Arcadia Ale House

Yorkshire 329-9 declared v
Leeds & Bradford MCCU 202 all out
Yorkshire 293 all out
Leeds & Bradford MCCU 48-4

Match Drawn on a 5 o'clock handshake

Thursday  9 April 2015

Twitter @ball_sup

The Venue

Arcadia Ale House
34 Arndale Centre
Headingley
Leeds
LS6 2UE

A long term favourite of mine, based on beer range. New season, clean slate. Nicely furnished & inviting downstairs. Small bar frontage. 8 casks. Similar kegs (Belgians, Lager, Cider). Including two keg crafts from Abbeydale (on this occasion). Bar guy helpful. Let me take my time. Let me taste. University game. Early season. Not many in. But not "depressing" for that. Still a top hit.

The Beer

Okells MPA on cask at 3.6%. Some initial sweetness in the smell. Gives way to citrus, grapefruit tones, slight resin. Lovely small head. Nice & mouth filling. It's a sort of wrong way round beer. At first you get the bitterness, but then that softens out & the grapefruit kicks in. Further down, there's a nice dryness, straw. The finish kicks around your tastebuds. It's not dramatic, but it lingers nicely. As it goes on, I get a hint of ginger.

The match

Not sure. It seemed pretty pointless to press on after lunch. Pushing the lead North of 400. It'd be good to "practice" rolling over a side in under 2 sessions. But, it's difficult to dream up a game scenario where a team are after 420 odd in under 2. The so-called scoreboard pressure would be completely different.

So, in the end, centre net practice for all 11 batting. Disappointed. There was clearly an opportunity to get them in before Lunch & practice WINNING. They did have MCCU wobbling at 33-3. But couldn't press home.

Karl Carver has done 2 for 6 off 10, with 8 maidens. My untrained eye had Bresnan down as "lively".

Big tail wag, with Brooks getting 38 off 42. Not sure you can read much into that.

115/261