TWO Australians with a longstanding association with Skipton have been paying a nostalgic visit to Craven this summer and renewing some old acquaintances, while at the same time, forging some new friendships.

John Graham and Scott Fletcher first visited Skipton in the 1980s when they were guest overseas players for Skipton Cricket Club at Sandylands.

It is not unusual for English Club Sides to bolster their teams with talented overseas cricketers but the difference here is that John and Scott were Australians from Skipton ; Skipton Australia that is .

So back in 1986 John thought it a good idea for there to be a cricket match between teams from the two Skiptons when a team from Western Plains Australia, which is the region of Victoria State where the antipodean Skipton is to be found, were touring. Skipton is about 30 miles from Ballarat and 100 from Melbourne.

So 33 years ago on July 13, 1986 a ‘Micro Ashes Match’ took place at Sandylands.

John and Scott, who were born in Skipton Australia, along with their wives Jill and Joan and another friend from Skipton Australia, Graeme Rooney, are spending the summer in Craven renewing old friendships along with watching the Ashes Cricket.

Brian Stott and the members of Skipton Craven Rotary Club invited the five of them to join them at their recent club meeting.

By coincidence the guest speaker was Tim Wilman and his subject was ‘cricket in the amateur era’.

Tim was President of Skipton (England) Cricket Club in the 1980s so he and the Australian visitors were especially pleased to meet up with each other gain after such a long time. The talk given by Tim was highly entertaining for both English and Australians .

John brought with him the scorecard for the 1986 Match together with a photograph of the Australian Team outside the Skipton England Pavilion and a photograph of both teams taken from the Craven Herald in the week after the match. Sadly for the Yorkshire Skipton the Australians were the victors by the margin of 37 runs.

Many will recognise the names of the English eleven captained by John Pearson and in fact the top scorer for them on that day with 49, Andrew Facey is still playing for Skipton this season.

The Craven Herald of July 18, 1986, reported the match under the headline: Skipton Aussies win Ashes!

It was a ‘unique encounter’ reported the paper, adding it was the players from ‘down-under’, travelling on the first ever world tour by the Western Plains Cricket Association who triumphed over the Aire-Wharfe League side.

The Australian side batted first, and reached 220 all out, a score of which they were not too optimistic of winning with. Their star batsman, 20 year old banker, Tim Alexander achieved 81, followed by Robbie Osborne with 27 and John Graham with 24.

The Yorkshire side started badly, but looked good at 105 for two, especially as they had beaten Follifoot in the Aire-Wharfe League the day before, and had not yet scored less than 200 in a game.

But the Australian’s Tim Alexander turned out to be man of the match when he knocked the stuffing out of the Skipton batting order, his leg spin bowling capturing threw wickets in just two overs.

Skipton ended all out on 183 in their 56th over. Andrew Facey was unlucky to miss his 50 by getting out on 49, and John Toothill got 41 for the Englishmen.

So, the Skipton test series ended in a one nil victory for the Australians, who were keen to give the Yorkshiremen a chance to even the score with a return match in their own Skipton.

The Englishmen were keen to go, but a little worried about the cost, as well they might be, the visitors had each paid £3,000 to take part in the tour.

Home captain John Pearson said he would be ready to head for Australia, if former Skipton player and current Leicestershire player James Whitaker was selected to play in the other Ashes tour down under in the winter.

Skipton, Australia, had a population at the time of just 400, and had one pub, two banks and a couple of general stores. Many of the players , who stayed two nights in Skipton’s Devonshire Hotel, were farmers, shearers or stockmen and many had gone for shearing practice at the West Marton farm of club president, Richard Greenwood.

Gifts, both featuring sheep, were exchanged by the two clubs.