by Helena Kaznowksa
The first event of Roses 2011 to be played on university soil was today’s men’s cricket match between York 2nds and Lancaster 2nds. Play looked dubious and spirits seemed dampened as a few spots of rain fell, but the bitter wind blew away any wet conditions and the game began. After losing the toss York batted first, but Andreas Papadolambakis was dismissed for 6 after his attempted short ball was caught. Tim Bierly was then caught from behind, leaving York with a score of 15-2. Nihal Patel played a crucial role in York’s batting success and completed his half century, but he was eventually given out LBW on 77. York then suffered a series of batting defeats as Ben Cooke was out for 44, Bartlett 149-5, Alsop for 34, Danny Cain out for 153-6 and Brunyard for 153-7. Raper was out for a duck and Charlie Clarke was the last man to go after he gained 4 runs. York were out for a respectable, but not outstanding 213 and Will Smith achieved 29 runs not out; an essential contribution to his team’s tally.
After a spot of tea and cake, Lancaster began batting. Tubby and Harvey’s attempts to beat York’s score looked easy as the batsmen reached 37 for 0 after just 5 overs. But eventually Harvey was caught out by Alsop at 78-1. Then came a quick succession of batsmen for Lancaster as Alsop caught out Purvis for 9. The score quickly became 98-2, then 109-3 and immediately 109-4; things were looking up for York.
Lancaster’s Halliwell was caught out at 151 for 5, then 6 before the away team became 180 for 7. From then on victory seemed inevitable as Lancaster worked relentlessly to achieve the 34 runs needed for success. At 217-7, Lancaster won two more points bringing the overall score up to 6:2 to Lancaster after the first day of Roses action.
Jack Aspden, Lancaster’s men’s 1sts cricket captain was supporting the seconds team today. Although Lancaster 1sts have lost the last two Roses encounters in cricket, Aspden felt confident the red rose would be victorious this year. He commented that “his team is looks very strong for tomorrow” with lots of fresh new talent, as the 1sts have “7 first years students”. York 1sts and Lancaster 1sts have not played each other in a year as they are in different BUCS leagues. In what promises to be a close and exciting match, head down to 22 acres at 11am tomorrow to watch the men’s 1sts cricket match. Alternatively, catch up with the action on yorkvision.co.uk, where there will be live blogging and match reports, or follow us on twitter (YorkVisionSport) for more Roses coverage.