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TheScarborough Festival is an end of season series of cricket matches featuringYorkshire County Cricket Club which has been held inScarborough, on the east coast ofYorkshire, since 1876. The ground, atNorth Marine Road, sees large crowds of holiday makers watching a mixture of first-class county cricket, one-day fixtures and invitation XIs in the late August/early September sunshine every year. Many of the world's greatest cricketers have played in festival matches over the years.
There have been 399 first-class matches at Scarborough, the vast majority of these in the festival and as well as Yorkshire's games against county opposition ad hoc teams under the name ofH. D. G. Leveson-Gower,Tom Pearce,Brian Close andMichael Parkinson have entertained touring teams and World XIs on many occasions. A one-day competition, under the names of various sponsors, was played in the seventies, eighties and nineties and featured four counties who would play a knockout semi final and final for the cup.
Two of the greatest batsmen in history scored double hundreds during the festival.Jack Hobbs amassed an unbeaten 266 for the Players against the Gentlemen in 1925 while SirLen Hutton hit 241 in the same fixture in 1953. The prolificPhilip Mead of Hampshire scored two double tons, 233 for the MCC againstLord Hawke's XI in 1929 and 223 for the Players against the long suffering Gentlemen in 1911. The highest innings in festival history came whenKen Rutherford, the former New Zealand Test captain, smashed 317 in a day for the New Zealand tourists against D. B. Close's XI in 1986.
The batsmen did not always have it their own way. The greatWilfred Rhodes pocketed 9 for 24 for CI Thornton's XI v. Australians in 1899 andJ. M. Preston had taken 9 for 28 for Yorkshire againstMarylebone Cricket Club 11 years before.Johnny Briggs took 9 for 31 for Lord Londesborough's XI v. the Australians in 1890 andBill Bowes laboured hard to take 9 for 121 for Yorkshire against Essex in 1932.
The ground, with its limited boundaries, hard outfield and excellent pitch, has seen many high scores during the festival. The Surrey dynamoAli Brown thrashed 133 in company withGraham Thorpe (102*) to help Surrey to 375 for 4 in just 40 overs in aSunday League match in 1994 while Yorkshire themselves clobbered Nottinghamshire for 352 in 45 overs in 2001 thanks toDarren Lehmann's incredible 191 which came off 103 balls in 115 minutes with 20 fours and 11 sixes.
In first-class cricket Yorkshire declared on 600 for 4 against Worcestershire in 1995, thanks toDavid Byas's double century and an unbeaten ton fromCraig White, while the North of England posted 590 against the South of England in 1906.