Plenty of spark in early season

Published on 8th May 2008 in Letters

Goole Town 1st XI 192-9

Thirsk I 145-7

More encouragement in the early stages of Goole Town's first season in the Premier Division of the York Senior League with a winning draw against Thirsk in their first home match of the 2008 campaign at Westfield on Saturday, writes Graeme Wilson.

A warm, pleasant afternoon ensured that despite the damp outfield, the game started on time and Thirsk gave the home side first use of a track that looked firm from a distance, but clearly had some moisture under the surface - hence scoring was never going to be easy.

Having said all that, Goole paced their innings well for the first two thirds, but lost wickets in the latter stages as they changed the batting order slightly in the chase for a score of 200 plus.

That they made 192-9 in their allotted 50 overs was down to three good innings, the first by Ashley Hulme, who made 77 before he was bowled by David Towse, unchanged from the Town end of the ground in 25 overs, by Kevin Murphy, who looked in good form for 30 before playing at a wide one outside the off stump off Christon and by Neil Foster, whose 35 looked set for many more before adjudged leg before.

The rest perished in the latter overs to a fine second spell from Barry Petty at the River end. He finished with 5-72 with the only unlucky batsman being Dan Murphy, run out by a superb piece of fielding from Lee McEndry at backward point.

In reply Thirsk were bogged down by tight and accurate bowling from Richard Mann and Will Sparks initially, the latter showing excellent discipline for another year on his shoulders and gone are the wides and no balls which were prevalent in 2007. He took the wickets of opener Des Wyrill and number three Gary Bolton in his sixth over.

Then it was the spin of Ashley Hulme and Kevin Murphy, who made sure that Thirsk were never going to get close to the target, although it has to be said that they never looked like succumbing either as they saw out the overs, and just ensured they got extra points for reaching three quarters of their target.

Hulme took 3-50 and is already showing that he remains the key man in Goole's plans for the season and a return of 55 points from two games is a promising start to life in the top division.

For Thirsk, young Lee McEndry batted through 50 overs for an unbeaten 58 and Sean Holmes made 30, but there was never any acceleration due to good bowling.

The intensity goes up another notch on Saturday when fellow promoted side, champions Stamford Bridge visit Westfield, a tie twelve months ago, are we in for another classic?