Yorkshire v Durham
Sherburn White Rose v Wetherby Athletic
So, the day started in Berwick-on-Tweed and a heated discussion with the manager of the chain store on the station about the legality of five pound notes, which for some reason she was refusing to accept on the grounds that 'they are illegal from Friday'. nyway, a morning Voyager southwards.
Over a sun strewn Royal Border Bridge.
And thankfully, no sign of any drowning Cervinae.
Passing the venue of last night's game.
The sun glimmering off the sea at Scremerston.
Even the rush hour Newcastle traffic was fairly bright.
Into Central station.
And onto a Manchester bound TransPennine starter.
Yet more charity lunacy.
Fro my previous ramblings, you will know that the new symbol of Yorkshire is the discarded Prosecco bottle. I give you a scene on the 0850 service off York.
Into Leeds.
Where it was onto a Knaresborough service.
Where the first shack of Burley Park saw the cricket attracting a very diverse cross section of passengers. The diversity being that the age of the white, middle class, males, ranged from 72 to 74.
Either it is just me, or else there is a notable increase in half eaten wildlife littering the streets. Outside the ground was a decaying blackbird.
Up to the stadium.
Yorkshire 339-4 v Durham 335-5, Royal London One Day Cup - Northern Section
Durham on the other hand, were packed with dodgy Kolpak, parental passports, and naturalised South Africans. The birthplace of their top order was Johannesburg, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Whitehaven, California.
Play had already started and as I entered the seating area, I was greeted with an early wicket.
Headingley has been steadily rebuilt over the past few years, with only the rugby stand remaining. Despite being a member, I choose not to listen to pensioners trying to out do each other with pension talk, and forego the pavilion for a more gentile area below the scoreboard.
Despite it being a school day, there was a fair sized crowd.
Immediately were four Scandinavians. There day consisted mostly of looking around in bewilderment and asking 'why are they clapping?'.
After the early wicket, Durham piled on the runs, and were 250-2 after forty overs.
However, they made a bit of a hash of the final ten overs. Local lad Matthew Waite came on to bowl and caused more problems than Gary Ballance's field placing ever did, and Durham ended 335 for 5.
Headingly is immediately under the flight path of Leeds Bradford airport, yet during the lunch interval, the roar of jet engines was drowned out by the loudest noise known to mankind; pensioners eating crisps.
A great feature of Headingly is that it conjoins with the rugby ground, which is open to spectators.
I headed to the soon to be replaced north stand for a spot of lunch.
The Durham ground staff had travelled with the team and I got to listen to a very in depth description of the pitch relaying that had gone on over the winter. I am now an expert on the Desso GrassMaster, the secret is 3% of the grass root being artificial fibre.
Yorkshire started their innings quite slowly, and lost Lyth cheaply.
However, having the England captain batting three helped, and Bairstow suddenly started knocking it around the ground and they put on a quick 50.
Bairstow raced to his ton.
By now, the Durham fielders spent most of their time fetching sixes from the West Terrace.
With a highest one day score of 174, Bairstow was then out to a very innocuous caught behind.
Root was also out soon, but Ballance and Handscombe laboured towards the total, before Bresnan came in and decided he wasn't hanging around and hit the winning runs with a couple of overs to spare.
It was back to the station and into Leeds, for a Hull bound TransPennione service.
This was the commuter service that stops at South Milford.
Although the station mostly serves this place. This was a mining community, dominated by the huge Gascoigne Wood colliery. However, it has remained relatively prosperous as it still has a gypsum works, and is home to bus manufacturer Optare.
A symbol of Yorkshire are yellow bikes, which signified the Tour de France's appearance a few years ago, and now the Tour de Yorkshire. There are various home made attempts at them, this is undoubtably the worst, with a badly spray painted Raleigh Boxer, nailed to a tree.
The centre was fairly pleasant, except it did house the roughest looking pub I'd seen for a while.
I did like this contrasting scene. On the right, the aspirational BMW and mock tudor house. On the left, their neighbour drives a vintage Ford tractor.
The only time I'd been tot he village before was for a sporting event, but rather than football, it was a Fish-o-mania qualifying event at the Bacon Factory Pond.
But today, I was heading here.
Sherburn White Rose 3 v Wetherby Athletic 3, West Yorkshire League - Premier Division
There had been a previous White Rose team, but the current side arose in the 1960s. They have played in the West Yorkshire league ever since. Two promotions in two seasons has seen promotion to the premier division.
Wetherby Athletic were formed from the disbanding of the Town's united team in the 1940's, and initially played in the Harrogate and District League. It was a long time before they progressed, joining the West Yorkshire League in 1997.
The Finkle Hill ground was little more than an open field until a football foundation grant meant new changing rooms, a social club, railings and floodlights.
My arrival coincided with the pre-match hand shakes.
Early exchanges as a home player got kicked.
Then an away player got kicked.
But this time it was a penalty, which was duly scored.
Another end of season @keepers_towel.
Which got to witness a second goal for the visitors.
There was a decent sprinkling of spectators. This chap appeared to be taking in the game from the only seating at the ground.
But closer examination revealed him to be fast asleep. He proceeded to kip through the whole game.
Pitchside was what looked to be an open air S&M dungeon. So instead of trains, here is the game through the medium of sexual torture equipment.
So, Sherburn pull one back infront of a sex swing.
Sherburn build up to their equaliser, as the torture rack awaits its next willing victim.
I can't even imagine what deviancy this does, but in the background, the ref awards Wetherby a second penalty, which they duly converted.
To end with, it was Sherburn's turn to get a penalty, which they also scored.
The game ended 3-3.
So it was off to the station, but this time Sherburn station itself. It sits on the York-Sheffield line, which although sounds like it should be busy, only has a handful of trains a day.
In a typical display of Network Rail planning, the level crossing gates have been welded shut, but the warning lights still operate.
Bloody 'train people'. I'd be more sympathetic to these people's plight if they learnt some basic English.
I was on one of the more frequent Hull-York services that divert away from the East Coast main line.
At York, there was some sort of commotion going on with a Manchester bound TPE service. It turned out that a pissed up member of retired BR staff, had shit himself and then wandered through the train, with the shit running down his leg and all over the carpets. Understandably, the other customers were not happy so the train was being swapped over, but strangely, the miscreant was having an argument with the guard about not being allowed in first class on a standard class staff pass, and was being removed from the train.
The delay to it meant I could catch it, and thus got an earlier connection at Leeds.
Which predictably, was waiting a driver, so arrival back at Sowerby was later than the original plan.
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