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.
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
The worst news that I, Lady Lainey could ever get, arrived on Saturday 24th August when it was announced that TLJL would be leaving
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
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