Designed for altitude: Queensbury’s custom-made ACS cricket covers

Not all mobile cricket covers are the same. In this feature for ACS Cricket Equipment, we’ll explore the custom design made by Richard Shaw’s team at their Calverley HQ for Queensbury Cricket Club.

ACS provides cricket clubs with covers, sightscreens, batting cages, flatsheets and accessories like their pitch water collector. As they have served the grassroots game for decades and largely make their own products then this is where the magic happens.

Queensbury Cricket Club is 1,183 feet above sea level, making it one of the highest cricket grounds in England. It is apt that their Old Guy Road base is just outside an area called Mountain.

It can be cold and wild up there with snow stopping play before and the hosts serving mugs of tea during one match. Last year, a storm picked up one of the set of three ground covers with ease, hurled it over the wall and caused a traffic jam.

The push-on convenience of mobile cricket covers was offset by the storm damage that led to a re-think, new design and a problem fixed by ACS for the 2025 season.

To see for myself, I went up to watch Queensbury Cricket Club 2nd XI host Bridgeholme in Division One of the Halifax Cricket League. Even on a pleasant May afternoon, the wind huffed and puffed.

We had a terrific day, the views to Emley Moor and Stoodley Pike are showstoppers and I was able to examine the ground covers in forensic detail for myself.

What was the domed cricket covers upgrade? Well, Richard at ACS came up with the solution of a shallower dome shape that also sits lower to the ground in order that less wind gets under to lift it up.

They can be chained together so the 24ft set of three as a single block is a tougher proposition to shift for the elements. At Queensbury, ACS also created a way to peg out the covers for an extra bit of grip.

Neil Myers, the club’s Honorary Secretary, told me: “So far it’s worked! ACS were most helpful and willing to work with us to solve our unique weather- related issues.”

Customised cricket covers

The advantage of talking with ACS is that deep club cricket knowledge, allied with a willingness to create bespoke solutions with their manufacturing skills.

Queensbury is just one example of many across Yorkshire where grounds have their quirks that might require adaptation. ACS have recently made and installed a bespoke 8m tracked sightscreen at Crossflatts Cricket Club. After all, moving sightscreens back and forth can be a pain.

You only have to check out ACS Cricket Ground Equipment on Facebook to see the range and number of projects they do. It might be a ground on a slope, or little room for manoeuvre from the boundary.

This is a company that provides grounds equipment to counties (such as Durham and Yorkshire this season), as well as clubs and schools. In the past, they came up with a sightscreen that fitted into The Howard Stand at Headingley. 

Meanwhile, at Bradford Park Avenue, an ingenious black vinyl creation with roller mechanism meant the sightscreen could be changed easily from white to black for different formats.

So, whether your cricket club needs to cope with gale force winds or has its own geography that requires a creative solution, help is at hand.

Get in touch with ACS

Contact Richard Shaw and his team at ACS Cricket Ground Equipment and they’ll be able to answer question or arrange a quote.

You can browse products on the ACS website, email [email protected] or call them on 01274 620921.

(Mention Cricket Yorkshire if you remember, it all helps them know how you discovered them.)

This is a Partner Content for ACS Cricket Equipment – if the mood takes you, click to read Cricket Yorkshire’s policy on Partner content.