Mens Hockey County Championships 2011

This weekend Doncaster Hockey Club hosted some of the Division A Pool matches in the preliminary rounds of this year's County Championships. University of Birmingham hosted the other Division A Pool matches.

We went along to Donny to see Rich making his senior county debut - for Warwickshire. Here are a few photos from the match between the two top teams in the Pool - Warwickshire and Yorkshire.

There were a number of the Yorkshire side we knew - Rich and his brother had played in the Yorkshire County and North East Divisional junior teams with them a few years ago

Classy defender, Tim Deakin

 

Gear watched by his manager (and father), Roger

The "famous" Gear back swing

The talented Ollie Ward

 

University of Birmingham centre half, Will Byas on the ball

Gear takes on, and beats his man

Rich getting close attention from Tim

Warwickshire won 4-3 and qualified for the Finals. A job well-done and a satisfied manager. Yorkshire also qualified for the Finals on 5 June at Abbeydale Sports Club, Sheffield.

A trip to the "old Emmerdale"

Today Al and I went for a walk around Leathley (near Otley, North Yorkshire) taking in Stainburn, Braythorn and Lindley.

The name ‘Leathley’ is Anglo-Saxon in origin and means ‘cultivated land (leah) in a woodland clearing (-ley). In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Leathley consisted of two manors – one owned by Archil and the other by Ulchil. After the Norman Conquest the manors were taken over by William de Percy and Giselbert Tyson respectively.  The Parish Church of St Oswald, Leathley was built circa 1100, enlarged in the 1470s and renovated in 1869.

 Leathley Hall became the main manor house until it was sold to the Fawkes family in the 18^th century.

 

 View of Pool-in-Wharfedale

The Arthington Viaduct, also known as Wharfedale Viaduct, was built in the 1840s by James Bray for the Leeds and Thirsk Railway. It was engineered by Thomas Granger and was 1510 feet long, and had 21 arches.

 Entering Stainburn

St Mary's Church, Stainburn, is a redundant Anglican church. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church was built in the 12th century as a chapel of ease in the parish of Kirkby Overblow. Alterations were made to the church in the 17th century. In 1894 it was restored and additions were made by C. Hodgson Fowler. This included re-roofing the church, refitting the chancel, the addition of the vestry, and relaying of the grave slabs. St Mary's was declared redundant on 1 December 1975.

Lindley Farm was the setting for the original Emmerdale Farm - situated between Harrogate and Otley. It was owned by Farmer Arthur Peel and in 1993 when he retired, it was no longer used for filming. In the storyline, Emmerdale land was diagnosed as suffering from subsidence, due to the opening up of old mineshafts.

At this stage in the walk I handed over my camera to Al so that he could take "some interesting shots". This is what he came up with

 

 This is more like it, Al