Ushaw Moor Memories

I care about the people of Ushaw Moor and New Brancepeth. My problem is that I have more or less lost touch with the heart of these villages. I left the area in late 1960, when Ushaw Moor was required to cope with its colliery closure and New Brancepeth Colliery had already closed seven years earlier. Those collieries had served the nation just as they had done since the late 19th century. They had done their bit during the tail end of the Industrial Revolution [if I stretch it a bit] and certain groups of people had lived well off the back of such mining villages and other industries. How well did Ushaw Moor and New Brancepeth cope with their closures in terms of re-employment? I would be very interested to know from you.

I could be out supping a couple of pints of good beer tonight but we have decided to save a few pennies. Anyway, in late June 1932 Ushaw Moor were on their way to winning the North East Durham Cricket League. One of their tense and very well attended home matches was against Chilton Moor [the previous year's champions] and the scorecard was as follows:

Ushaw Moor
M Gibson 82
J Halliday 0
G Lawson 0
S Surtees 59
T Halliday 4
A Marchant 7
R Hope 11
F Hildrey 0
J Gibson 13
G Gillespie 0
R Wilson 0 [not out]
Extras 14
Total 190
That was a very good score considering that they were 0 for 2 wickets early on.M Gibson was a Durham Johnson schoolboy at the time.
Chilton Moor
R Hall bowled Lawson 6
J Taylor bowled Hildrey 8
A Edwards c and b Lawson 11
J Renwick bowled Lawson 3
J Wheatley run out 0
W Walton bowled Lawson 9
H Dawson c Surtees bowled Hildrey 2
G Howes c and b Lawson 10
H Carr retired hurt 0
J Hodkinson c T Holliday bowled Lawson 1
T Bailes not out 1
Extras 0
Total 51