Two sports, one afternoon

Brian Sanderson continues his weekend perambulations

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I had been especially looking forward to this Saturday, as I was headed to my favourite ground for a match in one of my favourite competitions: the Huddersfield Cricket League, established as far back as 1891. Today it has seven divisions and two Sunday leagues.

The fixture was Golcar v Hoylandswaine. The former were founded in 1871, while cricket has been played at the latter since the early 1800s. Hoylandswaine have been in this league since 2008. At the start of the day were leading the first division, while Golcar were in seventh place.

The talk round the ground before the match, however, was all about Broad Oak Cricket Club, who had suddenly found themselves marooned at the bottom of the division, having been deducted thirty points for abusing umpires on three separate occasions. One of the officials, I learnt, had even walked off in protest halfway through a match. This is an awful situation; one understands why the league has taken so firm a line.

Golcar lost the toss and were put into bat on a cloudy afternoon, with Steve Whitwam opening the batting. He has been voted the league’s top all-rounder ten times over the course of his career, and started off confidently today, scoring 26 almost entirely in boundaries, before he was excellently caught by Arron Lilley. It fell to Whitwam’s partner James Howson to be the star today. He hit 82, including two huge sixes into the local gardens. Lilley, formerly of Leicestershire and Lancashire, tried his spin bowling, but went for 54 in seven overs. Golcar finished with 295 all out in 48 overs.

I heard from an away supporter that their star overseas player, Kamran Ghulam, had returned to Pakistan, and that his absence would seriously affect their batting. But I did not hang around to see him vindicated, for at this stage I left to catch my first glimpse of a brand-new ground: Golar United were playing Bradford Park Avenue in a friendly football match. It was a poor spectacle, but Bradford scrapped a 1-0 win.

After getting home to Headingley—the traffic was dreadful, occasioned by a Leeds-Hull rugby league fixture—I learnt that Golcar had bowled out Hoylandswaine for 200, Steve Whitwam taking three wickets and Yasheda Mendis six. A great win for Golcar.

So ended a very different Saturday afternoon—different not least because, for a wonder, it had not rained! Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

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.