Rain halts weekend games before Monday cup final drama

Harrogate CC Women welcomed St. Chad’s Broomfield CC, while Kirk Hammerton faced Spofforth CC in a rain-affected weekend of Yorkshire cricket, covered by Mark Doherty.

High risk of pluvial

One of the things that you’ll have probably noticed when reading the musings of John, Andrew or myself…is the fact that we all seem to spend varying amounts of time writing about the weather.

I suppose that cricket wouldn’t be cricket without a discussion on the strength of the wind, varying amounts of sunshine, and of course, the wet stuff.

In the UK, up to July, we’ve led a charmed life…one in which the sun shone and for once, we could take it for granted that the game we’ve been eyeing all week, would be going ahead. No worries about rain stopping play.

Even if there was a threat of ‘pluvial’…at worst it would foreshorten a game, and anyway there’d definitely be cricket the next day. So, no real worries.

Looking at the weather forecast for Saturday 19th, Sunday 20th…and even going into Monday 21st July…the outlook was poor to say the least. Friday night’s trawl around Play-Cricket and social media was an interesting mix of hope and cautionary tales…I had five games lined up as potential fixtures to travel to on Saturday, each with their merits.

Then Sessay posted shocking images of their ground and the cloudburst that almost certainly took them off the list…it seemed like they had installed a new lake feature around the square!

However, being the eternal optimist, I went to bed on Friday night hoping that I could stand in front of a pavilion midday Saturday having a conversation about how the Met Office had ‘got it wrong again’ and feeling smug that there was indeed a game going ahead.

Saturday dawns

Leaping out of bed on Saturday morning and throwing open the heavy curtains to let in a flood of light…I was pleasantly surprised to see bright sunshine beaming down and dry pavements! Ha! The expected heavy rain hadn’t materialised at 4am, and it seemed like the Met Office had got it wrong again!

Okay…if you live anywhere in Yorkshire, then you know the rebuttal to the last paragraph already!

An hour later as I started to pack the car with a camera bag and coat, the first spits of rain started to fall. I looked at Twitter (I’m a contrarian at heart and refuse to call the platform by [in my opinion] its stupid new name) to see games falling foul of the weather further south as a large vortex of cloud travelled up from the Badlands of ‘Not Yorkshire’.

By the time I was due to start my travel to one of the four games left on my list, it was raining in earnest and in my heart, I knew that I wasn’t going to see any cricket on Saturday.

I watched on social media as hopeful souls headed to grounds all around the People’s Republic of Yorkshire and sat drinking beer in pavilions for an hour or two, hoping that [somehow] it would clear, and play would be possible.

For my part…I put the cameras away and decided to head into Harrogate to go and buy a belt [first one I’ve bought in around a decade…so it was quite the event] and well…moan about how bored I was.

I could have gone and covered some preseason football or rugby…but decided to join my cricket buddies in spirit and grabbed something to eat and had a beer in one of the reasonably busy bars around the town centre. I had made the last-minute executive decision to have a day off!

Sunday sunshine?

Sunday started grim, with me looking through the list of women’s games that hadn’t been called off. I’ll be honest, with the forecast again being on the rather wet side, I made my mind up to not travel too far…as I didn’t want to drive an hour or two and end up sitting in the car watching rain fall.

St. Chad’s Broomfield were visiting Harrogate, and I hadn’t had a chance to cover them properly this season – so decided their game was a really good option for me.

If the rain happened like Alexa had promised it would – a weather warning for rain, thunder and lightning [why isn’t it lightning and thunder?], and some localised flooding – then I wasn’t too far away from home when the inevitable happened.

Both teams turned up early and it was great to have a few chats about the season so far, the league, and cricket in general. Honestly, they are two of the nicest sets of players that you could hope to meet.

Kick off was scheduled for 1pm and despite the threatening clouds hugging the Kirbys Solicitors County Ground, Harrogate headed out to bat having won the toss.

Tia Metcalfe, the league’s leading scorer, opened the batting for the home team and it was quickly evident that she was on-form, seemingly coping with the fast and accurate St. Chad’s bowling with relative ease.

Thirteen overs in…and it was unlucky for all of us…the rain bowling a googly that saw Tia walking back to the pavilion, with everyone else following.

As I looked out from The Balcony Bar, sipping a cold drink and eating a packet of salt and vinegar crisps…players and supporters waited for a break in the weather. With the minutes ticking by, the sky became a little lighter as did the rain. Then a clap of thunder and the umpires had no option but to invoke the lightning protocol.

The next set of minutes ticked by…and as it appeared the thunder and lightning had gone away and the rain was abating…there was a sudden flash of light, a loud rumble, followed by shaking of hands as the game was abandoned at seven minutes past three. The heavens opened and I headed back to the car.

Harrogate had earned six points and St. Chad’s had received seven…being honest, not sure how those points were awarded as I write this…but that’s something for me to read up on.

Once again, Tia had impressed with the bat having hit 34 runs off 34 deliveries…and is another Harrogate player that undoubtably has a bright future in the game.

Monday blues

I’m not sure about you…but I always get a deep sense of frustration during cricket season when a weekend is a washout. However, as we are in July, there tends to be a cricket game every day…and I already had my next fixture lined up.

Monday evening saw the Harrogate and District Amateur Evening Cricket League’s George Greaves Cup final being played at Birstwith [another ground for your ‘must-visit’ list], featuring Kirk Hammerton and Spofforth.

Kirk Hammerton had won the toss and elected to bat first…putting on 152 for eight in their 20 overs, about what I’d expect for this compact ground. Alex Jenkins had top scored for the ‘home’ team with 59 and Will Jenkins had added to that with a quick 35.

Spofforth’s Harry Sutton had impressed with his bowling, getting three wickets for just 13 runs, with Archie Barrett (two for 43), and Sam Stalker (two for 28) helping to keep the score down.

Spofforth’s response saw them lose wickets early on and it seemed like their run chase would end ultimately in failure…maybe even by quite a margin; but somehow, as the overs went by, they kept just about in touch.

So, it came to pass as the shadows lengthened and the sun started to dip behind the hills…with a new batsman walking to the centre, the maths was looking rather difficult. Spofforth had reached 131 for eight off 19 overs…needing 22 to win.

Another wicket was to fall and with nine wickets gone, the last over was a do-or-die affair. With the best part of 20 runs needed, it was a case of hitting everything and hope. With a couple of mighty sixes into the field next to the ground from the first two balls…it was game on!

A four scored and singles run, it all boiled down to Spofforth needing a boundary from the last ball to win…and you could have cut the tension in the air with a knife! The delivery was a fine one…but there was a thwack of leather on willow and up went the shout of ‘RUN!’

It became chaotic…as the fielders ran, the batsmen scampered up and down the 22, and umpires moved out of the way and squinted to get a better view on what was happening…all seemingly in ‘fast forward’.

A cheer from the Spofforth players sitting next to the pavilion as the pair in the centre ran and completed another 22…the scores tied at 152! The Kirk Hammerton players looked deflated…as if they had lost.

Confusion…then a pause by both sets of players as all eyes turned towards the umpires. Who had won? Kirk Hammerton had got 152 for eight…and Spofforth had scored 152 for…nine…Kirk Hammerton winning the game by the narrowest of margins due to them having lost one less wicket!

The umpires declared the result and the players celebrated wildly.

This had been the best final of the season [so far], and being honest, probably one of the best finishes to a final I’ve seen in recent years.

Tears in rain

This thing we do at Cricket Yorkshire is a real privilege. Yes, it’s time consuming, involves a lot of behind the scenes work, puts a lot of miles on the clock, and can be [like this past weekend] very frustrating when the elements don’t cooperate. However, even the moments waiting in a pavilion chatting while watching rain fall, are priceless.

As Roy in Blade Runner said in his death scene…’all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain’…except, with the marvels of t’internet and a few badly put together words…

Moments like seeing players having a bottle of beer, looking out at the rain on Saturday; a beautiful cover drive that helped Tia to 34 runs on Sunday; and a manic last-ball scramble that invoked a momentary release of celebration by two teams before uncertainty, and ultimately triumph by Kirk Hammerton on Monday evening…aren’t lost in time.

This weekend has been the most frustrating of the season so far…but it has had a few wonderful moments that more than make up for what seemed like incessant rain.

Those conversations held as eyes scanned distant horizons for hope, those flashes of skill when weather permitted, and the culmination of a season-long competition that goes to the final delivery…make this the game we all love.

Roll on the next rain-affected weekend of cricket!

📸 PHOTOS

Want 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.

I also highly recommend his blog called Leica Moments which includes days out at grounds around Yorkshire.