The Twelfth Man 2018

24 One of our Patrons, Mike Cowan gave his usual entertaining vote of thanks to conclude a fine afternoon. Jeremy Lonsdale Jeremy, was born and grew up in Hornsea, East Yorkshire. He has followed Yorkshire CCC since he was 9, when his father’s attempts to stop him being obsessed with football records only led him to walking around with a ‘Wisden’. He studied history at the university of London, and is a director at the National Audit Office in London. Jeremy explained why this book had taken so long to complete. Delays due to work, children and other cricket books in the pipeline. A very early history of YCCC was outlined by Jeremy along with a very interesting overview of how the early Yorkshire leagues evolved and how the players managed to play and travel in those days. The early days of Yorkshire cricket were not without problems, with alcohol-fueled crowds, heavy betting, and the inevitable problems they brought about. To facilitate the betting, matches were even played during the winter months. The early days for Yorkshire brought about hot competition to have the county ground in York or Sheffield before Leeds was decided upon in 1890. Success didn’t come immediately, until the captaincy of Lord Hawke pulled things together and brought about Yorkshire’s first championship in 1893. The question and answer session covered the future of test cricket, statistics from the past, the future of televised cricket and much more, to conclude an excellent evening. ‘A Game Taken Seriously’, is perhaps a delicate understatement of the truth. He tried to focus on the early rise of Yorkshire cricket and how it became a dominant force by the dawn of the 20th Century. Young Yorkshire with Richard Damms OUR old friend and coach Richard Damms brought with him three young Yorkshire cricketers. They were James Wharton (opening bat), Josh Sullivan (leg spinner) and Vikram Sharma (left arm fast). Going straight into the question and answer session our chairman, James asked the boys how they got involved in cricket. James said he started at Holmfirth CC following his fathers’ footsteps. After that he moved onto Scholes where he eventually made the first team playing in the Huddersfield league. Josh also followed his father’s footsteps into local cricket, was selected to play for the county under 17s and then followed selection into the Yorkshire Academy. Vikram’s first love was tennis before he got involved in cricket, and when it came to a choice, he chose cricket. Like Josh he came to the Academy following under 17s county cricket. Richard was asked about the education side of things for the young players. He explained that there was a clear priority to include education in their planning, and it was an area that was not neglected. Richard then gave us an overview of the progress of Academy players and plans for the immediate future, which included a pre- season tour of South Africa which everyone was excited about. The session was varied and included lots of Mick Pope (left) with Jeremy Lonsdale