Jonny Tattersall stars as Harrogate get Yorkshire League title boost despite ‘infuriating’ afternoon

Yorkshire’s Jonny Tattersall stood out from the crowd once again as ‘Gate profited from a rain-affected weekend to close the gap on their title rivals.

Under dark skies on the east coast, Harrogate grabbed the final Hull wicket in the nick of time to collect an 88-run victory and a maximum eight points.

“It was massively tense,” Ross said.

“Anyone who has been in that situation will know it’s massively frustrating for a cricketer.”

Clubs across the county were placed in the lap of the God’ last weekend as rain interrupted the fixture schedule.

Harrogate’s match was no different but they avoided the ignominy of an abandonment.

Tattersall, cracked 91 from just 82 balls after his skipper won the toss and elected to bat.

David Foster (60) and Nick Taylor (60) also found boundaries easy to come by to take the score to 339-9.

Hull were immediately on the back foot in their reply as Russell White castled Tim Appleyard with the first ball but the innings soon became fragmented by rain delays.

When the players were on the field, Dave Watkin continued to frustrate Harrogate’s progress with 94 but his wicket on 153-4 sparked a collapse to 204-9.

With ‘Gate frantically trying to prize out Hull’s last pair, the players were taken from the field under a dark rain cloud.

But, at 7.24pm, the heavens closed and following the resumption, left-arm spinner David Foster took the wicket of tailender Chris Louder for 51 almost immediately.

To Gate’s delight, Barnsley, Rotherham Town, and Yorkshire Academy were all rained off, allowing Gate to climb back into the championship race.

Ross added: “It was the most infuriating day, there were dark clouds all around just like Armageddon. Luckily, we got back on and wrapped it up.”

Harrogate could put themselves further back into the promotion mix this weekend should they take maximum points in two away trips.

Ross leads his side to Castleford on Saturday, before a trip to Sheffield Collegiate on Sunday.

Despite moving within 11 points of leaders Barnsley, Ross remained low-key on his side’s title chances.

He added: “I’m still fairly relaxed now. I have already conceded the title so there’s no pressure on us.

“But to have the top three teams get rained off, that’s done us no harm at all. For us to get eight points was very important.”