The horrible weather of November and December has been overlaid by some glorious days of sunshine over the past ten days. Yesterday without knowing what kind of weather day it was going to be other than dry I had a great change of mind on waking and decided to set off for Headingley Leeds to watch Durham in the third day of their county championship against Yorkshire.
I considered going to Headingley for all four days of the game prior to the seasonal Travel Lodge sale, but after the disappointment of the game and weather last year, and the inability get low cost accommodation, I decided to wait and see what happened in the opening games. Encouraged by the Durham’s near win at the Rose Bowl the York’s clear win at Worcester was noted after their successful third placed season last year. Listening to the opening day commentary I was struck how defensive were the commentators making the point that Worcestershire was woeful and that Yorkshire without their outstanding opener Jack Rudolph and with injury to their bowlers Bresnan and Shahzad would find the season difficult depending on the their new opening partnership.
Durham won the toss and elected to bat and after a great morning with 100 runs on the board there was a collapse both sides of the luncheon interval from 105 for no wicket to 136 6 and 196 7, Di Venuto had made 74 but it was Richardson (67) with Plunket, and then Plunket with Thorp (41) who edged the total to a respectable 327 with Plunket undefeated on 66.
Yorkshire started disastrously with Lyth out first or second ball and with McGrath out when the total 43 Durham were on top. A stand of over 50 runs eased the position until immediately after lunch 7 wickets fell for 33 runs and the team were all out at 149, 16 runs later 198 behind. Everyone expected Durham to apply the follow on but they batted again, with difficulty with wickets lost at 21, 25 and 53 and although the overnight total reached 62 or 64 without further loss making effectively 250 for 3 with two full days to play the outcome of the game was by no means certain. Nevertheless as the sun came up immediately with the dawn I determined to set off.
I had some selected salad and once on my way went to the supermarket for some French bread to make up lunch and tea, having prepared a flask of coffee and soup; I added a carton of melon slices and two light Danish pastries. I then had to return home having realised I had left my credit cards at home, and also then forgetting a hat and sun tan and not remembering until parked at the ground.
The journey was enjoyable although I also forgot to bring with me one or two of the cricket CD’s of Fred Truman or Dickie Bird. I stopped almost as soon as setting off for a cup of coffee and one of the Danish and getting to the ground and being able to park close by became a worry when a sign came up that the A1M was closed at Leaming Bar over the Saturday and Sunday. However it had not closed by the time I reached the junction and I was able to park at the end of a road with the Sir Len Hutton ground across the main road opposite. I enjoyed the rest of the coffee and the second Danish and entered the stadium just after 9.45 when it was open to non Members. I paid £10, a concession; although it would have been only £5 if purchased in advance and after a comfort break made my long way round to sit behind the bowling arm close to the horrible new Green coloured stand which also serves as a teaching block of the Leeds Metropolitan University.
At lunch I investigated and found that it is now possible to walk all the way around the ground and therefore it was a short walk to the gates and over to the car where I first enjoyed the soup and then three quarters of the French Bread with a salad of Feta Cheese, black olives, spicy salami, coleslaw and some pasta, cucumber pieces and dried tomatoes. After this I spilt the can of coke and when removing the double floor mat noticed the missing phone from earlier in the year which I thought was long lost. Amazing. T has been a week for losing and findings.
As for the cricket Durham laboured slowly during the morning losing two more wickets to 135 5 with no one doing themselves new credit. However my this time Benkenstein was getting the feel of the pace and together with Richardson they launcher an assault which saw some great strokes and some hard hits so that the former and reinstalled captain reached another hundred for the county and went to 150 before going out to a catch in the deep top end the innings leaving Richardson in his first premier county game 73 not out so he is second in the county average with 140 to Benkenstein 150 with stokes at 95 which shows the batting strength so far this season.
However Yorkshire did not find the pace attack such a problem second time round and although two wickets were lost for 80 odd runs by the close I was pleased I had not decided to stay overnight because I suspected Sunday was going to be a long day of toil if the sun continued to shine. A drink to Pepsi at the club cost me £1.80, outrageous and even more so was a small cup of coffee, sufficient for me from the Costa stand or a name similar for £2.39.
Although the sun shone with the dawn and continued all day Sunday I was not tempted to repeat the trip to the cricket and listened to the commentary for parts of proved a long day in which Durham struggled to obtain the necessary wickets. Pyrah 87 with Bairstow 81 lifted Yorkshire spirits took the score from 158 to 225 and then 323 raising hopes of a draw and Durham the prospect of not winning two away games in succession when the odds favoured them doing so. However as the last hour of play was reached despite hold out for 11 overs with last man Ashraf Pyrah was out to young Borthwick, one Durham’s three promising youngsters with Richardson and Stokes the other two. The win took Durham above Yorks by 8 points at the top of the Championship but Warwickshire, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, the current Champions all with one win from their only game the next two rounds of matches should provide a more accurate perspective. Yorkshire host Nottingham and Durham Sussex on Wednesday and a week after are at home to Warwickshire. Win both games or a win and a draw should indicate if first game form marks a third good season for the county out of four, similar to Sussex whose four championships were divided by a failure.
I considered going to Headingley for all four days of the game prior to the seasonal Travel Lodge sale, but after the disappointment of the game and weather last year, and the inability get low cost accommodation, I decided to wait and see what happened in the opening games. Encouraged by the Durham’s near win at the Rose Bowl the York’s clear win at Worcester was noted after their successful third placed season last year. Listening to the opening day commentary I was struck how defensive were the commentators making the point that Worcestershire was woeful and that Yorkshire without their outstanding opener Jack Rudolph and with injury to their bowlers Bresnan and Shahzad would find the season difficult depending on the their new opening partnership.
Durham won the toss and elected to bat and after a great morning with 100 runs on the board there was a collapse both sides of the luncheon interval from 105 for no wicket to 136 6 and 196 7, Di Venuto had made 74 but it was Richardson (67) with Plunket, and then Plunket with Thorp (41) who edged the total to a respectable 327 with Plunket undefeated on 66.
Yorkshire started disastrously with Lyth out first or second ball and with McGrath out when the total 43 Durham were on top. A stand of over 50 runs eased the position until immediately after lunch 7 wickets fell for 33 runs and the team were all out at 149, 16 runs later 198 behind. Everyone expected Durham to apply the follow on but they batted again, with difficulty with wickets lost at 21, 25 and 53 and although the overnight total reached 62 or 64 without further loss making effectively 250 for 3 with two full days to play the outcome of the game was by no means certain. Nevertheless as the sun came up immediately with the dawn I determined to set off.
I had some selected salad and once on my way went to the supermarket for some French bread to make up lunch and tea, having prepared a flask of coffee and soup; I added a carton of melon slices and two light Danish pastries. I then had to return home having realised I had left my credit cards at home, and also then forgetting a hat and sun tan and not remembering until parked at the ground.
The journey was enjoyable although I also forgot to bring with me one or two of the cricket CD’s of Fred Truman or Dickie Bird. I stopped almost as soon as setting off for a cup of coffee and one of the Danish and getting to the ground and being able to park close by became a worry when a sign came up that the A1M was closed at Leaming Bar over the Saturday and Sunday. However it had not closed by the time I reached the junction and I was able to park at the end of a road with the Sir Len Hutton ground across the main road opposite. I enjoyed the rest of the coffee and the second Danish and entered the stadium just after 9.45 when it was open to non Members. I paid £10, a concession; although it would have been only £5 if purchased in advance and after a comfort break made my long way round to sit behind the bowling arm close to the horrible new Green coloured stand which also serves as a teaching block of the Leeds Metropolitan University.
At lunch I investigated and found that it is now possible to walk all the way around the ground and therefore it was a short walk to the gates and over to the car where I first enjoyed the soup and then three quarters of the French Bread with a salad of Feta Cheese, black olives, spicy salami, coleslaw and some pasta, cucumber pieces and dried tomatoes. After this I spilt the can of coke and when removing the double floor mat noticed the missing phone from earlier in the year which I thought was long lost. Amazing. T has been a week for losing and findings.
As for the cricket Durham laboured slowly during the morning losing two more wickets to 135 5 with no one doing themselves new credit. However my this time Benkenstein was getting the feel of the pace and together with Richardson they launcher an assault which saw some great strokes and some hard hits so that the former and reinstalled captain reached another hundred for the county and went to 150 before going out to a catch in the deep top end the innings leaving Richardson in his first premier county game 73 not out so he is second in the county average with 140 to Benkenstein 150 with stokes at 95 which shows the batting strength so far this season.
However Yorkshire did not find the pace attack such a problem second time round and although two wickets were lost for 80 odd runs by the close I was pleased I had not decided to stay overnight because I suspected Sunday was going to be a long day of toil if the sun continued to shine. A drink to Pepsi at the club cost me £1.80, outrageous and even more so was a small cup of coffee, sufficient for me from the Costa stand or a name similar for £2.39.
Although the sun shone with the dawn and continued all day Sunday I was not tempted to repeat the trip to the cricket and listened to the commentary for parts of proved a long day in which Durham struggled to obtain the necessary wickets. Pyrah 87 with Bairstow 81 lifted Yorkshire spirits took the score from 158 to 225 and then 323 raising hopes of a draw and Durham the prospect of not winning two away games in succession when the odds favoured them doing so. However as the last hour of play was reached despite hold out for 11 overs with last man Ashraf Pyrah was out to young Borthwick, one Durham’s three promising youngsters with Richardson and Stokes the other two. The win took Durham above Yorks by 8 points at the top of the Championship but Warwickshire, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, the current Champions all with one win from their only game the next two rounds of matches should provide a more accurate perspective. Yorkshire host Nottingham and Durham Sussex on Wednesday and a week after are at home to Warwickshire. Win both games or a win and a draw should indicate if first game form marks a third good season for the county out of four, similar to Sussex whose four championships were divided by a failure.
