Left-hand spinner Gurman Randhawa, above, eased the pressure on Yorkshire after a hard day of leather-hunting in their Second Eleven Championship match against Worcestershire.


Day 1: Licking their wounds after their nine-wicket defeat by Yorkshire the previous day at Bingley, the visitors decamped to the attractive ground at Todmorden for the second engagement of their Yorkshire tour - the three-day Second Eleven Championship match.
With the previous day in mind and damp conditions prevailing, it was no surprise that Worcestershire were put in again when their captain lost the toss after the start had been delayed for three quarters of an hour. A couple of dozen runs were scored and no wicket lost in the 40 minutes before more rain forced the players from the field. The interruption lasted for an hour and a quarter, with five overs lost.
The first wicket was captured with 45 on the board - surely the beginning of the predicted collapse? - but 168 runs were added before the second wicket was taken and 138 before the third, both partnerships becoming Championship records for Worcestershire against Yorkshire. Some collapse!
Opener Matthew Pardoe fell two short of a century that was there for the taking - he was trapped leg-before by Randhawa - but captain Neil Pinner sailed past that mark and consigned the highest individual score record to the bin, passing a century and a half before falling in the fifth over bowled by Gary Ballance - the seventh bowler tried.
The capture of Pinner’s wicket, the third, at 351 opened the window for the bowlers and Randhawa in particular: he switched ends after delivering 23 overs from the school end and took two more wickets in a spell of 32 dot balls...4-123 sounds so much better than 1-123!
The day ended with Worcestershire on 374 with four wickets in hand. With three batting records under their belt and a fourth beckoning they will remember Todmorden. The bowlers will be keen to emulate their teammates.

Second XI Championship Yorkshire v Worcestershire

Tuesday, July 27 2010 (11:45) at Centre Vale, Todmorden

Day 1 (Close of Play) Worcestershire 374 for 6 (99.0 overs)

Yorkshire won toss and decided to field

Worcestershire (1st Innings)	Yorkshire (1st Innings)
374 for 6 (99.0 overs)	0 for 0 (0.0 overs)
5 Hours, 35 Minutes.	0 Minutes.
Worcestershire (2nd Innings)	Yorkshire (2nd Innings)
0 for 0 (0.0 overs)	0 for 0 (0.0 overs)
0 Minutes.	0 Minutes.

Worcestershire (1st Innings)

Batsman			Runs	Balls	Mins	4s	6s	S/r
DA Wheeldon	lbw	b OJ Hannon-Dalby	11	34	59	2	0	32.35
MG Pardoe	lbw	b G Randhawa	98	149	194	15	2	65.77
ND Pinner*	c and b	GS Ballance	151	220	238	20	1	68.64
J Leach	c CJ Geldart	b G Randhawa	64	120	121	10	1	53.33
A Kapil	c CJ Geldart	b G Randhawa	10	18	13	2	0	55.56
N Patel	not out		8	32	26	1	0	25.00
AD Blofield	c GS Ballance	b G Randhawa	1	18	13	0	0	5.56
O Steele+	not out		0	12	8	0	0	0.00
HMR Peterson
CJ Russell
T Friend
T Kholer-Cadmore
Extras	18nb 6w 3lb 4b 0pen		31
Provisional Score For Innings			374
Penalties awarded following Innings			0
Total			374	for 6

Bowler	O	M	R	W	Wd	Nb	S/r	Econ
OJ Hannon-Dalby	16.0	3	57	1	0	0	96.00	3.56
JE Lee	15.0	2	60	0	3	0	0.00	4.00
LJ Hodgson	7.0	0	60	0	3	8	0.00	8.57
AE Lilley	5.0	2	7	0	0	0	0.00	1.40
JAR Blain	9.0	1	25	0	0	0	0.00	2.78
G Randhawa	34.0	8	123	4	0	1	51.25	3.62
GS Ballance	13.0	4	35	1	0	0	78.00	2.69

Batsman	Fall of Wicket	Partnership	Batsmen	Over
DA Wheeldon	1-45	45	DA Wheeldon (11) MG Pardoe (32)	14.2
MG Pardoe	2-213	168	MG Pardoe (66) ND Pinner (78)	48.6
ND Pinner	3-351	138	ND Pinner (73) J Leach (60)	82.5
A Kapil	4-364	13	A Kapil (10) J Leach (3)	87.5
J Leach	5-365	1	J Leach (1) N Patel (0)	89.2
AD Blofield	6-367	2	AD Blofield (1) N Patel (1)	95.1

Yorkshire (1st Innings)

Batsman			Runs	Balls	Mins	4s	6s	S/r
JJ Sayers
CJ Geldart
GS Ballance
WT Root
AZ Lees
LJ Hodgson
AE Lilley
JE Lee
JR Lowe+
G Randhawa
OJ Hannon-Dalby
JAR Blain*
Extras	0nb 0w 0lb 0b 0pen		0
Provisional Score For Innings			0
Penalties awarded following Innings			0
Total			0	for 0

Words and Statistics: MICHAEL SNOOK

Thank you MCC, excellent info. I think I passed Todmorden the other week. I was driving from Bradford to Burnley on an incredibly picturesque road through some wonderful Yorkshire villages (made me think of bread adverts !) and there were a lot of cricket grounds. Some of these were 'below' road level to one side with hills and the like on the opposite side of the ground. Made me wish that I was still playing and that I could do a Yorkshire tour. I'm fairly certain that Todmorden was one of these grounds.