The 2023 Veterans tour of the northern outposts of England has begun. I could stop there as everyone will realise that in this era of “spirit of the game” controversy involving someone else from Yorkshire, what may have transpired in the opening match of the tour.
Local skullduggery was definitely afoot. Coming from down south, we are accustomed to July temperatures in the mid to high 20’s Centigrade, instead the locals summoned up the Devils of the Dales, and plunged the temperatures down to a level that may have seemed like summer to an eskimo, but to our Southern softies, was just downright freezing.
The start was delayed to allow the pitch to dry!!! Why, you may ask as after about 16 overs it tipped it down again and everyone ran for the warmth and shelter of the clubhouse, apparently the Ladies are hardier souls and they remained covered by umbrellas by the retaining wall. At this point we were holding our own with the hosts, Embsay Veterans, on 59-2. The break did us no good whatsoever, the hosts could regroup and come up with a new battle plan. A very simple plan too, just whack the red ball to all parts. Messrs Waddington, 44, Robertson, 69, and Bateman, 30 not out, effected this plan perfectly. Suddenly, without warning, we were having to chase down 215-6 if we wanted to win this opening 40 over match.
The challenge started brightly enough, thanks to John Gallant and Pat Patel, an opening stand of 80 giving us hope. Sadly hope died pretty quickly, and we stumbled our way to 149-7 by the close. John Gallant’s 62 being far and away our top scorer.
Onwards and upwards to Steeton Cricket Club for Tuesday’s match. At least the sun is shining at the moment.

In complete contrast to Embsay, the weather for our visit was much more clement. Though not entirely at tropical levels, by Yorkshire standards it was half decent. Eagle-eyed readers of this column may have noticed that if there is a lot of chatter about the weather, and, of course, Steeton’s amazing capacity to provide the best teas on planet earth, then there is not much to write about when it comes to the cricket. Which means that we were defeated again, if not quite so soundly this time. The fielding again was to let us down in the early stages, and we were made to pay a heavy price for the indiscreations. On the converse side there was a few highlights, Paul Wakefield’s caught and bowled from his first ball to dismiss Steeton’s top scorer, Freemanis for 66. John Morgan becoming the first bowler to record a three for on this tour, and three stumpings for Mark Paget, not all involving his hands. All this allowed our hosts to amass 222-7 off their 40 overs.
Our reply did not go according to plan, but did go according to form. There were a couple of highlights, John Stuck, promoted from umpire to number three, scoring 64, and Pat Patel, relegating himself from number two to number six, adding a very handy 53 to atone for earlier mishaps. Not too much to be said about the rest, so I won’t. All this amounted to a reply of 184-7.
We learn from the experience and move on to Skipton for today’s attempt to break the tour duck.

So Wednesday arrived on schedule at midnight, and when the daylight hours arrived there was a sighting of the sun through the windows of the hotel. Unfortunately, meteorogically the sun did not really make a lasting visit, so everyone set off for Skipton under fluffy clouds of colours various. Our opponents the strangely titled Skipton Church Institute. Any connection with the Women’s Institute remained hidden from view.
After a fairly long wait, until around 2pm, the match finally began with the Skipton Church Institure only having nine men we lent them one and also supply an additional fielder when required. On a pitch where the average bounce was about five inches off the ground the hosts batted first. The tempo wasn’t great but they did managed to avoid losing a wicket until the 20th over when the score had reached 69. In the interests of uniformity the second twenty overs saw the scoring rate increased only marginally. Hence a final total of 150-7 was recorded in the book. However, that does not tell the full story as three batsmen pulled strange muscles and struggled to continue without limping from one end to the other. One even found it impossible to continue and he retired hurt. There is a rumour that Ken Greenaway was trying to claim his demise as a wicket as his tally for the tour still stands on 0.
As for the Two Counties reply, should it be recorded as an eight wicket win, or a seven wicket win, as Paul Wakefield retired having reached 51. John Gallant batted throughout for 47 not out, and Nick Meakin eventually managed to score more than six, reaching 25 before departing. His downfall brought Andy Gallant to the middle. He got off the mark with a two, and then departed to his second delivery, also bowled by a delivery that skimmed the top of the grass!
Victory was attained with eight overs to spare. The long wait for another win in Yorkshire had been ended.
Now we are off to Sutton-in-Craven, and hopefully the arrival of the ice cream van.

It is fairly hard quite to know where to begin with the account of Thursday’s activities, but for me, personally, it would be the fact that one of our number parked in such a reckless manner that the ice-cream van driver could not get his chariot of lovely goodies into the Sutton-in-Craven ground. A good reason for a hefty fine if there ever was one.

Anyway, on to the action itself, and yet again the hosts were given the opportunity to ran riot with the bat, and true to our form this week, they did. Adjmal Chowdry, and Stuart Tillotson, and then Justin Early, just in too late as far as we were concerned, all plundered runs, the first two both “retiring” with 80 and 50 respectively. Justin Therightplaceattherighttime added 43 as Sutton-in-Craven rattled up 225-9. Paul Wakefield took 3-17 and John Morgan 2-40, which meant they ended the tour as joint leading wicket takers with seven each. Sadly, Chuckle Brother Ken failed to register a single wicket, all tour, from his berth as opening bowler!

Our reply began with good intentions, but somehow never quite built enough momentum to challenge for victory. Paul Wakefield and John Gallant added 113 for the first wicket before Wakefield was caught and bowled for 49. Nick Meakin came and went in a flash, before Gallant and Pat Patel gave us a slight chance with a partnership of 73. It was ended with John’s demise for 78. However, his tally of 203 runs for the week was our best. Pat struck some lusty fours in his 40, but by the time he departed our goose was cooked, and we ended the tour on 207-5.

Once again we thank all of our hosts for their hospitality. Then as sure as night follows day, on Friday the temperatures soared, but we were on our way home, left to listen to the action from the nearby Headingley ground.