Shoddy & Mungo

In Dewsbury, just outside Huddersfield, there’s a massive factory building (which is now flats) with big white letters proclaiming Shoddy & Mungo Manufacturers. I pointed it out to Neil and Sleazy, asking if they’d buy anything from them. Neil said he’d definitely not buy a Shoddy bike.

That was on the way home from the cricket. The second day of the first test between England and Sri Lanka at Headingley. And what an amazing day of cricket it was.

Day one had seen most of the England batsman failing to make a start but a heroic stand by Hales and some wonderful recovery batting by Bairstow made things look a little less than bleak. Headingley is Bairstow’s home ground and he really wanted to score a century so Day two held the possibility of a wonderful cricketing reward.

For us, waking up in Colin and Frances’ lovely home, the promise of a cooked breakfast had us downstairs, crowding the kitchen where Colin was getting everything ready for Steve. Steve was to be our chef while Colin only normally walks into the kitchen to get to the room opposite. Fortunately Colin had Frances to point him in the right direction. Well, before she headed off to work.

After a substantial breakfast our ever growing group (in size as well as number) headed up to the station to catch the first of many trains for the day.

Rather than joining the throng entering the ground, we had our first beer at a pub oddly called Skyrack. While here, I had a call from the plumber, Jem, saying he’d come round to the house to fix the radiator in the lounge today. Fortunately Mirinda was there, working from home. He told me to enjoy the cricket and the beer and not to think about him working hard all day.

Talking of beer…we managed to find the Black Sheep beer tent as soon as we entered the ground!

Sleazy and his red jacket

This is quite a rarity. Usually the beer at test matches is a bit weak and bordering on tasteless. Black Sheep ale is one of the best and makes the day just a little bit brighter. In order to make it as bright as possible, we drank it all day.

Eventually we took our seats…and what brilliant seats! A few steps up and straight across. Perfectly placed to watch the cricket and the antics of the costumed brigade in the block next to us. This year the Headingley people have sequestered the people who wear costumes into one block in order to keep control better. Apparently it’s the people who dress up that cause the most trouble. The best thing about that is you can see everything happening rather than have to search the stands for the most interesting action when the game starts to wain.

Not that there was a lot of ‘waining’ this year. The cricket was marvellous. Unless you happen to be a Sri Lankan, in which case it was awful. Bairstow made his century to rapturous applause and then went on his swashbuckling way to a well played 140. England wound up all out 298. While this is not what you’d call a massive test innings, it was far better than it looked like being earlier on. England’s batsmen had not really turned up and if not for Hales and Bairstow, the picture could have been very different.

Headingly England v Sri Lanka 1st test day 2

So then Sri Lanka came in and it was boys against men (and, oddly enough, a lot of the Sri Lankan players looked to be about three feet tall). Wickets tumbled, catches taken, James Anderson, godlike…it was all over in short time. Sri Lanka only managed 91 runs. England sent them back in to follow on. The weather has been forecast as pretty dire for the next few days and we reckoned the England team wanted to wrap it up by the end of play today.

A happy Nicktor

Sadly, that was not to be. The umpires called bad light not long after the restart and we all went home. Actually, it was quite dark but they did have the floodlights on so why they couldn’t keep going, we do not know. Still, it was a very happy group of us that made its way back to the Skyrack for a couple of beers before heading to the station for the train.

This was a wise move as it meant a not so crowded train back to Leeds centre then on to Huddersfield where we stopped at the Head of Steam (for old times sake) for a swift couple of beers before grabbing a taxi back to Colin’s place.

A splendid day, yet again.

I think I should mention that the company wasn’t called Shoddy and Mungo. Shoddy and mungo are two types of wool products that were manufactured in the Dewsbury factory in the mid to late 19th century. The company was ACTUALLY called Machell’s Shoddy and Mungo Manufacturers. Shame. Still…I thought Neil’s remark was delightful and did make me laugh.

Speaking of Neil, he reminded us that he and I have been coming up for the cricket for 11 years now. I find that extraordinary but it does explain why they all know me.

Yorkshire Tea band – with cups on their heads