Headingley

Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground

Fantasy Bob is at Headingley.  His worldwide readership will be familiar with the progress of the Test Match so he will not dwell on it here.

Here are some facts about the famous old ground.

Of the 26 innings over 300 in Test cricket 3 have been scored at Headingley.  This is a distinction it shares with St Johns in Antigua.  Bradman scored 300 twice in Headingley - in 1930 and 1934.  John Edrich scored the third in 1965.  Bradman's Test average at Headingley is 192.

Fred Trueman took 44 wickets here in 9 Tests, but the most successful bowler could be considered to be Malcolm Marshall who played 4 Tests here and took 23 wickets.

Pure Gold

The area of Headingley provided the locations for one of Fantasy Bob's all time favourite TV series, the Beiderbecke Affair,  the Beiderbecke Tapes and the Beiderbecke Connection.  This trilogy was produced by Yorkshire TV and scripted by Alan Plater.  James Bolam and Barbara Flynn were the leading actors.  FB cannot recommend it too highly (the episodes are available on YouTube).  It is pure gold.

The cricket ground itself featured as a location in Episode 4 of the Beiderbecke Connection with a match proceeding in the background.  FB suspects the match was Yorkshire v Sir Lanka which was played between 10 and 12 August 1988.   Sri Lanka are seen batting.  The match itself was drawn - Martin Moxon scored 132 and Kevin Sharp 128 for Yorkshire; Amal Silva got 112 for the Sri Lankans.  In those days Sri Lanka were only granted one Test match which duly took place at Lords 2 weeks later.  England won by 7 wickets.  That match saw Jack Russell make his Test debut.  Put in as night watchman he scored 94, his highest first class score and the highest innings in the match.