Review of the season 2019

January

Well I decided to put my money where my mouth is and made enquiries about sponsoring Ben Birkhead for the season. Exciting start to the New Year.


February

All the boxes were ticked for the sponsorship of Ben and I was totally proud to be able to do something to help a young player, in return I was invited to a sponsorship event, to meet the players and mingle with other sponsors.

I spent time with Ben and got to find out what he needed most from my year as his sponsor.
I was allowed to take a guest with me, so asked John if he would like to go, what an afternoon we had with the team and the other sponsors.

March.

I was working hard to  get some extra sponsorship for Ben and also  had the Chateau back on the market for sale, it was all go this month.
RBR Active a brand new company, owned by the wonderful Paul Westerton gave sponsorship to Ben as did the wonderful Philip and Carole Bird.
We were getting him off to a great start for the season.

It was also the AGM!

HMMMM......

New Chairman ( old chairman) and very plain to see that we had gone from moving forward at a rate of knots to heading back to the Jurassic age.

I listened intently to the comments made and then asked the question, would the Committee /Board, be interacting with members/supporters on Social media.
After the Chairman laughed and said 'No', he made it clear that this was the answer to my question......................well no it wasn't!

I wanted to know why and how we could have more communication with them.
The CEO offered  up that I could ring him ( albeit leave a message with his PA and he would call me back) this was not quite what I was asking about.
As I was leaving Andy Dawson  stopped me to say that they had missed a trick here and that they would try to set up  some sort of Q & A on Twitter.
Needless to say this has not happened.

Very disappointing.

April

April saw the cricket season start properly and with the absolutely heartbreaking news that an old boyfriend of mine had passed away. It was also the day I was driving down to Nottingham to Sophie & Terry's for the Notts v Yorks match. Definitely the right thing to be with good people.

We headed out on the Saturday morning to the ground and  got our seats, it was not the best of weather but it was only April.
Coffee and Brandy were the order of the day.

The match was a draw, so onwards we went


I wasn't able to make it down to Hampshire this year, Which meant that I wasn't able to spend any time with my great friend and newly retired  Hampshire man Terry. Next year for sure.
We won by 44 runs


Easter weekend saw glorious weather and a trip to Headingley for the game, Carole and Philip came and a good day was had by all, Jimbo and Lucy arrived in the afternoon.
We were playing Lancashire and lost by 1 run!

May


Well the Chateau was sold and I now had a mad panic to try to find a house to move to.

I went off to Headingley  stayed at The Lodge ( as you do when you are house hunting !)
It was Bank Holiday Monday and also a huge day for Ben as  he was named in the team as wicket keeper, his first List A match. One proud sponsor.
I was nearly sick with excitement.

Ben took his first List A catch and I had to restrain myself from jumping up and down and screaming! Not the done thing!!!!
Rain came and I headed into the Long Room, and met Ben's dad and brother, really  lovely to catch up with them.
Game ended no result.

I also headed off to watch 'my boy' Ben in action at Chester le Street, against Durham 2nd's and of course the weather was glorious..................not! Luckily being a tough old Northern bird I am used to freezing my whatnots off at CLS and so went prepared. ( blanky and flasks)

I caught up with Ben and had a long chat with him about how things were going and about something that I wanted to do, after hearing that he was more than fine with it, I phoned through to Headingley and became the proud sponsor of Tom Loten too!

The last 2nds match of that week was at Brandon so I headed along there too, to cheer on both my boys, sadly I seem to have jinxed Tom who broke his finger and was operated on the following week!

Lovely to meet Yvonne and Derek too

I also bought a house! Yes after much searching, I found myself a little  house and prepared for the move, which was not yet set in stone, but we were off the starting blocks.

I was  busy knitting cricket jumpys for some teddies to be sold at the Scarborough games, I tell you I never make life easy for myself.

On the last day of the month I headed off to Barnsley for a 2nd XI match and to meet Carole and Philip..............little did I expect to bump into my favourite Umpire too!!! What a day.
We were cheering on Ben  and having a fab day out too.
We won and were through to the semis finals which was a great achievement.

After a fabulous match we headed off to Carole and Philips house. The following day after a lovely day out we did a final tour of the local cricket clubs one of whom made it to the final at Lords again this year.

The 'Big lads' won against Kent and drew against Hampshire.

The ECB announced some of the stupid names for the teams in The Hundred.

Oh my dog!!!!

and then it was



JUNE

Just into the month I was rushed into hospital late one Sunday night and was found to have dangerously low potassium levels which really knocked me for 6 and impacted on quite a few weeks ( over 2 months to be truthful). I got the dates for the move and tried to focus on getting better and getting into my new home.

The lads played some friendlies and  also headed down to Surrey where the match was drawn.
The return match was end of month at Scarbados and we won.


 I got an invitation to have a tour of  the new stand for the afternoon and dragged John along too. We sampled the lunch menu before the tour, chatted to lots of people and then sampled afternoon tea.

It was all very  lovely and the stand looked amazing.

I was sure that I wouldn't get to any cricket this month due to organising the move, however a very kind gesture from our former Chairman, saw me with  4 tickets for the  England v Sri Lanka World Cup game at Headingley.

I went along with old chum Stephen and John and Moira AKA Mrs & Mrs Cricket Yorkshire.

It was a great day and we were in the new Emerald Stand too.

JULY.


Well the move happened at the beginning of the month and it went so smoothly that I wondered how I had been so stressed about it.
I was still struggling to get my potassium levels up to normal, but I was heading in the right direction.

The new wicket that Flicx UK had made for me was put down by Philip and it was due to a few weekends of hard work by  both Philip and Carole that I got settled in very quickly. I cannot express how grateful I am for  this.

England won the World cup in a tense game against New Zealand.
Yorkshire were in full on T20 action and  not doing too well at it either. We won some and lost more.

I often wonder about our white ball cricket, only for a moment though as everyone knows that Red ball is proper cricket.

I managed to aggravate an old foot injury and ended up in a boot!



AUGUST

As I was still settling into The Wickets, I didn't see much cricket, although I nipped
to Marske CC to see the 2nds in action, Both Ben and Tom were playing in the T20 matches.

I won 18 pints of Jack Leanings beer from The Old Mill Brewery, that was a fabulous surprise.

And there was the Scarborough festival. My favourite game of the year and the one that I think most Yorkshire supporters love, its a cricket match with a holiday thrown in for good measure.
Made even better this year as the Lainey and Sophie show rolled into town.

Sophie and I were really pleased to meet up with the lovely Glenys, as well as the usual crew.

Two days of sunning and cricket was just what the doctor ordered, in fact it was so good that I phoned the office took an extra day and saw the lads set up a fabulous win.
Taking nothing away from Notts who in the first half hour of the first day had us 4 wickets down!!!!

Got home, and it was Friday before I knew it, so tipped up at Chester le Street to see my Tykey Vikings win  the T20 game.
Home, bag packed and headed off to Nottingham for the Bank Holiday weekend with Sophie and Terry and T20.

England were in Ashes action and after an abysmal first innings they pulled off a blinding second innings to level the series.

The Vikings lost to the Outlaws in a game that went down to the wire, I love that kind of game.

I drove home bank holiday Monday and after being squashed by a coach in  Leeds, it looked like the trusty Limo and I will not be sharing fun and travels for another season.
We had great fun  over a lot of seasons, Limo had a great innings, time to retire now. (Still undecided)

The end of the month saw another couple of T20 game, we had no chance of getting to QF so what did we have to lose.
Well we didn't lose either!

I went to the last one at Headingley with Rob, gin and supper  in the Emerald Suite and watching us win against Northants by 80 runs

Next evening we were up against Birmingham Bears and saw the T20 season out on a high.

The worst news that I, Lady Lainey  could ever get, arrived on Saturday 24th August when it was announced that TLJL would be leaving me us for Kent at the end of the season.
I'm not just losing TLJL I'm losing TLML too ( and TLDL although I don't know him!).

I wish Jack every success at Kent and know that it will be great for him and his time to really shine.

and then it was

SEPTEMBER

How on earth did we get here so quickly????


Ben got everything sorted to go to Australia and everyone involved in sponsoring him rallied round to make sure he would be well looked after whilst down under.

Tom is also going to Australia and I know that they both will use their time there  to their best advantage.


The 4th Ashes test started in the first week of the month, All eyes on England, and expecting the heroics of Headingley..........not to be and Australia  retained the Ashes.


My big boys headed to Taunton for a vital County Championship game. They took to the field and went through the top order really well, then faltered slightly , before getting  Somerset all out for 199.
However the batting was not great all out for 109 ( well 9 down as Ben Coad couldn't bat).
Somerset won by 298 runs

My little lads were in Brighton and played an absolutely blinding first inning with Matthew Revis  scoring 177 and 'my' Tom scoring 115, Ben  was in the runs too, for once I didn't feel a if I 'd jinxed them.
It was great to see Tom pulling out a great score.

I was getting regular 'Yupdates' from James Bond who was down there on manoeuvres.
I fully intend being on manoeuvres with him next season.


Last home game of the season arrived and it was a toss up either to go to Scarborough  to watch the 2nds or to go to Headingley for the Kent game, the thought of seeing Faf du Plessis though was too strong and I headed off on the train to watch this game.

The disappointment!
Faf out for a duck, Ben and Tom in the runs at Scarborough and my favourite umpire there too...............and I was watching Darren Stevens stick 2 fingers up at Kent ( and us)  as he hit an outstanding 237 in his penultimate game for his county. ( later confirmed as not his last due to Kent giving him a years extension)

As for Yorky lads, they couldn't seem to string a partnership together!


All over on the Thursday with us lacking 433 runs!!!
 I was at my desk in the office minding my own business, when thanks to the kindness of Mick, I got a message from Faf.!!!!
Yes really!!!!!
To say that I knew nothing else of what happened that afternoon is an understatement and I will always be grateful to Mick for making my absolute year!

As the last game approached, I hot footed it down to Headingley to have lunch with Ben and Tom and John before they headed off to Australia, only to get the fabulous news that Tom was to be named in the squad for Birmingham, and spewing that I had decided not to go. The weather forecast was not great and I did not want to sit in a damp Edgbaston ( done that before).

Tom thought that he would just be drinks runner.


Team announced and Tom was in it.

To say that I was really proud of him is an understatement, and on his debut he scored 58!
In partnership with Tom Kohler-Cadmore they put Yorkshire in a strong position, until rain came and stayed right through to Thursday. The match was drawn. ( Poor Tom K-C stranded on 168*)



Essex won the County Championship.



And that was my season for 2019. Not as much cricket as I would have liked, but lots of other fabulous events, the highs and lows of the 1st team and the sheer joy watching my two 'boys' Ben and Tom continuing to work hard towards their goal.

Its been a season of highs and some very low times for me too, however now I am looking to next season when I put my backing to both Ben & Tom again. Will I add to my player portfolio? That is the question for next year?

Huge thanks to everyone for reading my ramblings, and especially Richard, who encouraged me to carry on writing the blog when I was ready to give it all up.



Here's to 2020.

Winter well,
love from all the gang at The Wickets

End of the week end of the season.

Well as the working week ends, so does the 2019 cricket season.

The last week has been a bit of a wash out  for all the teams involved, I think there was a good bit of handshaking across the 2 countries.

In Div 2 Northants got promoted which  is good news for great chum Paul as hopefully we will be able to have a proper catch up next season.

In Div 1 all matches were over after lunch except Essex and Somerset who were giving both sets of die hard fans some cricket before season end

They played it out well and Essex became county champions 2019.

And that is it for another season.

Its been a bit of a rollercoaster, for my beloved Yorkshire, but we didn't get relegated so that is always a bonus.

I'm sad for Notts going down again, but it does mean that Sophie and I can have a few trips away to some other grounds in the UK.

I still don't have a laptop so this was done on the phone and if there are any typos..........well I don't care, its 5.30am and I imagine that most of you are still fast asleep.


I'm off to order the breakfast from Big Al and then work half day Friday before heading home to get things done.

Have a great day and a fabulous weekend.

Thursday

Well if no broadband was bad yesterday, now the laptop is playing silly beggars and won't connect at all, time to head to PC World with it I think.
So in the mean time, I am struggling, as in the move I decided ( now unwisely) to get rid of the tower which had been a great servant for many years ( and had nothing wrong with it), and just have the laptop.

Ah hindsight!!!!


Technology!!!!!

For all the Yorkshire readers there is little to report  yesterday was another washout and if the weather doesn't pick up today it will have been 3 days of gloom in Brum.
Tom K -C ( should have brought his sunshine band with him) will be stuck on 165, which is not a bad score to be stuck on, but I am sure that he would have liked to have seen if he could end he season on a double century.

Essex could well take the title in another rain interrupted game.

At 6pm tonight, ( if there is any play) the season will be officially over.

I will be able to semi hibernate and possibly get on and decorate The Wickets.

I will try to be on time tomorrow.

Happy Thursday,

Mid week

Well the blog is  even later today, as it seems that all the rain that came down yesterday washed away my broadband ( yes I know this didn't really happen).
I couldn't log onto anything this morning and the thought of trying to check news, and do the blog on my phone was all too much, so I went and had a soak in the bath!

However I am now able to string together a blog of a kind.

Rain,
It blighted the cricket
Soaked the wicket
of nearly every team in England,

Rain
Stopped my lads in their tracks
Kept them in their macs
And sent them back to the hotel early


In fact I think that only a couple of games took place yesterday.

In other news, Sussex have signed Travis Head ( a temp Tyke at one time) for the whole of the 2020 season.

Kent  have extended Darren Stevens contract for another year.


And that's about it for today.

Late and short...................sack the writer I say!

Its a cold wet start here

Its was very dark when I woke up this morning but for that matter is was pitch dark at 8.15pm last night which is not something that I like at all.
Dark mornings make for a major struggle to get out of bed and so I think  that my choice of white curtains was a good one as they allow  in any light that there is.

However dark days are ahead so time to make the most of the the last week of the cricket season.

Somerset and Essex is the game to watch and  was being televised on Sky, Somerset were 4 wickets down when rain hit and after continuing to fall during the afternoon, play was called off at 4.45pm.
They were 75-4 overnight

Over in Kent it was a full on wicket fest as 13 fell on the first day. They seem to want to get the season over and done with asap.

And there was a game on at Edgbaston...........and I got the news that Tom was playing ( and not drinks running as he thought). He was going in at 3 so I headed into town to sort out some things and trying to take my mind off the fact that I was feeling very sick!
I was able to breathe easier when he was off the mark and partnering Tom K-C.
And what a partnership that turned out to be, the official Yorkshire Tom-Tom club.
Tom K-C 165* over night and looking good. He is a great player and will definitely be one of the team who moves Yorkshire forward next season.

And then there was 'my' Tom, well as if making his FC debut wasn't huge enough, he only went and got his first half century.
He fell on 58, but that was a great score.
His work with Tom K-C put us in a good position on the start of day two.

Go well all the lads, lets go out with a win.

In sad news, Shane Warne has been banned from driving  for 12 months. Goodness me how much will the mini bus hire be for him to ferry his lady friends around?

And with that I am off to do stuff....................and hopefully finalise some important stuff.

Late on parade

Good morning from Ladylaineyville, and  not Birmingham as it should have been.

The weather forecast and blood test results were not promising so I decided to stay at home, I have just been to have my blood test this morning, I feel OK, but just a little bit sad that I am not waking up in the Ibis and heading off to Edgbaston in the hope that Tom is in the team, he is with them  but doesn't think that he will play.

Its been a bit of a busy weekend, on Saturday I hotfooted it down to Headingley to have lunch with Ben and Tom and 'Grandad' John, who had celebrated his birthday the day before, having brought a cake  we thought we would extend the celebrations a little longer.

Lots of chat about the upcoming Australia trip as well as lots of laughs.
It was a great lunch and get together.

I came back home and tried not to see what was happening on Finals day, I had recorded it all so thought that I'd get a surprise at the time of the Final.

Well done to Essex who beat Worcestershire in a thriller of a game.

Could this week see another win for them?

This week the top two are playing for the title, who on earth thinks that the county championship is boring?
Last match of the season, right down to the wire, what a finish.

As I said, my boys are in Birmingham and I would love to see us close the season with a win.
We can then get our heads down to some serious winter training and prepare for 2020.

I decided not to go to the office today, despite being able to claw back 2 days hols, I have some things to sort out at The Wickets so am taking the opportunity to do get on with things.

So my season is over for another year and this year it is even sadder as  we say bye to TLJL ( and TLML).
 He is heading off  to Kent where I have no doubt that he will thrive.
He leaves some great memories most especially 'That' catch, at the Roses match.
Go well Jack, and keep smiling.

And as I put away this years haul of cricket memorabilia,  ( nothing too flash, just scorecards and tickets) I realise that next season we are going to need to start another box to keep everything in. Lots of memories.


And with that I am off to put the washing away, fill the dishwasher, make some phone calls, sign on for my Spanish class and do a spot of shopping.

Happy Monday

Start of another long weekend.

Hello Friday !

You arrived too quickly for me on this 3 day week, I have lots to get done today before another 3 day week next week....................or will it be.
I have been keeping an eye in the weather forecast, the one thing that I don't want is to be stuck in the hotel for two days if the weather isn't up to scratch.

I am not a fair weather cricket fan, its just the travel to Birmingham , possibility of being stuck in the hotel is not what I want for the end of season, so I have made the alternative plan, that if by Saturday the weather forecast is still not good, then I will  not be going and will go to work, claw back 2 days holiday and have a long weekend in Barcelona for my birthday.

And talking plans, Kents plan worked as they absolutely trounced my boys yesterday.
It was a well deserved win, to go from 38-5 to winning by 433 runs is brilliant stuff.
And there was more brilliant stuff with a joint Yorks/Kent ' venture which made an old lady very happy.

Over in the Notts/Warks game Don Sibling scored two centuries in the match and all I can say is that if Warks are planning on doing a Kent on us next week, we need to be fully prepared.

Yorkshire announced that  2020 will be the testimonial year for Adam Lyth.

The second division has become  the place to watch cricket as the promotion race is really hotting up. Lancashire are promoted but who will go with them?

Tomorrow is T20 Finals Day, having experienced this in the real once, it is not something that I really want to go to again, so instead I am going out for lunch , recording the full day and will watch my own edited highlights at some point next week. Its not real cricket anyway.

And now I am off for my now weekly blood test.
Since Tuesday and coming home early I have been a bit out of sorts with headaches and tiredness, hopefully its just because I am old.

Have a cracking Friday, I need to phone the order trough to Big Al before I go to the doctors.

Autumnal feel

There is a very Autumnal feel in the air this morning, as I put out the recycling ( 5,30am) it was quite chilly, something that in the extreme warmth of The Wickets I don't feel often ( every window upstairs is open at night to try to cool the house down).

This is a sign that the cricket season is coming to an end.

Over at Headingley yesterday Kent piled on the runs and heaped on the misery for Yorkshire supporters. Sam Billings hit another century and Darren Stevens took more wickets.Its been a miserable few days for the lads.
Come on we only need 507 more runs to win this I'm sure the last few lads can polish this off before tea.
Maybe best to just put take the 4 points and put this game behind us as we head onto Edgbaston for the last game of the season.

Is this the game when they showcase the rest of the talented youngsters?

I think that it should be.
There looked to be some tired old timers out there.
Give the youngsters a run out, we have nothing to lose.

We are also only one match away from the end of Jack Leanings time with us.
I have nothing but good things to say about Jack and am truly sad to see him go.
I wish him much luck at Kent and hope that he gets his time to really shine.

And the County champions are still to be crowned as Essex go 12 points up on Somerset ahead of their clash next week.

Who said the County Championship is boring?
I am sure that the turnstiles will be busy after school and work next week to see this conclusion which is going down to the wire.

Well time to head out to work and head to the 167, the last part of my work journey has improved considerably in the last couple of weeks as a new road at the back of my office opened out onto the bypass leading to the A66.
This is very quiet at the moment until the new Amazon depot opens fully when I guess it will just be another snarled up road on the outskirts of Ladylaineyworkville.

Time to go, have a good day and come on Yorkshire ( big ask but hey!)

Back to work

And so it is back to work today and  only one more cricket jaunt until the end of the season.
I hope that it is more restful than the last couple of days.
Yesterday I actually had to go home early after another night of very little sleep due to the antics of some guests.
I am sure that I wasn't the only  person who was disturbed by them.
I normally stay at The Lodge , but due to last minute arrangements ( I was supposed to be in Derby and then booked in at Scarborough before heading to Headingly), I ended up in the other hotel.

I have stayed there a few times in the past when The Lodge was either being used for hospitality or full, but sadly now, I will not be staying again. Looks like the Premier will be getting shortlisted.

I was feeling slightly out of sorts before lunch so headed into the Long room, after nearly falling asleep in there I decided that the easiest thing to do was go home.

To be honest with our wickets falling too quickly for my liking, I thought it was probably for the best.

We finished our innings on  269 and Matty Fisher being the highest scorer on 47.

We just need to hopefully play out the next two days and then give ourselves a serious talking to.

I personally think that for the last game of the season they need to take out some of the old timers and load up with the young talent.
I'm sure it won't be any worse than this week.



My Twitter feed was full of The S** yesterday, this is a rag that I have never read and most certainly would have not after Hillsborough, so seeing it on my time line was not what I wanted.
It was also amazing to realise that Tom Harrison had a voice and could speak out against this rag and for Ben Stokes, when the Chief Exec of the ECB cannot speak out about what they are doing to English Cricket.
I appreciate that he was supporting a member of the England team, saying that the whole sport and  country was standing behind him.
sadly if they have their way there will not be a 'sport' to support in the future.


Yes I know I am banging on about it all again, but considering how quiet they have been about their destruction of the county format for The 100  ( not even cricket ), I am a tad cross.

And breathe.

After   my little rant yesterday about non communication with the Board of YCCC, it was interesting to hear some members who were sitting near to me talking about  how they never see anyone from the board having a little wander around anymore.
'Steve was usually around to have a chat with everyone' said one lady, to which her husband replied 'and he had time for everyone'.
Another couple chipped in, that even if he was just wandering around the ground he had time for a chat.


I think that this
1. sums up Steve
2. sums up the current set up at YCCC

I will say that they also had praise for Geoff Cope our current President, who is renowned for his wandering around chatting to everyone.

And today is the members forum, so no doubt they will all be carefully descending from their Ivory tower to meet the masses!

Its cricket time

Apologies for there not being a blog yesterday, it was due to having had very little sleep over night, thanks to some over zealous ( and over indulgent ) hotel guests, who woke me up at 2am and by 4am I had given up trying to get back to sleep and was drinking copious amounts of coffee.
7am saw me trying to get organised for the day and then falling asleep!!!

And then I went to cricket!


I was there at the crack of 9am,  on Faf watch with my camera at the ready.

After a hefty dose of caffeine, I took my seat in my old area. it was so nice to be back......................for about 10 minutes until I had to stand up to let people through the very narrow walkway( when they could have walked round the back).

However none of this could dampen my excitement for the moment that I clapped eyes on Francois!!!

So 10.30 am match starts, Kent batting,
And Faf was at the crease before  I knew it and was back in the hutch before I had time to get the lens cap off.
Kent 38-5 in no time at all
Billings and Stevens were setting up a decent partnership, and that's where they stayed most of the day. Stevens in his penultimate game for Kent,as at 43 they thought time to let him go.........................that was until he hit 237.
Apparently there may be a U turn on this decision.

Billings  partnering up with Ollie Raynor and hitting 138 until he was bowled by Duanne, who took 5-108.
And finally for us stumps  with Kent 482-8

Over in Scarborough, my teeny Tykes were doing OK, in particular my own two Tykes.

Tom hit a brilliant 64 and Ben  42.
So proud of them both.
Lets see some great work on the field today.

There is lots of interesting'stuff' being bandied about by some pundits ( Vaughan and Agnew) but to be honest I am bored with them all.
There is not one of us who really knows what the ECB have in store for any county, to be honest I don't think that they have finished smoking the fags to scribble on the back of the packet yet.

What we do know is that whatever it is, it does not have anything to do with protecting  the County championship.

Point to fact is that after the full day circus on Saturday we will be bombarded with how short form cricket is the way forward.

If  the County Championship games are played on a Saturday and Sunday  it would be interesting to see what the crowds were like.

I know I have been banging on about this forever but it is true.

And whilst I am on a rant, I am reporting that the Yorkshire board have not made any effort to have any form of social media interaction with members as they said they would.
I am disappointed but not surprised.
I realise that we are reverting back to Jurassic ways and the door to openness and forward thinking has been well and truly closed.

There are wolves in sheep's clothing everywhere!

Right enough of that, those who know what that means will appreciate why I cannot make it any clearer.
 And with that cryptic message I am out the door to go and have some breakfast before heading back to watch my boys for the last time at home this season.

Have a good day!

Hurrah! Last working day

Its been another long week and I am glad that its Friday, my first job will be a detour to see Big Al and order breakfast, then I need to get things straight for next week when I am off on cricket travels.

I am so looking forward to some more time off.I'm not taking too well to the nights drawing in and the darker mornings, and lets not talk about clocks going back.

So what has been happening in the wacky world of cricket.

Well after 6 seasons the Scarborough spell has been broken. Yorkshire won both of their games there but the chances of them winning the championship have gone.
The spell was as follows, winner at Scarbs, win champo.
2013 Durham
2014 Yorkshire
2015 Yorkshire
2016 Middlesex
2017 Essex
2018 Surrey

2019  is now between Somerset and Essex.

So as you all probably know Yorkshire lost yesterday. There isn't really a lot to say except that the next two matches they had better put on a better show.
We may be down, but lets show some Yorkshire spirit.

Lancashire are going to be promoted whilst it looks as if poor Notts will be going down again.( they;ll bounce back I know it).


On the final Ashes test England were 271-8, with Pat Cummins once again being the nemesis of Joe Root.

Lets see how that plays out today.

And with that short round up I am out the door, putting the bin out on the way.


Have a fabulous weekend.