I had a good night at Travel Lodge located at the former junction between the A1 and the M62. I say former junction because the A1 now continues directly to the M62 or A1 without needing to get off at the roundabout and to reach service station it is necessary to join the M62 towards Hull and then take a slip road to the service station and Travel Lodge. Travelling towards Leeds it was more straightforward. Booking in at the Travel Lodges is also much easier these day as having paid in advance it is only necessary to provide name and address and then the vehicle number and where it is parked without having to fill in or sign any forms. I had had to pay more for this night as there were no £9's available in the area for the Saturday. The price £19.
I did some writing up and attempted to log on to the Wifi internet but without success and creating problems logging on my return. I also had a good night as I do not remember having to get up during the night until the early morning after which I went back to bed and slept for another couple of hours. I felt good after a cup of coffee and did some writing until ten am before giving myself a good all over wash, shave and hair tidy. I then set off towards Leeds discovering winds gusting at over 50 miles an hour. It was a very uncomfortable drive and I was glad there had not been need to drive from Hull. I left the motorway at the first opportunity which was the Rothwell Wakefield junction. I lived in Rothwell 1970 1971 when working the year for the West Riding of Yorkshire Children's before the first of the great reorganisations. (According to the rules I have set myself, writing about why the stay was so short will be limited as well as commenting in public what I found when I commenced the appointment. It helps that the local authority has been abolished and key individuals are no longer alive but there are necessary restraints on what can and should be disclosed in public although I found a way of drawing to the attention of officialdom certain things at the time). I have visited the outside of the house where I lived. It was a detached house and surrounded on all sides by a rhubarb field. The double garage had a inspection pit! When I visited a few years ago, it had a modern make over and looked fabulous and I guess cost significantly more than the £5000 paid, £350000 and not a penny less I wager.
The drive therefore between Rothwell and Leeds was familiar although my weekday journey had been in the opposite direction towards Wakefield. The departure to Cheshire might not have taken placed had I not signed a contract with them on the day of my interview for my next position as within days of doing so I was short listed for the position of Director of Social Services at Dewsbury which I was told I was to have been appointed because the new Committee Chairman had got to know and like me through my role in child care although I did not know any of this until later. I was also short listed at South Shields. While I did think about these things on my journey into Leeds, it was fleetingly as the wind was still strong and I needed to join the cross city motorway. I came off too early and ended going close to the city station before going westwards along a road unknown to me where there were some interesting new buildings. Some offices had been created in stone designs which fitted into the Victorian character of the old Leeds city centre. There was also some very contemporary structures including a major tower building which I was only able to view in the distance. In the area of the direction of travel was the Leeds international standard swimming pool, yet another sprouting up in the north in an attempt to develop one of our Olympic strength sports still further.
I then saw a sign towards Headingley but became hopelessly lost in the area for a while as it is full of Victorian leafy middle class villas in large grounds although the properties close to the Kirkstall Lane End are very different. However I am getting ahead of myself. Coming off the motorway I had been hungry and regretted that I did not make a flask of coffee using the coffee, milk and sugar provided in the Travel Lodge rooms. I pulled into a parking areas and eat the prawn sandwich bought for such a situation, but left a banana, the last Eccles cake and opening a carton of dried figures until later. Arriving in Headingley I headed for where I parked the vehicle in the past when approached from the A1M into North Leeds and then across the northern part of the city using the ring road to the junction with Harrogate and then take a road passing through Meanwood and stopping just before the Leeds Skipton Road and the Headingley suburban shopping centre which as a local community village atmosphere. Here there are large properties in substantial grounds leaving plenty of room to park if one is early enough.
It is then a short walk to the main road and along past the Arndale Shopping precinct. This is just a long row of shops with a car park above and a major business House several stories in Height which is unusual for the neighbourhood and everywhere else is the normal two storey shops and businesses. The shops continue at a junction towards the cricket ground complex with the Rugby ground not just adjacent but the main Cricket Stand is back to back with a Rugby stand. In the immediate neighbourhood of the cricket ground and shopping area are back to back tenements three and four storey buildings which have become multioccupational units used by students at the two universities and by young professionals and officer workers. This is reflected in the mixture of inexpensive cafes and trendy bars intermingled with shopping facilities for the rest of the population. It was sometime before the ground opened at 12.30 with the game starting at 2.30, so I went to find somewhere for an early Sunday lunch and quickly found the ideal facility. A pub restaurant proudly offering a choice of main courses for £2.99. There was a small public access car park available during the day time but on the wrong side of the road for a quick get away but there were a few car parking spaces available on the main road opposite. I therefore decided to return to my vehicle and bring it to this location.
In order to park in the right direction I tool the first right turn and only after doing so realised it was one way so had to continue on, taking the first left and then the first right and bingo I was in a street with the cricket ground entrance immediately ahead and there were parking spaces available. Fortune favours the explorer. Taking a notebook and two pens but leaving everything else I set off for lunch. The establishment whose name I forgot to note appears to cater for students and their parents when visiting as was the instance in the tables around me. There were large video screens playing music and also silent Sky sports channel TV's. Although ordering at the bar, the tables were unnumbered so one had to indicate where one was sitting and handed eating utensils and a small bucket full of sauces and condiments. The menu was extensive and reasonably price with a roast Sunday lunch and an unspecified drink for less than £5. I fancied three sausages on a mound of mash potato and onion gravy for £2.99 and some orange juice where the standard offering was a reasonable 99p but a full pint with ice and a chunk of fresh orange just £1.50, making the whole meal also under £5.
In such a situation one cannot but help overhear surrounding conversations and a girl was telling a parent the virtues of a Travel Lodge where rooms were only £50. I resisted the temptation to mention about my £9 a night rooms! Given this self restraint I should have been rewarded by the pens working, but although one did, it stopped within a half a page of note making. I decided to change plans and after enjoying the food and drink set off back to the car but beforehand found a we are never closed have everything store, where I bought four pens in a pack for 99 pence. The weather at this time was unpromising, with rain bearing clouds constantly overhead but because of the wind they were being driven incessantly away revealing occasional bursts of sunshine.
I decided I needed the toilet and a coffee so made my way to the entrance where there are traditional turnstile entry points mainly for Members but one headed adults and the other concessions , which raised the question of which was used if buying a family ticket! I paid £10 and was delighted that unlike at Durham the ticket was open for the whole ground except for Members areas, although as a Durham member I could also use and Member facilities in general, although not appropriate for partisan one day games. I selected a seat midway between wickets on the side nearest to the wicket and half way up or down the stand so that there was some protection from continuing fierce wind. I was also able to get an end of aisle seat and parking my shoulder bag went off to the gents and then for a good cup of coffee at £1.50 the price I pay for a packet of Coffee at the supermarket!
The Headingley ground has changed considerably over the years. For Test Matches I would book tickets at the Winter shed top tier, a stand over looking the wicket. There was lower level seating and then some hospitality boxes and then the main area of stand under which there was an under cover refreshment area also useful if the weather was poor. At some point in the eighties corporate business took to cricket and the stand appeared to fill up with business parties with guests provided picnic hampers and what appeared to been continuous and unlimited wine and beer. The atmosphere became very lively as the day progressed and predominantly masculine and competitive. The visits to watch Durham play at the Yorkshire County Ground in the 1990's were much more enjoyable as there was room to spread and visitors to the ground were welcomed by the local members where we could chat about respective misfortunes. Yorkshire failed to get back to its former glory days when it competed for the top honours with Middlesex and Surrey, and rival Lancashire for the annual battles of the red and white roses. The reason for this was the commendable policy of only allowing players who were born in Yorkshire to play for the County.
There was then a great improvement with new banked stand the side length of one side of the ground and then an all singing and dancing electronic and now digital scoreboard. From this stand one could look over to the players' pavilion, a free standing two storey building opposite and then in the corner there was building outside ground with seats on a veranda with good views into the playing area. Sometimes on the other side of the scoreboard a tall temporary four storey structure would be created to provide hospitality boxes for the Test Match. Now the player's pavilion had made way for a new stand which obscures the view from outside the ground and there is a permanent structure of similar dimensions for hospitality. At one point there had been a plan to create a new ground on the outskirts of the city as there was for Leeds football with sites selected and planning permission obtained. In relation to the cricket the Membership were opposed so the plan was dropped and a new sponsor found hence the renaming as Headingley Carnegie.
There has not been great rivalry between Durham and Yorkshire Members until thee last couple of years when Martyn Moxon the Director of Cricket at Durham was able to return to Yorkshire as their Director mid season. There was no animosity as it was recognised he had been responsible for the great turn around in the performances of the team. Geoff Cook who had has been with Durham for sometime and was number two took over and immediately capitalised on the work undertaken by Martyn resulting in the first piece of major silverware, closely followed by the second. I was therefore surprised by the partisanship shown by the Yorkshire supporters during the afternoon and which was very one sided as there were only a handful of Durham supporters who decided discretion was the best approach, although one young lad close to me could not contain his enthusiasm much to the horror of his parents.
The game was an extraordinary one in that it was a closely fought contest between two well matched teams. Yorkshire has the English Captain Michael Vaughan, destined for a knighthood when he retires, the Yorkshire and cricket fanatic Darren Gough and fast bowler Matthew Hoggard while Durham had Shaun Pollock who was a major figure of interest for the crowd… he has 300 test wickets told one dad to his son and Steve Harmison received a mixed reaction because of erratic performances for England in the past. This was an important match because either team winning would head the table in a division where four of six teams were competing hard for the two definite places and the one of three likely place in the last eight knock out competition. Durham bowled well enough but there were too many extras and silly fielding mistakes. Steve got four wickets although his final figures were misleading because three of the wickets were in the last over and players went for big hits to increase the final tall which was a respectable 169 for 7.
This seemed inadequate as Durham raced to 50 for no wicket at 10 runs an over and then they fell apart to a mixture of excellent bowling especially from Malcolm Pryrah whose 4 for 20 was exceptional and some poor shot choices especially from Morkel, Blenkenstein and Pollock. The game swung decidedly in favour of Yorkshire with 14 runs required to win in the final over. A four and a two raised hopes but a single in the penultimate ball dashed spirits as a six was needed to tie the game. Breese whose six had won the quarter final in the Friends Provident did it again as his hit clattered the boundary board for six It was one point each and Durham remained at the top.
During the game I was distracted by a battle which developed between the crowd safety stewards, children autograph seekers and the players on both sides. The players wanted to cooperate and in fairness they told the children to stay below the safety boards during play and indicated they had time to sign one autograph if they were not involved in play such as when a four was hits in other parts of the ground or between overs, However the children realising that there were more of them than signing opportunity were anxious not to miss out and ignored the requests of Stewards and players and were told to move away roughly every two overs only to return, sometimes in greater number. I blame the club for not making clear the position over the public address system and the parents who could see what was happening and did nothing to discourage the children or assist them.
I left the ground and was in my car and away in twinkling and having decided to return home and not take up the booked place in the city centre. I made my way to the ring road but decided against the Harrogate route and continued to join the A1 at Wetherby which has been extended to three lanes. I decided to try for a sandwich and a drink at Scots Corner and came off the motor way but missed the turning went round again and took the wrong turning and ended back on the A1M again without making the stop. I therefore continued to Durham City Motorway services which is to one side of the road way enabling traffic in both directions to use and which now boasts free Wifi but a penalty if you stay for more than two hours. It was here I came face to face with the full cost of the rise in fuel and food. A pot of coffee was £2.25, a sandwich £3 and over. A fast food selection was similar at £5 for a burger, chips and drink. I held my breath and continued home. It had been a good day and mini break.
I did some writing up and attempted to log on to the Wifi internet but without success and creating problems logging on my return. I also had a good night as I do not remember having to get up during the night until the early morning after which I went back to bed and slept for another couple of hours. I felt good after a cup of coffee and did some writing until ten am before giving myself a good all over wash, shave and hair tidy. I then set off towards Leeds discovering winds gusting at over 50 miles an hour. It was a very uncomfortable drive and I was glad there had not been need to drive from Hull. I left the motorway at the first opportunity which was the Rothwell Wakefield junction. I lived in Rothwell 1970 1971 when working the year for the West Riding of Yorkshire Children's before the first of the great reorganisations. (According to the rules I have set myself, writing about why the stay was so short will be limited as well as commenting in public what I found when I commenced the appointment. It helps that the local authority has been abolished and key individuals are no longer alive but there are necessary restraints on what can and should be disclosed in public although I found a way of drawing to the attention of officialdom certain things at the time). I have visited the outside of the house where I lived. It was a detached house and surrounded on all sides by a rhubarb field. The double garage had a inspection pit! When I visited a few years ago, it had a modern make over and looked fabulous and I guess cost significantly more than the £5000 paid, £350000 and not a penny less I wager.
The drive therefore between Rothwell and Leeds was familiar although my weekday journey had been in the opposite direction towards Wakefield. The departure to Cheshire might not have taken placed had I not signed a contract with them on the day of my interview for my next position as within days of doing so I was short listed for the position of Director of Social Services at Dewsbury which I was told I was to have been appointed because the new Committee Chairman had got to know and like me through my role in child care although I did not know any of this until later. I was also short listed at South Shields. While I did think about these things on my journey into Leeds, it was fleetingly as the wind was still strong and I needed to join the cross city motorway. I came off too early and ended going close to the city station before going westwards along a road unknown to me where there were some interesting new buildings. Some offices had been created in stone designs which fitted into the Victorian character of the old Leeds city centre. There was also some very contemporary structures including a major tower building which I was only able to view in the distance. In the area of the direction of travel was the Leeds international standard swimming pool, yet another sprouting up in the north in an attempt to develop one of our Olympic strength sports still further.
I then saw a sign towards Headingley but became hopelessly lost in the area for a while as it is full of Victorian leafy middle class villas in large grounds although the properties close to the Kirkstall Lane End are very different. However I am getting ahead of myself. Coming off the motorway I had been hungry and regretted that I did not make a flask of coffee using the coffee, milk and sugar provided in the Travel Lodge rooms. I pulled into a parking areas and eat the prawn sandwich bought for such a situation, but left a banana, the last Eccles cake and opening a carton of dried figures until later. Arriving in Headingley I headed for where I parked the vehicle in the past when approached from the A1M into North Leeds and then across the northern part of the city using the ring road to the junction with Harrogate and then take a road passing through Meanwood and stopping just before the Leeds Skipton Road and the Headingley suburban shopping centre which as a local community village atmosphere. Here there are large properties in substantial grounds leaving plenty of room to park if one is early enough.
It is then a short walk to the main road and along past the Arndale Shopping precinct. This is just a long row of shops with a car park above and a major business House several stories in Height which is unusual for the neighbourhood and everywhere else is the normal two storey shops and businesses. The shops continue at a junction towards the cricket ground complex with the Rugby ground not just adjacent but the main Cricket Stand is back to back with a Rugby stand. In the immediate neighbourhood of the cricket ground and shopping area are back to back tenements three and four storey buildings which have become multioccupational units used by students at the two universities and by young professionals and officer workers. This is reflected in the mixture of inexpensive cafes and trendy bars intermingled with shopping facilities for the rest of the population. It was sometime before the ground opened at 12.30 with the game starting at 2.30, so I went to find somewhere for an early Sunday lunch and quickly found the ideal facility. A pub restaurant proudly offering a choice of main courses for £2.99. There was a small public access car park available during the day time but on the wrong side of the road for a quick get away but there were a few car parking spaces available on the main road opposite. I therefore decided to return to my vehicle and bring it to this location.
In order to park in the right direction I tool the first right turn and only after doing so realised it was one way so had to continue on, taking the first left and then the first right and bingo I was in a street with the cricket ground entrance immediately ahead and there were parking spaces available. Fortune favours the explorer. Taking a notebook and two pens but leaving everything else I set off for lunch. The establishment whose name I forgot to note appears to cater for students and their parents when visiting as was the instance in the tables around me. There were large video screens playing music and also silent Sky sports channel TV's. Although ordering at the bar, the tables were unnumbered so one had to indicate where one was sitting and handed eating utensils and a small bucket full of sauces and condiments. The menu was extensive and reasonably price with a roast Sunday lunch and an unspecified drink for less than £5. I fancied three sausages on a mound of mash potato and onion gravy for £2.99 and some orange juice where the standard offering was a reasonable 99p but a full pint with ice and a chunk of fresh orange just £1.50, making the whole meal also under £5.
In such a situation one cannot but help overhear surrounding conversations and a girl was telling a parent the virtues of a Travel Lodge where rooms were only £50. I resisted the temptation to mention about my £9 a night rooms! Given this self restraint I should have been rewarded by the pens working, but although one did, it stopped within a half a page of note making. I decided to change plans and after enjoying the food and drink set off back to the car but beforehand found a we are never closed have everything store, where I bought four pens in a pack for 99 pence. The weather at this time was unpromising, with rain bearing clouds constantly overhead but because of the wind they were being driven incessantly away revealing occasional bursts of sunshine.
I decided I needed the toilet and a coffee so made my way to the entrance where there are traditional turnstile entry points mainly for Members but one headed adults and the other concessions , which raised the question of which was used if buying a family ticket! I paid £10 and was delighted that unlike at Durham the ticket was open for the whole ground except for Members areas, although as a Durham member I could also use and Member facilities in general, although not appropriate for partisan one day games. I selected a seat midway between wickets on the side nearest to the wicket and half way up or down the stand so that there was some protection from continuing fierce wind. I was also able to get an end of aisle seat and parking my shoulder bag went off to the gents and then for a good cup of coffee at £1.50 the price I pay for a packet of Coffee at the supermarket!
The Headingley ground has changed considerably over the years. For Test Matches I would book tickets at the Winter shed top tier, a stand over looking the wicket. There was lower level seating and then some hospitality boxes and then the main area of stand under which there was an under cover refreshment area also useful if the weather was poor. At some point in the eighties corporate business took to cricket and the stand appeared to fill up with business parties with guests provided picnic hampers and what appeared to been continuous and unlimited wine and beer. The atmosphere became very lively as the day progressed and predominantly masculine and competitive. The visits to watch Durham play at the Yorkshire County Ground in the 1990's were much more enjoyable as there was room to spread and visitors to the ground were welcomed by the local members where we could chat about respective misfortunes. Yorkshire failed to get back to its former glory days when it competed for the top honours with Middlesex and Surrey, and rival Lancashire for the annual battles of the red and white roses. The reason for this was the commendable policy of only allowing players who were born in Yorkshire to play for the County.
There was then a great improvement with new banked stand the side length of one side of the ground and then an all singing and dancing electronic and now digital scoreboard. From this stand one could look over to the players' pavilion, a free standing two storey building opposite and then in the corner there was building outside ground with seats on a veranda with good views into the playing area. Sometimes on the other side of the scoreboard a tall temporary four storey structure would be created to provide hospitality boxes for the Test Match. Now the player's pavilion had made way for a new stand which obscures the view from outside the ground and there is a permanent structure of similar dimensions for hospitality. At one point there had been a plan to create a new ground on the outskirts of the city as there was for Leeds football with sites selected and planning permission obtained. In relation to the cricket the Membership were opposed so the plan was dropped and a new sponsor found hence the renaming as Headingley Carnegie.
There has not been great rivalry between Durham and Yorkshire Members until thee last couple of years when Martyn Moxon the Director of Cricket at Durham was able to return to Yorkshire as their Director mid season. There was no animosity as it was recognised he had been responsible for the great turn around in the performances of the team. Geoff Cook who had has been with Durham for sometime and was number two took over and immediately capitalised on the work undertaken by Martyn resulting in the first piece of major silverware, closely followed by the second. I was therefore surprised by the partisanship shown by the Yorkshire supporters during the afternoon and which was very one sided as there were only a handful of Durham supporters who decided discretion was the best approach, although one young lad close to me could not contain his enthusiasm much to the horror of his parents.
The game was an extraordinary one in that it was a closely fought contest between two well matched teams. Yorkshire has the English Captain Michael Vaughan, destined for a knighthood when he retires, the Yorkshire and cricket fanatic Darren Gough and fast bowler Matthew Hoggard while Durham had Shaun Pollock who was a major figure of interest for the crowd… he has 300 test wickets told one dad to his son and Steve Harmison received a mixed reaction because of erratic performances for England in the past. This was an important match because either team winning would head the table in a division where four of six teams were competing hard for the two definite places and the one of three likely place in the last eight knock out competition. Durham bowled well enough but there were too many extras and silly fielding mistakes. Steve got four wickets although his final figures were misleading because three of the wickets were in the last over and players went for big hits to increase the final tall which was a respectable 169 for 7.
This seemed inadequate as Durham raced to 50 for no wicket at 10 runs an over and then they fell apart to a mixture of excellent bowling especially from Malcolm Pryrah whose 4 for 20 was exceptional and some poor shot choices especially from Morkel, Blenkenstein and Pollock. The game swung decidedly in favour of Yorkshire with 14 runs required to win in the final over. A four and a two raised hopes but a single in the penultimate ball dashed spirits as a six was needed to tie the game. Breese whose six had won the quarter final in the Friends Provident did it again as his hit clattered the boundary board for six It was one point each and Durham remained at the top.
During the game I was distracted by a battle which developed between the crowd safety stewards, children autograph seekers and the players on both sides. The players wanted to cooperate and in fairness they told the children to stay below the safety boards during play and indicated they had time to sign one autograph if they were not involved in play such as when a four was hits in other parts of the ground or between overs, However the children realising that there were more of them than signing opportunity were anxious not to miss out and ignored the requests of Stewards and players and were told to move away roughly every two overs only to return, sometimes in greater number. I blame the club for not making clear the position over the public address system and the parents who could see what was happening and did nothing to discourage the children or assist them.
I left the ground and was in my car and away in twinkling and having decided to return home and not take up the booked place in the city centre. I made my way to the ring road but decided against the Harrogate route and continued to join the A1 at Wetherby which has been extended to three lanes. I decided to try for a sandwich and a drink at Scots Corner and came off the motor way but missed the turning went round again and took the wrong turning and ended back on the A1M again without making the stop. I therefore continued to Durham City Motorway services which is to one side of the road way enabling traffic in both directions to use and which now boasts free Wifi but a penalty if you stay for more than two hours. It was here I came face to face with the full cost of the rise in fuel and food. A pot of coffee was £2.25, a sandwich £3 and over. A fast food selection was similar at £5 for a burger, chips and drink. I held my breath and continued home. It had been a good day and mini break.
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