Yorkshire Premier League North: Ovington triumph at Knaresborough

Sunday’s fixtures were pretty much decimated due to the torrential downpour that raced through Yorkshire overnight Saturday.

Attempts to get to my first women’s cricket fixture this season were put on hold as the games at Clifton Alliance and Sessay both fell to waterlogged grounds.

With the amount of standing water evident on many grounds, Monday’s bank holiday fixtures also came into question, and as I trawled through the fixture list at 9am, it was evident that things hadn’t improved overnight.

Harrogate’s game against Scarborough had been called off, as had a large number of others. Bilton in Ainsty were desperately trying to get their game on, but my attention was drawn towards the fixture in the Yorkshire Premier League North, Division Two Galtres between Knaresborough CC 2XI and Ovington CC 1XI.

I have been to Knaresborough’s ground recently, towards the end of last season when Beckwithshaw won the Addison Cup final against Goldsborough, but I hadn’t covered one of the Knaresborough teams there in a while.

In keeping with many of the games in the opening weeks of the 2024 season, this game wasn’t going to be a high-scoring one, with the damp outfield stopping the ball running and in the case of big hits…bouncing.

Ovington batted first and ended the innings with 130 on the scoreboard, and I was a little unsure if this was enough to defend successfully. Knowing this ground, I would have said no, but given the conditions…

One particular big hit in their innings went to bounce for the first time around four feet from the boundary, and normally would have skipped through to end up in the hedge running around the perimeter of the ground.

Instead, it dug in and just about rolled out to stop around a foot from the white line, with the batsmen running two.

It wouldn’t be a match report without mentioning the rain having interrupted play a couple of times. The first time, the covers were called for, but as they were about to be wheeled on, the heavy drizzle seemed to dissipate and play resumed.

The second call for the covers was certainly more warranted, as we ended up scampering to the car to avoid getting a real soaking.

As Ovington’s innings came to an end, a huge six was launched into the car park and there was the unpleasant sound of leather on metal. A few grimaces were pulled as it was announced that a blue car had been hit…my ears pricked up as I drove a blue car!

A quick trip around the pavilion to where I had parked and it appeared it wasn’t mine that had been hit…I must admit, that was a huge relief!

Knaresborough has always been a very friendly club, and we were invited to join the teams for the spectacular tea put on in the pavilion. Aibhlínn, my eleven-year-old daughter was with me, and she waited until the players had collected their plates before she headed inside to get something to eat.

When she re-emerged with her plate, she was full of praise, enthusiastically chatting about how good the food was, and it certainly looked fabulous. I asked her to rate it from one to ten and she immediately came back with 11!

Maybe an early contender for the Cricket Yorkshire Tea of the Year competition?

Players’ hunger pangs sated, Knaresborough took to the field to attempt to overhaul the total set, but it immediately became clear that this was not going to be as easy as said.

The fearsome Ovington bowling pinned the Boro’ batters to the crease, restricting the number of runs scored severely and as the tenth over ticked by, the home team had posted just 17 runs for the loss of two wickets.

Twenty overs in and Knaresborough had only managed to reach 38 runs and had lost two more wickets; Ovington’s score of 130 at that point looked like an eminently defendable total.

The damp conditions and the wet outfield were certainly playing their role in this game, making some of the longer boundaries almost impossible to reach, and with the shorter boundaries defended by the visitor’s fielders, it was looking like mission impossible for Knaresborough.

By the time the seconds had reached the 35th over, they had only managed to post 70 runs and were running out of wickets, having three in-hand. When the end came, it was swift.

The first ball in the 36th over saw Charlie Sutcliffe caught, and any real hopes of reaching the target faded. The remaining two wickets fell in the next over and the visitors had won the game by 60 runs.

Bank Holiday Monday’s cricket had been a real rollercoaster of a game; yes, it had been low scoring, but had all the elements of being a great English summer sporting spectacle – warm summer sun, sudden rain showers, beer on tap, some good batting, excellent fielding, and accurate bowling.

A big shout out to Knaresborough’s wicketkeeper, who pulled off two outstanding catches in one over, probably one of, if not the highlight of the game.

If you visit the game’s Play Cricket scorecard, you will be able to watch the game and see just how good they were!

With this win, Ovington find themselves at the top of the table, and if they carry this form on throughout the season, I think they will be favourites to earn promotion…they certainly will be up near the top and in contention!

📸 MATCH PHOTOS

Cheers to Mark for his observations and photos from Knaresborough Cricket Club. 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.

I also highly recommend his blog called Leica Moments that include days out at grounds around North Yorkshire.