A vigil in Leeds

Brian Sanderson takes pity on the bowlers

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Another sunny walk this morning, with the rather less sunny prospect of watching Middlesex bat all day against Yorkshire’s toiling spinners. I took in the first session from the Long Room, and found the chit-chat more engaging than the cricket, which was (as always when the bat is hegemonic) pretty dull stuff. To have a proper game, there should be something in it for the bowler.

At one point the conversation turned to sumo wrestling, which an old school teacher had seen once on Japanese television. It sounded unspeakably exciting. Of the cricket there is nothing to say other than that Max Holden was caught by Jonathan Tattersall off Dom Bess for 51, and that Sam Robson was given out lbw to Bess for 108. The new ball was taken before lunch.

During the break, I gave a talk to members about previous matches between Yorkshire and Middlesex. Yorkshire’s score yesterday was their highest against Middlesex, and only the third time 600 had been registered at Headingley. I also held forth on Percy Holmes’s 315 not out at Lord’s in 1925. Only three batsmen have beaten it at the Home of Cricket. Do you know who they are? Answer at the end of this report. (Incidentally, when I arrived home today, a postcard was waiting for me. It showed the Leyton ground where Holmes and Sutcliffe scored 555—or was it 554? But that is another story.)

When I returned from my duties, Ryan Higgins and Jack Davies were batting against the hapless spinners. Leus du Plooy, it seems, had been caught by Bess off Ben Coad. As our ennui mounted, the conversation centred on whether scones are better with jam or cream. To this important question we were able to give a very direct and practical answer at tea, which arrived at 15:40, when Middlesex were 349 for four. The one saving grace was the over rate: five faster than usual.

For the final session I relocated to a spot behind the bowler’s arm. My motive was twofold: (1) to enjoy the shade, and (2) to see if the spinners were getting any sort of purchase. You can judge for yourself from the livestream, which unsurprisingly garnered 9,000 fewer views than it did yesterday:

At 391, Jack Davies was caught by Adam Lyth off Dom Bess for 61. I got talking to a Yorkshire supporter from Keighley who had known Brian Sellers, the Yorkshire captain and committee chairman. Again, the conversation was an awful lot more stimulating than the one-sided cricket match. And the Yorkshire players seemed to think so, too: At one point three of them walked off together—goodness knows why—thus delaying play for five minutes. I have never seen such a thing before, and hope never to see it again.

The day finished at six o’clock, with Yorkshire, once more, bowling many more overs than allotted. Dan Moriarty alone got through 52 without taking a wicket. He will no doubt continue tomorrow, and that figure will significantly increase. Is this going to be a record-long spell without a wicket? Perhaps not: Rain is due in the afternoon, in which case this non-event of a match will be put out of its misery.

Brian Sanderson is an ACS member. He serves on the Yorkshire Cricket Archives Committee. If you would like to contribute to this newsletter, please either respond to the email in which you received it, or leave a comment below.

The three batters who beat Percy Holmes’s 315 were Hobbs with 316, Gooch with 333, and Sam Northeast with 335 not out.