Kirkby century gets South Kilvington past Sessay Raskelf

Another Saturday dawned and I had my sights set on a ground I have never been to. I had covered the club on their travels, as they visited clubs in and around Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon.

South Kilvington is one of the very few clubs in the Theakston Nidderdale League that I haven’t visited over the last 15 years.

Nidderdale ground hopping

To be honest, I’m not exactly sure why… but, no matter, it was time to tick off a new cricket club on my ground hopping list.

So, Saturday morning, I packed my bags and headed up the A1 keen to find out a little bit more about this Division Four team.

I had, of course, done a little bit of research about them…including taking a good look at Google Maps and immediately spotting one issue. Let me explain.

South Kilvington Cricket Club occupies a modest patch of North Yorkshire landscape, a couple of miles north of Thirsk.

The village itself stretches south from the roundabout just off the A19 along Stockton Road, which I am led to believe was the old route before the modern A19 bypassed it.

That road has removed much of the heavy traffic from the centre, although the A19 remains close enough for the noise of the seemingly constant traffic to be heard.

South of the club is the Old Oak Tree Pub (which was tempting to visit), the village primary school and St Wilfrid’s Church; the latter a medieval landmark whose origins reach back to the 12th century.

Beyond the houses, the country opens quickly into arable fields, hedgerows and the gently rising ground of the Vale of Mowbray.

There is a North Kilvington, strangely to the North of South Kilvington but appears to be a hamlet rather than a more substantial village; and to the north-west is the county town of Northallerton.

Local knowledge

The cricket club is positioned on the roundabout that sees traffic join and leave the A19…and as such, can be rather busy.

There are roads to two sides, and fields on the other two; however, there didn’t appear to be any parking available in the ground…and as I drove towards the club, I was uncertain where I should stop my car.

I initially drove past, found a road to turn around in and headed back towards the club to try and work out where I could leave the car. Thankfully, as I approached the roundabout, I saw a big car pull up onto the grass verge, so I put my indicator on and followed suit.

I followed the occupant on foot through the gate and introduced myself. It was Richard Kirby who is Kilvington’s captain.

Going agricultural

It turns out the parking ‘safe spots’ are at a premium with the boundaries being rather on the short side!

From the boundary, the setting feels more agricultural than anything else…however, there are the two roads that run within an easy six of the crease.

I was already having panic attacks at the thought of a well hit ball heading in either direction.

Someone told me that if you parked your car on the verge, then it was at your own risk…but if you were unlucky enough to be hit while driving past then the insurance covered any damage!

I’m not sure what thoughts would go through a batter’s mind as they made a good connection and watched a ball arcing towards a busy junction.

At least one ball made its way onto the grass of the big roundabout. A fielder made to use the Green Cross Code to stop being flattened by cars on the A19!

The ground is compact with an impressive wooden pavilion and a separate scorebox and storage area. Trees shelter the pavilion on one side with open farmland to the other.

The playing surface is parched, and given the hot summer we’ve had so far, it is not surprising that it is rock hard.

Speaking to a groundsman this week, he recounted how someone had told him that he probably was wanting a downpour…’no, I want a week of steady drizzle’…was his reply.

It seems green playing surfaces are at a premium at many grassroots clubs.

Has MATZ?

At this point, I’d love to pop up an aerial view of the club to show you…but South Kilvington lies within a MATZ…a military air traffic zone.

The ground itself is within the runway no-fly zone, and despite seeing no aircraft take off or land, I didn’t fancy a heavy fine and a stay at His Majesty’s pleasure for flying my drone.

What mattered most, though, was the welcome. South Kilvington proved a friendly place to spend an afternoon, with none of the ground’s restrictions diminishing its appeal. Indeed, they added to it; and I was enjoying my time exploring the new club.

South Kilvington and the visitors on Saturday, Sessay Raskelf, both sat in the lower half of Division Four of the Theakston Nidderdale Cricket League.

The home team were one place and only a matter of a few points above Sessay.

South Kilvington have had, by their own admission, a poor start to the season, however, starting at the very end of June and continuing through July, they had put together four wins from five games, and appeared to be coming into a little bit of form.

Sessay have also been struggling, with the visitors having only won four games this season and lost eight.

I have had the good fortune in the past of covering Sessay winning the National Village Cup at Lords in 2016 (the second time they’d won the cup), and then their third appearance in the final against Reed CC the following year…which they unfortunately lost.

An innings to remember

The recent run of good form seems to have built an air of confidence within the home team, and their slow-ish start to the innings soon gathered momentum.

Skipper Richard Kirby batted with a real elegance as he started to hit boundaries and test the nerves of passing motorists!

As Richard piled on the runs, Sessay adapted their tactics to try and keep him off strike; which being honest was a little hit and miss.

Even with the best bowling, an over is only six balls long and he was going to be facing a delivery at some point.

Kirkby goes bananas

The tactics employed by the visitors were working to some extent, as they were picking off his partners on a regular basis…however, when Richard was facing a delivery the Sessay fielders retreated to the boundary ropes hoping to stop him scoring.

By the end of the South Kilvington innings, Richard Kirkby was on an unbeaten 135, having hit 16 fours and eight sixes.

Superb batting on a rather unpredictable surface, helping the home team post 187 in just over 28 overs.

Sessay’s reply was more measured and seemingly didn’t have the explosive batting of their hosts, but they were keeping in touch.

Openers John Talbot and Thomas Banthorpe-Howlett stroked the ball around, running singles and picking off fours.

It took until around the drinks break in the 20th over for South Kilvington to make a breakthrough, picking up John’s wicket in the 19th as he was bowled having reached 31, and then Thomas’ wicket in the 21st as he was caught going for another four when on 44.

Neil Terrett and Rhys Milburn took up the gauntlet and kept the Sessay Raskelf score ticking along, knowing that they didn’t have to match the hosts’ run rate to win the game.

At the 29th over (South Kilvington had lost their final wicket in this over), Sessay had just under 50 runs left with eight wickets in hand.

If they kept their run rate going then it would be a close game. Things were getting tense!

A wicket fell in the 32nd over but the pairing of Freddie Mason and Neil Terrett weren’t in the mood to let this game slip, as they tried to put their foot on the accelerator.

However, two overs later, Neil was caught by James Thompson off the bowling of Rakesh Alva and suddenly Sessay were looking nervy.

Surely, South Kilvington couldn’t bowl them out?

Then a disastrous 37th over for the visitors as Rakesh took three wickets and Sessay were starting to struggle to score runs.

The very next over and South Kilvington’s hero with the bat took a wicket to leave the visitors on the brink.

More importantly, it had been a maiden over, leaving Sessay needing 24 runs from twelve deliveries to win – with only two wickets left.

First ball of the 39th over saw Freddie Mason facing James Thompson. An edge and wicketkeeper Tom Tickner grabbed the ball out of the air and Freddie was walking back to the pavilion.

Down to the wire

Jasmine Passman was able to get a leg-bye and as the end of the 39th over approached, the game had swung heavily in the home team’s favour.

Final ball of the over and the visitors were desperate for a boundary to give themselves a chance of winning the game in the final over.

James thundered in, Cameron Luck swung the bat and connected, sending the ball high in the air towards the boundary and scoring a potential four.

Up stepped Rakesh Alva who got both hands to the ball and wrapped his fingers around it…clinging on to take the wicket!

Sessay were all out and South Kilvington had won the game by 22 runs. That sounds a lot, but given the short boundaries and big hitting…this was a close call!

Driving home

I had really enjoyed my day out at South Kilvington, with them being hugely welcoming.

The ground is a really fascinating place to visit, although when the ball headed in the direction of the roads, I became extremely nervous and on more than one occasion forgot about taking photos to simply watch the leather-bound missile on a trajectory that could surprise a passing motorist.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

Sessay were unlucky; with their captain Cameron Luck showing a real tactical awareness to try and mitigate the big hitting of their host’s captain…the strategy working in part as they dismissed South Kilvington within 30 overs.

Sessay scored steadily, however, their run rate in the early part of the innings was just a little on the low side and that ended up being the difference between the two sides.

As I drove back down the A19 and A1, I tried to sum up the game in just one sentence and came up with this…South Kilvington’s captain had supplied the hundred; and his fielders supplied the composure to defend it.

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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.