YP Letters: Dry days so why no play at Headingley?

From: Rob Carlton, De Pinte, Belgium.
The outfield at Headingley.The outfield at Headingley.
The outfield at Headingley.

AS a long-time supporter of Yorkshire cricket, it had been with dismay and mounting resignation that I have been noting the cancellation of play at Headingley for each of the four days of the Championship fixture against county champions Essex.

From what I can gather, it hasn’t rained in Leeds during this four-day spell, although a long period of wet weather preceded the fixture.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, your own paper reported in 2008 that ‘Yorkshire have been given a £600,000 grant to install state-of-the-art drainage at Headingley Carnegie, which should allow play to recommence much more quickly after rain interruptions’ – and this drainage system was installed the following winter.

How come, then, that a system that is less than a decade old is struggling to remove water from the outfield after three days without rain?

Given the natural slope of the ground away from the Kirkstall Lane end, I expect that the drainage system will have been engineered to take advantage of that slope to shift water away towards the Rugby Stand end.

That end is now being redeveloped, photos of which indicate the building site extended, at least during the winter, up to the boundary near the White Rose Stand.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I find it difficult to ignore the suspicion, therefore, that work on the new development may have blocked or at least compromised the outflows of the drains on the White Rose Stand side of the ground.

Information has been scarce, but what I have read has put all the blame on bad weather. I think it is fair to say that rain in Leeds is not unusual, whereas four dry days of a Championship match without play does seem extraordinary.

Why subsidise lazy children?

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

THE redoubtable Jayne Dowle supports the idea of free bus travel for children, justifying her views by regaling us with a tedious narrative of her own childhood (The Yorkshire Post, April 16).

She then tells us that she “reeled in shock” when her (presumably strapping) 15-year-old son Jack was charged £1.90 for a bus journey of less than two miles. Poor little chap!

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Perhaps she should have pointed out to him that he could have simply walked into town, saved his pocket money and been much healthier as a result of what, for him, would have been no more than a 20 minute trot.

But then walking is as much of an “alien concept” to today’s children as bus travel, isn’t it?

Why should tax-paying old age pensioners like me subsidise perfectly fit but lazy children by giving them free bus travel they obviously don’t need or (as Jayne quite rightly says) don’t even want?

Powell’s views belong in past

From: John Appleyard, Liversedge.

RACISM was rife in the UK during the 1960s with a colour bar and discrimination in housing and employment, and the 1968 Race Relations Act was brought in by a Labour government to counter this racism.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Fifty years ago Enoch Powell made his speech against immigration and Europe to a meeting of Tories in the West Midlands in what became known as his ‘rivers of blood’ speech.

He was sacked by Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath, but even today there are people who argue that ‘Enoch was right’.

Powell’s speech made racism look respectable and, in 1968, shortly after his speech, the far right National Front marched through Huddersfield and, according to their organisers, gained eight new members on the back of Powell’s speech. We then saw an upsurge of violence against immigrants.

Powell was an opportunist who was hoping one day to lead the Conservative Party. He failed miserably.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Racism still exists among some people but we have made advances in race relations by being far more tolerant with each other than we were in the days of Enoch Powell.

Corbyn and the Prince

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

OF course Jeremy Corbyn is going to say that Prince Charles should not be made Head of the Commonwealth. Mr Corbyn is almost a communist and clearly has plans to make himself president for life.

Any action which is in the interest of anyone who is not an follower of the left-wing of the Labour Party is an abhorrence to him. He cannot abide the upper classes and, in fact, anyone who does not vote for that part of the Labour Party he heads.

A menace underfoot

From: David Treacher, Hull.

EVERYWHERE I go, there are broken or loose paving stones. A broken pavement is worse than nothing at all, you stand more chance of breaking a bone than walking on a non-surface in the mud.

The councils seem to favour paving stones rather than using Tarmac which leaves a better surface. I come from Hull, and you get sick of having to watch your feet.