Masham v Leyburn

Match Report/Information

Sportsmanship: 10 (concession of points)
Man of the Match:

Thanks must go to Masham's ground committee for preparing the ground for the re-located Leyburn home match. On arrival at Masham, there was very light rain. Masham had a rare full compliment of players had changed and were ready for a match. However it was with much surprise that Leyburn didn't want to play given their table-top standing and Masham's bargain-basement location. Fresh in the mind was Burnett's century a couple of seasons ago in the same fixture and it was with trepidation the Masham bowlers saw him turn up. By 6.30pm the 'rain' was so light, to call it 'spitting' would be an exaggeration, the likes of which we haven't heard since Johnny Coombes claimed top order status. Indeed, the captains ventured out to toss up on a perfectly playable wicket (players were reminiscing about an eventful evening at Leyburn when Rob Hill plundered a ton in conditions so much worse), yet still the protests continued. Maybe Bodge thought he'd dissolve. Some players hadn't even got out of their cars. You'd think we were playing in Borneo.

However, such was Masham groundstaff's preparedness, there was a covered wicket, bone dry, available to play on. This was offered and it too, declined. Which begs the question with reference to Leyburn's match report, "which bit of the ground was unplayable?"

A criticism by one of the Leyburn players was "You could have called it off sooner!", yet Masham hadn't called it off. Indeed the groundstaff had made every effort to ensure that Leyburn's home fixture could be completed. Not needing to be told twice, the opposition had left by 6.34pm. The disappointed home crowd wondered if they'd ever actually wanted play at all, yet one or two old sages quite rightly pointed out that given Masham's Wednesday form, Leyburn were turning down a golden opportunity to stretch their lead. But they collected their refunded ticket money at the turnstiles and headed for the pub.

It was with much generosity that Leyburn conceded the points but with much disappointment that Masham's players left the ground; for many it was another week's cricket gone without a ball being bowled despite the clearing skies. By 9pm there'd been no more rain.

Okay, we're not weather prophets but surely we've all played in much, much worse conditions.

More controversy packed into 4 minutes than in the weekly Nidderdale League fiasco. Cricket was the loser.