site at Wakefield close tot he junction between the M62 and M1. However the Yorkshire members were solidly against, and the future of the club was question as it failed to meet the minimum requirements of the English Cricket Board for International matches which bring in their one millions pounds a day plus, revenue for the five days the Sky televised event. It is many years since the BBC provided both the televising of Test matches and the ball by ball radio commentary for which it continues to have world wide fame and which was the basis of my childhood knowledge of Test cricket in the days before Television broadcasting of any sport or any programming. The Members of the Club had a facility for food within the bowels of the stadium when I first visited as a Durham Member and the players dressings rooms were in a pavilion on the other side oft he ground and which is now a separate building called the Pavilion stand and which is also unused for Championship matches.
As with Lords incorporated into one end of the main stand is a public house overlooking the play. This has become the Yorkshire Taverner’s club, for Member’s only and their guests, I sat in the lower tiers overlooking the left oft he wicket and a little way above were two Taverner boxes which could be used by those members who preferred to over look the wicket than rather have a corner angle view. Here was evident a continuous stream of hot coffee or tea and people were drink more wine than beer throughout the day with ladies as much in evidence as men, in contrast to Lords where the Long room and outside side seating is still restricted to men wearing jackets and ties. Those members who prefer to sit outside rather than from behind all weather glass have two types of comfortable leather seats with one set with high backs rather like those in Gentleman’s clubs but which looked incongruous overlooking a cricket field. It is possible for ordinary mortals to sit in the lower tier of seats below those of the Taverner’s. There is also a sports bar next to this which was also closed, There two reasons for the closures. The main one is the comparatively new Members East Stand and 36 room hotel. This is at the St Michael‘s Lane entrance to both the cricket and Rugby ground. Across the road from the entrance is the Indoor cricket centre, restaurant and club building sponsored by the Bradford and Bingley Building Society which became a bank and then was divided between the mortgages which has been nationalised and the savings and which although keeping the name was taken over by Abbey National which in turn is owned by the Spanish Santander group.
There was always seating here popular with some members but behind was the shell of a building which became hospitality boxes for International matches. This has all been replaced by an excellent facility for Members with good terraced seating and on the first floor level, but second floor by the standards of most housing there is a full length and members indoor viewing area, with a bar and meals and other food served at one end. In terms of length and width it is larger space than at Durham. It also has the attraction of two rows of viewing seat through larger picture windows, something which Durham lacks. Above this level are two floors of motel type bedrooms, 36 in total which are available to general public for £50 weekends and £40 weekends with extra, presumably match entrance charges for playing days. There is on side car parking next to a small area of gardens with four maybe five park type benchers. There is a similar area at Lords. Next to the Member’ the news stand and motel building there the new North East Stand which has two tiers and area designated as the family stand where alcohol cannot be taken into the seating area. Between the North East Stand and the Members stand there is the new electronic scoreboard which is the best I have seen on any cricket ground to-date.
What is left is a building site where once was the Winter Shed stand and which is to one side of the Kirkstall Lane entrance. Now there are four huge concrete core structures to the new building which I assume are lift and service shafts and towering above these two of the biggest cranes I have ever seen and with warning lights at the top as these are below one of the main flight paths in and of Leeds and Bradford Airport, an airport I once used on a holiday trip to Spain.
The Shed became infamous for corporately all day drinking and rowdiness. Although in fairness as did the north and west mound stands and other public areas at Headingley. This, together with the escalating prices was why I stopped going to the opening days of Test matches. I liked the shed stand because it also provided a view over the wicket. One was fairly high up as below there was a tier of hospitality boxes and open seating restricted to Members of the club. Headingley is no longer Headingley but Headingley Carnegie, the name of its main sponsors, the Leeds Metropolitan University which has become one of the largest universities in the UK with 30000 students and covers the West Yorkshire area rather than Leeds City. The new building rising on the street end of Kirkstall Lane is a new teaching block for the University. Facing the playing area will be corporate boxes and a new media centre and learning facility similar to that Durham which I understand they visited and were impressed by. I assume there will be some seating on the lower tier for Members which will variable according to where the wicket is placed and therefore the sight screens.
The less said about the actual cricket on this occasion from the viewpoint of Durham that is, the better. Durham after all won the toss and elected to bat at first the openers looked like true representatives of the current Championship holders, playing at the home of the side that has won the championship more than twice that of any other county, albeit with two thirds of the winds before the second world war and only one win after the post war heyday in the 1960’s with Geoff Boycott as lead batsman and for England and Brian Close the Yorkshire Captain. The problem after that is the insistence of the club that players other than official overseas players had to be born with the geographical county of Yorkshire. This prevented the club from recruiting promising young players who were not born in the county although it was stretched to those whose parents were born in the county.
The decision to bat looked good until a splendid piece of fielding had Stoneman run out when the total was 47. Then there was disaster with Coetzer and Muchall were out to Shahzad at 53 and 55, both without scoring. Worse followed with Di Venuto who had promised much going for 29, Blackwell for only 12, both cleaned bowled by the impressive spin bowler Rashid.
Now it is worth telling the tale of Rashid as it is his inclusion in the Yorkshire 20 20 side which led to their expulsion from the competition and non match at Durham which I still believe was the fault of Darren Gough, that is the non match and not the expulsion. Adil Rashid is a brilliant spin bowler who captained the English youth team. He was born in Bradford but did not hold a British Passport and therefore should have been registered as an overseas players but Yorkshire already had their quota for the year. This has now been rectified and he could play for England if selected. I was impressed by Adil when he came to the Riverside but on Friday he was outstanding taking 3 for 32 from 18 overs that is less than two runs an over. Only Beckenstein seemed able to cope although he was supported by Mitch Claydon for a time, 62 and 26 runs respectively and somehow Durham struggled to only 176. It was never going to be enough to win this match as events today proved with Gale getting 84 runs and Shahzad not out at the close on 41 contributing to a total of 313 and Durham with 135 runs to make up were 26 for 1 by the close of play on Saturday. Hopefully the weather will be poor tomorrow and therefore a draw is possible otherwise I can see Durham losing their first match of season within three days and which wrecks my plans for Monday.
On Friday evening Harmison was fiery and impressed the Yorkshire supporters with his pace and bounce and there were several comments as why he was not playing for England, especially as the Australian were playing havoc with the English attack. However on Friday Harmison did not take an early wicket but he took three of the opening batsmen this morning and at one point Yorks were 93 for 5 and it looked as if the match had evened itself out, However 100 hundred runs was added for the loss of only two further wickers and an eight wicket partnership added a further 84 runs. Harmison took five wickets for 60 from 25 which will again draw his attention to the English selectors. We also missed Graham Onions. Plunkett back from injury failed to impress again with no wickets for 68 from 19 nor did Claydon 1 for 76 from 21 but Davies I for 33 from 13 puzzles why he did not bowl more unless further injury has occurred. I enjoyed the day but not the Durham performance.
On the way back I went out the way I had come and this is definitely faster than my previous efforts although longer in terms of distance. Instead of returning from the ring road as before I continued on the ring road following the directions to A!M/A19 north. This is a much faster route with few speed restrictions and traffic lights. However it does involve in effect travelling three side of a rectangle. The best way to the ground is in fact to take the monocot and turn off towards Harrogate and from their join the Leeds ring road. The journey should still be done in two hours but with setting off at 8.30 this should provide time to find a car parking space and find a seat comfortably before the opening overs. Time for a coffee and an early roll.
Talking of food I was quite peckish as I set off and was tempted to stop for fish and chips but not for a proper meal because of wanting return before darkness. I also remembered I had not bought lottery tickets. I decided to try and hang on until reaching home for food, but stopped at the Wetherby service to see if they sold lottery tickets and also fro a comfort break. It was here I noticed that a jacket potato with filling costs 4.99, a Burger King or McDonalds type meal £6 and fish and chips just under seven pounds. For these sums you get fast food cardboard cooking. A muffin , although a large one costs £1.99 and a doughnut £1. There were some takers although many took one look and motored on after investing in a hot drink. I arrived home just after nine. Bought lottery tickets through the internet and then watched Thursday episode of Torchwood on the I player and then after waiting half an hour, the final episode for this five hour series shown every night of this week. It is worth a separate Blog although first must come more traditional jazz and swing time.
I will start with the visit to Headingley but may transfer to something else as the day progresses. I decided to stick with what I had started and leave the more rewarding Jazz and Fireworks and the Armageddon pieces till Sunday.
I have been trying to remember the first occasion that I visited the Yorkshire County Cricket which is located at Headingley, a small area of the greater Leeds city conurbation. I do not think I visited when I lived and worked in Yorkshire based at Wakefield and living at Lofthouse midway between Wakefield and the City of Leeds for a year 1969-1970. More likely it was after moving to the North East in 1974 and deciding to go for a day to a Test match although I believe I also went to watch Yorkshire in a domestic championship game or two before Durham became a first class county. I believe the last Test visit was in the early 1990’s but there have been almost annual trips since for at least a day, sometimes a couple for matches between Durham and the Yorkshire County.
My interest in the Yorkshire Cricket club arose in the in late 1940 and throughout the 1950’s when my local club Surrey won the championship 1952 1958 and Yorkshire their main rivals outside of Middlesex in London regained the championship in 1959. There is a special display in the new Member’s lounge and viewing area at Headingley commemorating the event of 50 years ago. Then Yorkshire comprised the likes of fiery Fred Trueman, a young batsman called Brian Close who went on to captain the side in its most successful post second world war years in the 1960’s, the spin bowler Ray Illingworth and Dickie Bird who became the famous international Test umpire, and took the title from the seven successful Surrey years, whose team included Locke and Laker, the Bedser twins all bowlers and the England great batsman P B H May. The equally great Sir Len Hutton had retired by 1969 but I have a signed copy of his book just my story, and where I saw a similar one in the collection of cricket books, scorecards and other memorabilia which is also on show and for sale in the Member’s lounge.
On Friday I had set off late, closer to 9am than 8 which has been my traditional preference although I did stop for a breakfast twister sold by the K.F,C as a tortilla but is more like a pancake filled with egg bacon and tomato. I should have also drank some of the prepared coffee but decided to get on the way. It was bright morning for most of the trip and I alighted from the car in warmish sunshine two hours later. However that jump in the tale covers getting lost in North Leeds on the way to ground and for which there is no excuse because I had a large map and a detailed street map book with me.
On the journey I noticed the progress which is being made in converting the existing two lane A 1 dual carriage way between the junction with the A19 back towards the famous Scotch Corner and where shortly afterwards the road becomes the A1M again all the way close to Durham City, the Riverside Ground at Chester Le Street before forking to the edge of South Tyneside and into and around Newcastle before joining up with the A19 to continuing as the East Coast route to Edinburgh, the capital City of Scotland. This next bit is likely of interests only to me or those with an interest in the history of the British motorway network!
At the age of four I made the journey from Wallington in South London by ambulance along the original A 1 to Catterick army camp in North Yorkshire, now the largest military complex in Western Europe. In the mid 1950’s someone at the office where I worked said that it took him and his family to travel the 500 miles to where they were staying in Scotland and mentioned Scotch corner. This is located in Yorkshire some 100 miles from the Scottish border. The reason for name is that at this point one can take a road which leads to the west of the UK into Scotland and Glasgow.
It was in the 1960’s that the first stretch of the parallel motorway to the A1, the M1, although to say parallel is a loose expression, was created between London and Leeds and I can remember taking journeys from Oxford in a near deserted motorway. It is only recently that the M1 has been extended around Leeds to the East side and joins in with A1M, close to where the M62 traverses the country from the east at Hull, through Manchester and on towards Lancashire and Liverpool where it is in turn bisected by the M6 going north towards the English Lakes, Carlisle and Glasgow and South through Manchester towards Birmingham, where the M5 goes to the South West and M40 towards to Oxford and London.
For sometime I had noticed that the fencing of farmer’s fields between Scotch Corner and the A19 junction had been moved away from the roadside and then that properties began to be boarded up. For several decades one marker was where there were Little Chef restaurant services stops on both sides of the carriage way. Then one was closed and demolished. The on a recent use of the roadway I noticed the creation of machinery compounds and the clearance if stretches of field revealing various coloured earths. When I lived at Seaburn it was easier to go into the Sunderland City Centre and taking the east ring road around the city until it joined the A19 from Northumberland, through the Tyne Tunnel to Jarrow and then Bolden in South Tyneside, and then motor past Middlesborough and the turn off to York and Hull before reaching where the A1M commences as a three lane motorway. Since moving to South Shields the A1M from the outskirts of Hebburn was a faster and therefore a quicker route.
From the junction it was a fast track all the way to the new vast service area called the Wetherby/York services to mark the road between Wetherby and York. KI came off for Leeds at this point and made he mistake of taking the road which led into the north side of the pleasant Yorkshire town by a horse race track and with its nearby racecourse and which has a centre of old pubs and residential housing much loved by those with brass who used to play football for Leeds united or cricket for Yorkshire. I could have done without the delay from slowing down for the 30 miles per hour limit and traffic lights. Eventually the road came out on to the south east of the city and the roundabout with a hotel on the corner which had been my original intention. It is about 12 miles from here into the city centre although my purpose was the northern ring road.
This road is again slow but even the short spells of freeway at 70 miles an hour and become 50 and included stretches at forty and third through small villages and residential areas. I passed a couple of pub restaurants where I have taken lunch or an evening meal on journeys to or from London in the past before the M1 extension was built around Leeds directly leading to the A1M/A19. The first part of the northern ring road is also speed restricted and there are traffic lights for turn offs into the Leeds, to Roundhay Park which holds a major music festival each year at the same time as at Reading. I made the mistake of taking a turn before the junction to Harrogate and went too far south towards the city centre or so I thought before cutting diagonally into Headingley adn then seeing a sign Headingley I followed the road and coming to a T junction with no sign post turned right and north when I should have gone south and left. I found myself in pleasant countryside and back onto the ring road so I travelled a little way further in my original direction of travel and took the first turning left and bingo within a short distance I was at the first traffic lights just before the Arndale shopping centre building on Headingley High Street. The next but is of interest only to those who wish to visit the Yorkshire Cricket ground and have never visited before, or those who have not been since the various changes commenced which are transforming the ground from a revered but dilapidated place into an twenty first century arena for the best of International cricket viewing.
Had I found the correct road I could have parked in a side road at this junction among a tree lined avenue of large stone mansion houses which was the closest I dared to park for Test matches at the Yorkshire ground. For domestic cricket it was sometimes possible to find a space within 100 or 250 yards of what is known as the Kirkstall Lane entrance close to what was known as the Winter Shed stand. To get to the ground it is necessary to turn right at a second set of traffic lights at the other end of the Arndale shopping street, passed a pub which has become popular with students and a building converted into a trendy night club and bar and to the Kirkstall Lane. The ground is on the left but on the right there are terraces of tall multi occupational houses and here if you arrive early enough to can find a car parking space or two. Although I had made the detour into Wetherby and around North Leeds and had set off just before nine I had made the 100 mile journey within two hours arriving just as 11 was striking. I would have witnessed the opening over had it not been for the fact that the entire West and North stand, now a continuous huge bank of bright blue seats was closed together with the food concessions stalls in the walkway around 95% of the ground around the inside of the stadium. Fortunately the Gentleman‘s toilet was not blocked off so I made myself comfortable for the rest of the morning.
The first point of entry into the playing arena was at the end of the blue seat stand which now occupies a good third of the arena to where one of the most curious viewing stands in the United Kingdom was built in the early twentieth century. This is the Main Rugby Club stand, Leeds being a northern city Rugby League which has more in common with American Football than American Football has with British Soccer, or with British Rugby Union, except the players do not wear any padding but sometimes looked padded from muscle weight. Yes this is a stand with two sides. The cricket side comprises a lower tier of seats at either end separated by the area of sight screens as this side of the stand looks directly over wickets from the bowlers running up to the wickets. There are one way screen from which the players can watch the game from their respective dressing rooms. There is also a continuous top tier of seats but you can not now enter these from the cricket side of the stand. You have to go to Rugby pitch side of stand and climb to the high level and then go through doors into the cricket side. It is a fair climb. The stand is the same as when it was built which means it is ready to be pulled down along with most of the rest of the cricket stadium had this not been done or was in the process of being done. The North and West Mound of a stand was a collection of rotten seats when I first attended in 1974 adn even when improvements were made there was a plan to build a stadium for the 21st century on a Greenfield site at Wakefield close tot he junction between the M62 and M1. However the Yorkshire members were solidly against, and the future of the club was question as it failed to meet the minimum requirements of the English Cricket Board for International matches which bring in their one millions pounds a day plus, revenue for the five days the Sky televised event. It is many years since the BBC provided both the televising of Test matches and the ball by ball radio commentary for which it continues to have world wide fame and which was the basis of my childhood knowledge of Test cricket in the days before Television broadcasting of any sport or any programming. The Members of the Club had a facility for food within the bowels of the stadium when I first visited as a Durham Member and the players dressings rooms were in a pavilion on the other side oft he ground and which is now a separate building called the Pavilion stand and which is also unused for Championship matches.
As with Lords incorporated into one end of the main stand is a public house overlooking the play. This has become the Yorkshire Taverner’s club, for Member’s only and their guests, I sat in the lower tiers overlooking the left oft he wicket and a little way above were two Taverner boxes which could be used by those members who preferred to over look the wicket than rather have a corner angle view. Here was evident a continuous stream of hot coffee or tea and people were drink more wine than beer throughout the day with ladies as much in evidence as men, in contrast to Lords where the Long room and outside side seating is still restricted to men wearing jackets and ties. Those members who prefer to sit outside rather than from behind all weather glass have two types of comfortable leather seats with one set with high backs rather like those in Gentleman’s clubs but which looked incongruous overlooking a cricket field. It is possible for ordinary mortals to sit in the lower tier of seats below those of the Taverner’s. There is also a sports bar next to this which was also closed, There two reasons for the closures. The main one is the comparatively new Members East Stand and 36 room hotel. This is at the St Michael‘s Lane entrance to both the cricket and Rugby ground. Across the road from the entrance is the Indoor cricket centre, restaurant and club building sponsored by the Bradford and Bingley Building Society which became a bank and then was divided between the mortgages which has been nationalised and the savings and which although keeping the name was taken over by Abbey National which in turn is owned by the Spanish Santander group.
There was always seating here popular with some members but behind was the shell of a building which became hospitality boxes for International matches. This has all been replaced by an excellent facility for Members with good terraced seating and on the first floor level, but second floor by the standards of most housing there is a full length and members indoor viewing area, with a bar and meals and other food served at one end. In terms of length and width it is larger space than at Durham. It also has the attraction of two rows of viewing seat through larger picture windows, something which Durham lacks. Above this level are two floors of motel type bedrooms, 36 in total which are available to general public for £50 weekends and £40 weekends with extra, presumably match entrance charges for playing days. There is on side car parking next to a small area of gardens with four maybe five park type benchers. There is a similar area at Lords. Next to the Member’ the news stand and motel building there the new North East Stand which has two tiers and area designated as the family stand where alcohol cannot be taken into the seating area. Between the North East Stand and the Members stand there is the new electronic scoreboard which is the best I have seen on any cricket ground to-date.
What is left is a building site where once was the Winter Shed stand and which is to one side of the Kirkstall Lane entrance. Now there are four huge concrete core structures to the new building which I assume are lift and service shafts and towering above these two of the biggest cranes I have ever seen and with warning lights at the top as these are below one of the main flight paths in and of Leeds and Bradford Airport, an airport I once used on a holiday trip to Spain.
The Shed became infamous for corporately all day drinking and rowdiness. Although in fairness as did the north and west mound stands and other public areas at Headingley. This, together with the escalating prices was why I stopped going to the opening days of Test matches. I liked the shed stand because it also provided a view over the wicket. One was fairly high up as below there was a tier of hospitality boxes and open seating restricted to Members of the club. Headingley is no longer Headingley but Headingley Carnegie, the name of its main sponsors, the Leeds Metropolitan University which has become one of the largest universities in the UK with 30000 students and covers the West Yorkshire area rather than Leeds City. The new building rising on the street end of Kirkstall Lane is a new teaching block for the University. Facing the playing area will be corporate boxes and a new media centre and learning facility similar to that Durham which I understand they visited and were impressed by. I assume there will be some seating on the lower tier for Members which will variable according to where the wicket is placed and therefore the sight screens.
The less said about the actual cricket on this occasion from the viewpoint of Durham that is, the better. Durham after all won the toss and elected to bat at first the openers looked like true representatives of the current Championship holders, playing at the home of the side that has won the championship more than twice that of any other county, albeit with two thirds of the winds before the second world war and only one win after the post war heyday in the 1960’s with Geoff Boycott as lead batsman and for England and Brian Close the Yorkshire Captain. The problem after that is the insistence of the club that players other than official overseas players had to be born with the geographical county of Yorkshire. This prevented the club from recruiting promising young players who were not born in the county although it was stretched to those whose parents were born in the county.
The decision to bat looked good until a splendid piece of fielding had Stoneman run out when the total was 47. Then there was disaster with Coetzer and Muchall were out to Shahzad at 53 and 55, both without scoring. Worse followed with Di Venuto who had promised much going for 29, Blackwell for only 12, both cleaned bowled by the impressive spin bowler Rashid.
Now it is worth telling the tale of Rashid as it is his inclusion in the Yorkshire 20 20 side which led to their expulsion from the competition and non match at Durham which I still believe was the fault of Darren Gough, that is the non match and not the expulsion. Adil Rashid is a brilliant spin bowler who captained the English youth team. He was born in Bradford but did not hold a British Passport and therefore should have been registered as an overseas players but Yorkshire already had their quota for the year. This has now been rectified and he could play for England if selected. I was impressed by Adil when he came to the Riverside but on Friday he was outstanding taking 3 for 32 from 18 overs that is less than two runs an over. Only Beckenstein seemed able to cope although he was supported by Mitch Claydon for a time, 62 and 26 runs respectively and somehow Durham struggled to only 176. It was never going to be enough to win this match as events today proved with Gale getting 84 runs and Shahzad not out at the close on 41 contributing to a total of 313 and Durham with 135 runs to make up were 26 for 1 by the close of play on Saturday. Hopefully the weather will be poor tomorrow and therefore a draw is possible otherwise I can see Durham losing their first match of season within three days and which wrecks my plans for Monday.
On Friday evening Harmison was fiery and impressed the Yorkshire supporters with his pace and bounce and there were several comments as why he was not playing for England, especially as the Australian were playing havoc with the English attack. However on Friday Harmison did not take an early wicket but he took three of the opening batsmen this morning and at one point Yorks were 93 for 5 and it looked as if the match had evened itself out, However 100 hundred runs was added for the loss of only two further wickers and an eight wicket partnership added a further 84 runs. Harmison took five wickets for 60 from 25 which will again draw his attention to the English selectors. We also missed Graham Onions. Plunkett back from injury failed to impress again with no wickets for 68 from 19 nor did Claydon 1 for 76 from 21 but Davies I for 33 from 13 puzzles why he did not bowl more unless further injury has occurred. I enjoyed the day but not the Durham performance.
On the way back I went out the way I had come and this is definitely faster than my previous efforts although longer in terms of distance. Instead of returning from the ring road as before I continued on the ring road following the directions to A!M/A19 north. This is a much faster route with few speed restrictions and traffic lights. However it does involve in effect travelling three side of a rectangle. The best way to the ground is in fact to take the monocot and turn off towards Harrogate and from their join the Leeds ring road. The journey should still be done in two hours but with setting off at 8.30 this should provide time to find a car parking space and find a seat comfortably before the opening overs. Time for a coffee and an early roll.
Talking of food I was quite peckish as I set off and was tempted to stop for fish and chips but not for a proper meal because of wanting return before darkness. I also remembered I had not bought lottery tickets. I decided to try and hang on until reaching home for food, but stopped at the Wetherby service to see if they sold lottery tickets and also fro a comfort break. It was here I noticed that a jacket potato with filling costs 4.99, a Burger King or McDonalds type meal £6 and fish and chips just under seven pounds. For these sums you get fast food cardboard cooking. A muffin , although a large one costs £1.99 and a doughnut £1. There were some takers although many took one look and motored on after investing in a hot drink. I arrived home just after nine. Bought lottery tickets through the internet and then watched Thursday episode of Torchwood on the I player and then after waiting half an hour, the final episode for this five hour series shown every night of this week. It is worth a separate Blog although first must come more traditional jazz and swing time.
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