Theakston Nidderdale Division Five: Spennithorne & Harmby win at Ripon

“We’ve got a copy of John’s book behind the bar…”

I think I heard that three times on Saturday. “We got our own mention!”

It appears that Ripon Cricket Club are very proud to feature in John Fuller’s Dales, Bails and Cricket Club Tales. (Editor’s Note: I didn’t ask him to write this!)

As winners of the Cricket Yorkshire Cricket Tea of the Year 2022, sponsored by Yorkshire Tea, John had mentioned it would be well worth popping in to chat with Debbie and Alison and perhaps grab a quick photo of the spread.

Well…it would have been rude not too! I certainly wanted to know what an award-winning tea looked like, and I wasn’t to be disappointed. But again, I am getting ahead of myself, let’s set the scene for my visit.

I’ve managed to photograph a few games that feature Ripon Cricket Club over the past three or so years, but only on their travels. I did visit their ground for a cup final…but neither of the finalists were Ripon CC.

There were no hiccups with my preparations this week, and I arrived at the ground nice and early, allowing me to introduce myself and then go and explore.

The cricket club are one part of a community sports hub – with Ripon Rugby Club on one border, and next to them are Ripon AFC. When I was taking photos for the local press, about ten years ago, I would visit one of these teams fairly regularly.

The cricket ground is one of the larger grounds in the area, situated on the outskirts of Ripon, on the tree-lined road to Fountain’s Abbey. There’s a reasonably sized car park just inside the gates, allowing you to park to the side and rear of the handsome pavilion.

Standing with your back to the pavilion; the main road runs down the left side, with a substantial wall to stop cricket balls finding their way easily into the traffic.

A line of mature trees is planted in a ‘U’ shape on three sides of the ground, forming a porous boundary between the cricket and rugby clubs. The football club is diagonally to your right, but it would take Superman to hit a ball over the scoreboard and into that ground from the crease.

On your right is a row of houses and a small road, with the boundary protected by trees and a healthy amount of netting and chicken wire.

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I’ve always thought, when visiting, that there has been an enormous amount of time and effort spent on maintaining the club, showing it off at its best.

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To be honest, that is also reflected when chatting to any of the members of the club – there is a sense of real pride, and rightly so.

The game I had come to cover was the Theakston Nidderdale Division Five fixture between Ripon Seconds and Spennithorne & Harmby Firsts.

The visitors sat just above Ripon at the start of the day, but there weren’t too many places or points between them, so it promised to be a good contest.

The home team won the toss and asked their opponents to bat first. As the teams took to the field, Connor [my son who hates me mixing up my sporting terminology, always muttering loud enough for me to hear when I say ‘kick-off’…’first ball!’] and I headed out to the boundary where the trees were providing some good protection from the blistering sun.

As we took up position, one of the fielders dropped a bottle of water not far from us and commented on how swelteringly hot it was already!

We weren’t expecting a huge score from either team, as the ground is one of the larger ones, and despite a slight incline, reaching certain boundaries could prove challenging in this heat.

Scoring was indeed slow in the early stages of the game, and with the pitch being rather dry, it didn’t seem to be helping the bowlers either. It took until the tenth over for the first wicket to fall, with the visitors having only scored 32.

We worked our way around the boundary, enjoying both the location and game, trying to get different views of the play while hiding from the sun in the shadows provided by the trees.

Drinks taken in the 15th over, and the second wicket promptly fell immediately after as Spennithorne found themselves 62 for two.

Vishwa Singh and Kevin McDelling then took it upon themselves to take on the Ripon bowling, and by the time Singh was dismissed, the score was looking pretty respectable at 127 for three in the 27th over.

There was now a renewed sense of urgency in the batsmen, and the ball found its way to the boundary on a more regular basis.

As the 40th over loomed, my thoughts turned to tea and the need to head inside to grab a photo of the spread before it was consumed by the players. I could see Debbie appear from the pavilion and we chatted as we headed back into the pavilion, I for one, welcoming the cooler interior.

The tea looked wonderful, with two round tables filled with plate upon plate of meticulously arranged food. Bread, fresh from the oven, was being cut and plated. This was obviously a well-rehearsed routine, the welcoming tables of marvellous food laid out just in time as the final ball of the innings was being bowled.

A few photos grabbed, I headed outside and noted that I had managed to miss two wickets. I looked across to where I had left Connor and saw that he was manning the camera. Excellent!

Spennithorne had batted the full 40 overs, reaching a formidable total of 205 for five. The highlight of the innings coming from Kevin McDelling who fell just a six shy of his century, scoring 94 from 90 balls and ending the innings unbeaten.

The last ten overs had been difficult for the home team, with their bowlers perhaps struggling in the intense heat of the midday summer sun. As tea was taken, Connor and I sought shade and gratefully downed water to help rehydrate.

Ripon came out in a really determined mood, and were clearly outscoring Spennithorne in the early stages of their response. In fact, by the time they lost their first wicket [in around the same number of overs as their visitors had], Ripon were maintaining an impressive run rate.

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However, the first wicket was rapidly followed by a second, and then a third. Any momentum they had built, disappeared quickly as they tried to staunch the flow of the Spennithorne attack.

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The loss of their fourth wicket was pivotal, with Ripon still ahead of where Spennithorne had been, but in a blink of an eye, their run rate slowed dramatically. The loss of a further two wickets around the 30th over seemed to signal a change in tactics from Ripon as they concentrated on batting without losing any more.

As they approached the last few overs, the required rate rose rapidly, heading north of 12-an-over, and eventually requiring pretty much a six a ball. As the final delivery was bowled, the home team had reached 150 for five, losing the game by 55 runs.

Opening batsman for Ripon, Steve Reed, impressed with a solid innings of 57 from 69, including eight fours.

Ripon also featured a number of young players, all of them contributing in a positive manner with the bat and also with the ball. However, a special mention goes out to Oliver Moorcroft who put in a fantastic knock at number nine, as he scored an unbeaten 28 from 42, including two fours.

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Both teams had batted for the full 40 overs, in what was, for the most, a competitive game that swung first one way and then the other.

The win leaves Spennithorne & Harmby in fifth place, just ten points behind league leaders, Upper Wharfedale.

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For anyone in the Ripon area on a Saturday (or Sunday for that matter), you could do worse than pop into the club to take in a few overs of cricket. 

With the centre of Ripon only being a couple of minutes’ drive from the ground, you could sort your shopping quickly and then enjoy a cold drink and something to eat while you watch some good cricket at a very welcoming club.

📸 MATCH PHOTOS

Want to read more?

Thanks to Mark for his report and photography from Ripon CC. Here are his other articles on Cricket Yorkshire.

To check out 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.