Surviving the Western Terrace

Or as one tweeter reminded me, the "notorious" Western Terrace - one of the very best places to watch cricket so long as you don't want to follow the play too closely!

We were sat on the terrace as part of what seems to be a very extended send off for Stu Muxlow, who having taken redundancy is setting off Eastwards on his trusty motorbike. I gather that Stu will actually set off later this month.

The Western Terrace is loud, bumptious and extremely good-humoured. It is populated by a mixture of youth and experience which, fuelled by copious amounts of booze, results in a mix of chanting, occasional bursts of what might (if one feels kind) be singing and a neverending stream of wisecrack, ribald comment and edgy commentary on the play.

The crowd did the obligatory ooh-ing as the bowler ran in, cheered Yorkshire's sixes and wickets while ignoring the same from Warwickshire. And, as it became clear that the visitors were going to chase down Yorkshire's score with some ease, the crowd commenced with other entertainment - cheering as some young women walked up the stand, jeering as the stewards removed a lilo and conducting a perfunctory and disorganised Mexican wave. All interspersed with the familiar cry of "Yorkshire, Yorkshire".

I'm sure there are similar crowds at other grounds but part of me suspects that the denizens of Headingley's Western Terrace are probably the loudest, wittiest and cheeriest - or that's what they would tell you! A fine way to spend three hours in the sunshine - under a perfect blue sky rather than Yorkshire's more usual grey - enjoying our national sport (or rather the bowdlerised, pajama-wearing version of our national sport), having a beer or three and enjoying the noisiness of Yorkshire's best crowd!

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