One Thousandth Game Blog

Warwickshire 155 all out 

v Yorkshire 108 all out 

Warwickshire 176 all out 

Yorkshire 117 all out 

Warwickshire win by 106 runs 

County Championship Division 1 

Wednesday 15 September 2021 

Played at Headingley 

That seems a fitting way to mark the milestone. An absolutely shit display by my team. To slump to defeat. With ex players knocking the nails in. Effectively ending our season. Followed by a what the fuck is going on set of chaotic exchanges with barstaff to get a beer. Fitting.

You see, using my own Carrier Bag Firm counting system, that is the One Thousandth game/game day I have Blogged from. And, I'm quite pleased with myself. I've been keeping a little stats ticker going at the bottom of each Blog for some time. And I could see the 1,000 milestone approaching. But what with the possibility of Covid Cancellations, cricket rain days, mad trips to U23 games at a moment's notice, I couldn't accurately predict with which BALL or which SUP I'd make it. It was on a seven wickets in a morning fiasco at Headingley and a this is Kirkstall Pale, even though it says Abbott Ale on the clip, fiasco in The Golden Beam.

In short, my One Thousandth game Blog was a BALLS UP.

The Golden Beam, Headingley Ln., Headingley, Leeds LS6 1BL

is the fairly new Wetherspoons on the way to Headingley. Cavernous place. Sympathetic renovation I think. A very long bar front. On which there are two sets of handpulls doubling up & duplicating each other. Abbott, Ruddles and Doom Bar as the core. Kirkstall (2 from) & Leeds Brewery as the local guests. So, 12 pumps, 12 clips. But nothing is labelled from the staff's side. Read that again. They can't see which beer is which from their side.

"Pint of Kirkstall Pale please"

"Janet, which line is the Pale on?"

"Three I think"

*pulls pint from what is clearly labelled as Abbott on my side*

"Whoa, that's Abbott isn't it?"

"Oh, they must have put the wrong clip on"

*grabbing clip, taking it off, turning it around & reading it*

"It's the pale on three"

*pulls brown pint*

"That's not Kirkstall Pale"

"Should be, it's from line three"

Eventually, we shook hands on the

Leeds Brewery, Yorkshire Gold on Cask at 4%

I chose that because the pump clip on my side miraculously coincided with the deciphered line numbering system on their side. And wait, the first pull on the first phalanx of handpulls came out as water. So they had to switch to the others. Lots of head. Not particularly clear. Bit of a short measure. 

You can't run a bar like that. You just can't.

But, no lie, nice beer. Much more hoppy bitter in the end than I'd expected.

A Yorkshire win would have kept us in the County Championship race. And/or the race for the Top Two and five days out at Lord's for the CBF at the Bob Willis Trophy Final. Even though it was shit, this game was not lost this morning. Only seven wickets left. Chasing loads. Warwickshire bowlers rested on a rain day Tuesday. That always looked a tall order, having lost the game on the first two days. 

That's what you have to do to win pots & shields. Win from tricky positions. When Ballance went to the third ball of the morning. While I was still having a piss I might add. There was just no way from there. 

In the end, the 117 did at least beat the first innings 108. But, fuck me, that tells the tale of the game doesn't it? Tim Bresnan (ex player) took six catches at slip. And also had Dom Bess lbw. Will Rhodes (ex player) took the final catch. Yorkshire man of the match should therefore jointly go to Harry Duke (8 runs from 9 balls) and Gary Ballance (21 from 47) for being the only dismissals NOT to feature an ex Yorkie.

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Stats

I have now Blogged from 1,000 games in 2,584 days