Yorkshire v Scotland 1, 2 & 3 June 1949 by Cricket Scotland

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Ground:	The Circle, Hull
Scorecard:	Yorkshire v Scotland
Event:	Scotland in England 1949

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DateLine: 30th January 2013

 

 

Day 1:
The last of several showers cut short the first day's play here by 50 minutes. The minor ones kept the players in the pavilion for 75 minutes. Scotland might have been happier if the allotted time had been played and they had returned to their headquarters to sleep in the contented mood that the capture of one or two Yorkshire wickets might have inspired.

 

In any event, to-morrow is another day, and some more rain would probably cause funny things to happen on "The Circle," which Tykes say is not a particularly happy hunting ground for their team. As a matter of interest it might be pointed out that Norman Yardley, the Yorkshire skipper, was making his first appearance at the place since becoming captain.

 

Rain or no rain, however, Scotland ought to have had a bigger total. That the impressive score of 100 was gathered for the loss of only three wickets and the other seven should add only another 70 confirmed the oft-repeated talk about Scotland's biggest weakness being inability to play spin bowling.

 

Robinson, the off-spinner, and Mason, the left-hander from the Bradford league, had a fine time of it at the Scots expense after some rain had made the pitch more favourable to the county attack. The Scots, however, are not county cricketers, though two of their adopted sons, Willatt and Crosskey, gave the sparse crowd the impression that they might be.

 

Both were immaculate in their stroke play. They faced the fast men, Coxon and McHugh, as well as the medium-paced Yardley with plenty of confidence, scoring sometimes at the rate of a run a minute, despite the fact that the outfield became slower as the rain began. Willatt was out at 63 to a hot catch by Halliday in the slips, and Crosskey at 88 to the same player, who was brought on for a few overs.

 

Winrow, who had done so well at Sunderland against Durham, was showing the same desire to hasten the pace of scoring after lunch when Yardley decided on the Mason-Robinson attack, and things began to happen.

 

Winrow saw the total rise to 100, but Nichol and Barkham were somewhat cheaply got out.

 

Aitchison stepped into the breach, but impatience lost him his wicket at the end of a forcing knock of just over thirty minutes. Having hit five 4s he obviously wanted to be the first in the team to hit a 6, and the ball was sailing in that fashion when Watson who had been rather slack in his fielding before, judged its flight beautifully and took a catch. The members of the tail section were to be commended for trying to get runs when the going was good, but the Yorkshire bowlers did not take long to get them out.

 

Day 2:
The best tribute that could have been paid to Scotland's bowling here to-day came from a Yorkshireman, who said that any attack that allowed Len Hutton to have as few as five 4s in a century deserved respect.

 

On a wicket that was tricky for the first hour, but played the easier as the day wore on, the Scots bowling was always steady, Fred Colledge (Ferguslie) doing notably well in keeping the rate of scoring down, as was seen in one of his spells lasting an hour, when only 12 runs were hit off him.

 

Edward, too, presented such a distinguished batsman as Hutton with some problems in his first hour. Hutton scored only 8, taking absolutely no risk, though later he speeded up, gathering runs all round the wicket-in a fashion that had a crowd of several thousand cheering. In his stay of almost four and a half hours he hit nine 4s.

 

Wilson, the powerfully-built left-hander, who challenged Hutton in an interesting scoring duel and combined in a partnership that raised 261 runs, had thirteen 4s. Scotland's fielding, incidentally, was also first rate, Willatt leading both by precept and example, with Edward, McLaren, and Nichol lending grand support.

 

Yorkshire's captain. N. W. D. Yardley, applied the closure rather sooner than had been expected, for he left Scotland with seventy-five minutes to bat, during which time he tried all his best bowlers with a conspicuous lack of success. Willatt and Crosskey played in text-book fashion, and not even Hutton would have objected to the claim, made on their behalf, that they produced some of the finest strokes of the day.

 

Both kept the ball on the ground, scoring all round the wicket, and there was general satisfaction among the Scottish party, led by the Rev. A.R. Shillinglaw (St Boswells), the president of the Scottish Cricket Union, that the start to the second venture had been so auspicious.

 

The last day's play should not be devoid of feature, and it would be a feather in Scotland's cap if they were to force a draw.

 

Day 3:
On their homeward journey last night the Scottish cricket team ran into some better weather than they had experienced in the last day of their match against Yorkshire, at Hull, where rain fell with such persistence that only 90 minutes play was possible. But, notwithstanding the premature conclusion, they had the satisfaction of adding a draw to the big victory they got earlier In the week against Durham County which represented a naturally favourable experiment in making the tour of the North of England.

 

The Scots had always the worse of the weather at Hull and the two hours rain that fell before the start yesterday greatly helped the Yorkshire spin bowlers, Mason and Robinson, who could always make the ball turn so well that of the 30 overs they sent down no fewer than 19 were maidens. Yet the Scots batted much better than their score suggested, though, run-getting was a laborious process, especially in one period of an hour when only 23 were obtained.

 

Willatt and Crosskey were both dismissed at 72 after only 14 runs bad been added to the over-night total, and though Nichol, despite his "duck" put up a heroic defence lasting 20 minutes, all the best batsmen had been dismissed before the rival captains decided, after another fall of rain, to call It a day.

(Article: Copyright © 2013 Cricket Scotland http://cricketscotland.com)