14 August 2015


Congratulations should go to Scarborough Cricket Club. Every summer they show there is a public appetite for county cricket when they host Yorkshire, and recently a holiday crowd of more than 5,300 watched the first day of the LV Championship match against Durham.

This year's 129th festival was described by club chairman Bill Mustoe as “one of the best”. More than 19,000 people passed through the turnstiles during the week for three days of the championship game and a one-dayer.
 
Mustoe said: “The good weather certainly helped, as well as the mammoth fixture between two title-challengers, which may have convinced some neutrals to come and watch one of the great games at North Marine Road. The Festival was a massive success for cricket, not just Yorkshire, as it proved that the longer format can still attract the sort of crowds that would only usually be seen at a T20 match.”

For cricket watchers, a trip to the grand old town of Scarborough is a 'must'. The uniquely evocative ground, near a road called Trafalgar Square, has steep terracing that allows exceptionally vivid views of play. The action seems close to the eye, and the verdant turf below the benches becomes a gladiatorial arena.

Yorkshire's coach Jason Gillespie was full of praise, reckoning that the club had produced the quickest and best pitch in the country. Club members had to devote hours to organisation for the influx of spectators and for the hospitality marquees that filled the open end of the horseshoe.

Yorkshire's progress to victory over Durham lived up to all expectations and provided the right entertainment. Mustoe said: “The LV County Championship game put every supporter through the full range of emotions. From despair as Yorkshire fell to 162 all out on the first afternoon, all the way to delight within just one day as Glenn Maxwell and Adil Rashid put on a 248-run partnership, breaking a 104-year-old sixth-wicket record at Scarborough.”

North Marine Road, king of the county outgrounds, is a short walk from the town centre, though anyone tempted to play golf at Ganton and watch Yorkshire play cricket on a sporting holiday should be warned that the use of a car on a cricket match day should be avoided at all cost.