Ordinarily, Scarborough Cricket Club should have been currently hosting the final day of the Roses match in the County Championship.
Due to COVID-19, these are anything but ordinary times.
Officially, the Scarborough Cricket Festival match in August is still on. It has yet to be cancelled but common sense dictates that’s only a matter of time.
The Yorkshire County Cricket Club fixtures are still showing but are being struck off weekly, like a macabre version of bingo.
The ECB has confirmed that county cricket won’t re-start until August by which time, Yorkshire’s first match of 2020 is theoretically the Vikings away trip to the Foxes at Grace Road on 2 August.
Of course, we may see new, truncated and regionalised formats and competitions. So, cricket but not as we know it.
Where does all of this leave Scarborough Cricket Club? Well, a county game behind closed doors at North Marine Road in August wouldn’t help them one little bit.
It needs to be packed to the rafters which doesn’t lend itself to a global pandemic. They will be feeling the financial impact keenly like so many of us.
I had an email the other day from a gentleman in South Yorkshire asking me what could be done to save this year’s Scarborough Cricket Festival?
It was, he explained with thinly disguised desperation, the highlight of his year. I’m sure many of you can relate.
There is no satisfying answer. I had already, with a heavy heart, cancelled my hotel for the Scarborough Festival week some months back.
One of the things COVID-19 has encouraged in me is reflection.
Around this time last year, I was at North Marine Road for the Surrey game to sell copies of Last of the Summer Wickets.
The sun shone. I ate chips. I talked cricket endlessly. I ferried hot, industrial-strength coffee to Yorkshire’s stadium commentator Howard from his blustery, snow-capped vantage point.
I find Scarborough is a balm for anything going on in your life. Which is why its absence is felt so keenly at the moment.
So, what I thought I’d do is offer some of the best bits as a visitor and why Scarborough Cricket Club means so much to me.
Arriving at North Marine Road
The walk up from the rail station is a rite of passage. Fans stream through the Scarborough streets and alleyways like an army of cricketing ants magnetically attracted to a hidden, coastal destination.
The bucket hats, the Yorkshire shirts, the glimpses of recognition in faces you saw last year. It all builds the atmosphere.
Arriving at Scarborough Cricket Club is satisfying. I visibly relax.
I tend to wave a press pass and get let through the main entrance but wish I could negotiate the famous, creaking turnstiles that hint at the fact you’re about to step back in time.
The Pitch Inspection
At lunch and tea intervals, the square is roped off to allow groundsman John Dodds and his team the time to paint those lines and give the pitch a roll.
Observing this satisfying ritual is part of the Scarborough experience. What’s the deck looking like? What do those strange hieroglyphs mean that are daubed in whitewash on the grass? Answer: Bowler’s run-up measurements.
Of course, this also means you can walk the outfield, get accidentally involved in dozens of break-out games happening and revel in the sight of an absolutely packed cricket field.
Supporting the club
That could be downing 15 pints in the sun dressed as the queen or spending your hard-earned money in the club shop.
In my case, I splash out on the GDP of Canada in the tea room by buying all of their cake.
What can I say? Blessed with a lightning-fast metabolism.
It helps that it is a wonderful view out to the action and the striking pavilion is framed in the distance.
The roar when Yorkshire snaffle a wicket is a mighty sound wave that ripples out.
It has been known to test the windows of the B&Bs as much a Lehmann six.
Do a lap of Scarborough Cricket Club
It’s not always easy to negotiate cricket grounds but it’s worth the effort. Thankfully at Scarborough, it’s a doddle.
You’ll probably bump into someone you know, buy a raffle ticket you hadn’t meant to, take a long, lingering look at the ice-cream truck and trip over the step by the Trafalgar Square entrance.
Explore the Town (and make new friends)
Don’t go to Scarborough and only watch the cricket. I know. This might have a few of you spluttering into your battered cod.
Often maligned, Scarborough has lots going for it. Castle. Tick. Beach. Tick, tick. Candy floss that glows in the dark. Well, why not?
If you’re wondering, ‘Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers’ is a giant steel structure made by Ray Lonsdale.
You can sit next to Freddie (he doesn’t talk much) and watch the waves crash in.
What is your favourite thing about cricket at Scarborough? Leave a comment below!
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Ticks for all your favourite things about Scarborough, to which I would add the heart pumping climb to the St Marys Church car park after fish and chips on the sea front, and when the children were very young, waiting for the ‘Chuckle Brothers to sign their programmes after a show at the Futurist Theatre.
Yes, hotel is still booked for August, just in case.
Thanks for that Richard, any sentence with the Chuckle Brothers and fish and chips has my vote. We’ll all get back to Scarborough I’m sure.
Monday August 20th @ 3.00 pm ………Yorkshire are getting “mullered”…….one of the lads shouts “rain cloud over there!….Come on ….pub!!!!”…..”Where?”…..”Over Olivers Mount!”………true – if you stood up & gazed there’s a wisp of white mist rising from the South………………but that’s all it took to debunk to the North Riding!!!!! Excellent beer, banter, meet up with old friends & make new ones.
It was a long afternoon!
That night the look on my son’s face trying to finish the World’s hottest curry!!!!
This year would have been the 3oth anniversary of his 1st visit………he’s 30 this next weekend
Thanks for the comment Stuart – it reads like the intro to a cricket novel! World’s hottest curry sounds interesting.
I like being part of a large and appreciative crowd watching County Championship Cricket, and if the sun is shining so much the better. If I recall correctly the match against Durham a few years back had about 17,500 over the 4 days and you don’t get that at many grounds. And Durham, at Scarborough, is really a “derby” match.
Loved the fish & chips at the Tunny Club (due to work I couldn’t get there last year and I hope this COVID-19 hasn’t finished the place off). The beach, the castle…….and mention of Oliver’s Mount – there’s a camping meet there at the top, usually July/August, for tents, trailer-tents, caravans and motorhomes. One year, camping there, as I drove up the windy road to the top of the Mount (at a reasonable speed rather than emulating the motocycle racing which used to take place there), I was startled to see a deer saunter across the road ahead of me to much the grass on the other side.
Thanks Ray – great to hear your favourite memories of Scarborough featuring both a skipping deer and a new chips recommendation for me.
I’ve recently acquired your book John, imagine my delight at finding this wonderful collection of stories and anecdotes! So many memories of times gone by……I don’t get to as many matches up at Scarborough as i used to do in my younger days,……and now that my son is no longer at Scarborough University. However…….the well worn phrase of “I was there” cropped up in my mind so many times whilst reading the book………the ‘green fly’ match (that was incredible),…..not least for David Bairstow depositing Wayne Daniel on to the Pavilion roof!!! Sir Vivian’s knock in the International match, sat watching County games in severe cold weather, and the odd pint in the now defunct ‘Cricketers’ pub. I used to admire the players cars in the Cricketers car park, the ones with their names on the side! Even if we are up at Scarborough with no match on I still walk through the gates and drink in the view of the ground in all it’s glory!
Mike (Hull).
Hi Mike, many thanks for the feedback on Last of the Summer Wickets, really pleased you enjoyed the book. If you get a chance, would you leave an Amazon review, it all helps! I liked your recollection of David Bairstow smacking Daniel on to the pavilion roof. Recall there was a window broken at a recent Festival by a mighty blow, possibly the year I researched the book. Will be very special when we can all get back to Scarborough.