Bilton defeat Pool to lead Aire-Wharfe Premier Division

There are few feelings quite as reassuring as arriving at a cricket ground convinced you know exactly what you are going to do. There are fewer quite as humbling as discovering, within about thirty seconds, that you don’t.

Armed with my trusty camera, monopod, seat, and a level of confidence that only comes from checking Play-Cricket the night before, I landed at Bilton Lane expecting to cover Bilton’s third XI playing Burnt Yates seconds in Division Seven of the Theakston Nidderdale Cricket League.

The first clue that something was amiss came as I wandered from the car park around the pavilion and saw a player in the final part of his run-up to deliver a ball down the 22.

The second clue was the scoreboard – there were quite a few runs already posted…this game had been going for a few minutes already!

The third clue was a helpful spectator informing me that the match had started a few minutes earlier, and when I said it was scheduled to start at 1pm on Play-Cricket…I was told that the games always started at 12:30!

I headed to the spot that I wanted to put my stuff down at and get set up, but now it was a question of working out what was going on.

Aire-Wharfe, not Nidderdale

No longer early for the game, I was already playing catch up…I’ve learned not to panic, but to go through my pre-match routines to ensure when I eventually sit at the boundary rope, I am ready to start my coverage.

My second priority was to work out what was actually going on! I overheard a comment about the fielding team being Pool…I was really confused now and headed back to Play-Cricket.

As part of my scheduling for the week, I’d pinned the game to the top of my timeline…and yes…it said Bilton v Burnt Yates, Theakston Nidderdale Division Seven…it said 1pm…and yes, a home game at Bilton Lane.

A quick look at the club’s social media and I could see the first team down as at home in the Airedale & Wharfedale, playing Pool…all kicking off at 12:30!

So, my plans to cover a Nidderdale League game this weekend had been foiled (the thirds were playing at Hampsthwaite I believe) – but not a disaster, as I was still in for a good game of cricket.

Under the watchful eye of Harry the Hawk, I headed to a spot by the sightscreen with my camera and seat and settled in for the first innings.

Chatting to one of the Pool players standing close to where I had situated myself, I headed back online to get a quick overview of the form of both clubs. Bilton were top and the visitors were down in the lower half of the table.

The last time I’d seen these two teams playing each other had been the first day of the season a couple of years ago…when Pool had dismissed Bilton for a low score, before taking only around five overs for their reply.

Bilton total a few light?

Bilton’s innings never quite found the fluency that their position at the top of the table might have suggested. An opening partnership laid a useful foundation. Opener Rob Taylor reaching a composed half-century before being caught leg-before on 52 as Bilton moved to 87-1 at the halfway stage.

Surprisingly, it was Pool’s bowlers who were gradually tightening their grip on proceedings, combining disciplined deliveries with well-placed fielders that repeatedly turned promising shots into either dot balls, or just the odd run.

The middle order found scoring increasingly difficult as wickets began to fall at regular intervals. From a position of relative comfort, Bilton slipped to 126 for 6 and then 145 for 7, leaving the lower order with the task of salvaging a competitive total.

Useful late contributions by captain Ryan Heptinstall, Jamie Allen and Adam Pearson nudged the score upwards, but Pool’s persistence was rewarded. The innings closed on 181 all out, with around two overs remaining.

On a ground where 200-plus totals are often considered the benchmark, the home side were left wondering whether they had scored a few runs too few.

Pool try to make a splash

If Bilton felt slightly under par with the bat, they responded emphatically with the ball. Pool began positively, collecting eight runs from the opening over, but the innings soon unravelled under sustained pressure by the league leaders.

Bilton’s bowlers struck regularly, backed by sharp fielding, and by the time a reckless run-out reduced the visitors to 55 for 6 the contest appeared firmly in the hosts’ pocket.

Further wickets followed and when the ninth wicket fell at 82, spectators were already beginning to think about the journey home – in fact, one had seen enough to pack up his chair and head to the car park.

However, cricket has the habit of not following the script. Pool’s final pair of Sam Lawrence and George Eley refused to accept the inevitable.

At first, they seemingly batted for pride to push the score into triple digits, and then gradually building something more substantial.

Runs accumulated in ones and twos, the hundred arrived, and an increasingly stubborn partnership began to chip away at Bilton’s advantage.

What had looked like an inevitable victory suddenly demanded renewed concentration from the league leaders. The visitors were reducing the gap to victory slowly but surely, and were scoring enough to keep the very achievable run rate of four an over within their sights.

Nerves then relief

Where there had been smiles and joviality half an hour earlier…it had been replaced with a few concerned looks, and almost a sense of nervousness on the faces of the Bilton players and supporters.

With only around fifty runs remaining, those extra runs put on by the Bilton tail-enders looked so very valuable at that moment…a few boundaries by Pool in those closing overs could turn the game on its head.

Concentration reestablished, Bilton reasserted control with consecutive maiden overs that shifted the pressure back onto the visitors.

Eventually that pressure told and the final wicket fell as George Eley was clean bowled by a superb Jamie Allen delivery. Pool had been dismissed for 140 and Bilton had won by 41 runs.

A match that proved rather more uncomfortable than it had appeared an hour earlier.

Bowled over

This was a day where the fielding sides were well and truly on top. Low scoring games can go one of two ways…they can obviously end really early and leave you with a sense of frustration at not seeing a game of cricket; or they can set up fascinating games of cricket that feel more chess-like.

This was certainly the latter.

For Bilton, the result reinforced why they sit at the top of the Premier Division table. Their bowling and fielding created the platform for victory and, although a spirited last-wicket partnership briefly threatened to turn the afternoon into an unlikely escape act for Pool, the home side rediscovered their discipline at exactly the right moment.

Jamie Allen, Russell Robshaw, Ryan Heptinstall and Adam Pearson were superb with the ball for Bilton, as were Charlie Bell, George Eley, Nat Cutts, and Charlie Bradbourne for the visitors.

Good bowling is a real pleasure to watch and this game had an abundance of it.

As for yours truly, the lesson was equally valuable: always double-check the fixture list with the club themselves before setting off. However, sometimes the wrong match turns out to be exactly the right one.

Next Saturday will be Theakston Nidderdale Cricket for me…unless…

What to read more?

Here are all of Mark’s articles and photos on Cricket Yorkshire.

To see more of his photography, you can visit caughtlight.com or he’s @caughtlight on Twitter/X. There’s also the Caught Light Photography Facebook page.

Mark’s excellent blog called Leica Moments includes observations and imagery from days out at grounds around Yorkshire.

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