Cricket: Metcalfe slow to make point

Yorkshire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .172-3

Cambridge University

THIS is an historical fixture, dating back to 1877, rightly revived after a gap of five years. Ray Illingworth first undermined it, arguing that if his team had to start the season with a month of Sundays, it made no sense to play three-day games against schoolboys.

Romantics will say that the link should never have been broken, for Cambridge is the university of Hawke, Jackson, Yardley, Gibb and Richard Hutton, among others, and therefore contributed to the foundation of the county club.

Yorkshire's batting was competitive after the county had been sent in on a pitch that was slow but could be two-paced. After the early demise of Martyn Moxon, Simon Kellett and Ashley Metcalfe, who are competing for the job of opening with the captain, shared a stand of 103 in 42 overs. Metcalfe, having lost out last year, was intent on consolidation, Kellett on audacity.

It was Kellett who attacked Cambridge's best bowler, the off- spinner Andy Whittall, driving him for successive straight fours and later lifting him for six in a similar direction. The sun was just breaking through when Whittall's arm-ball, a delivery that has already surprised Derbyshire, deceived Kellett, who no doubt felt, after an enterprising 53, that he had made his point.

Metcalfe refused to be hurried, taking 166 balls to reach his half century. His third partner, Craig White, got on to the front foot against the spinners, whereupon John Crawley put the clamp on any afternoon spree in the sun by recalling seam and tightening the field.

Metcalfe spent three hours between his third and fourth boundary, lost White caught behind, and was probably planning to expand fully after tea, with Richard Blakey, when the rain arrived just before five o'clock. He has so far spent 249 balls over his 77 not out.

Cambridge would be pleased with their day; in the field they look a better-than-average University team.

(Cambridge University won the toss)

YORKSHIRE - First Innings

*M D Moxon c Carroll b Pitcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A A Metcalfe not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

S A Kellett c Crawley b Whittall . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

C White c Arscott b Haste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

] R J Blakey not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Extras (b4 lb5 w1 nb6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Total (for 3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Fall: 1-5 2-108 3-147

To bat: D Byas, D Gough, P Carrick, J D Batty, M Broadhurst, S M Milburn.

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY: *J P Crawley, G W Jones, J P Carroll, G M Charlesworth, R Cake, J Leppard, J P Arscott, R M Pearson, A R Whittall, N J Haste, C M Pitcher.

Umpires: B J Meyer and M K Reed