Lurking on my ‘groundhopping’ bucket list for years, a visit to the sublime, sleepy setting of Thixendale Cricket Club lived up to – nay, exceeded – expectations. Put simply, it was a slice of sporting serendipity: when each piece of the jigsaw slotted neatly into place. The weather, in what is proving to be a […]
Ryedale Beckett League: Thornton Dale defeat Ampleforth
If you don’t like the weather in Britain, wait an hour. There’s a lot of truth in the saying, usually trotted out by knowing locals to overseas holidaymakers. I was reminded of it recently when, a mere 45 minutes before the scheduled start of a Thursday evening fixture at Thornton Dale Cricket Club, whipped up […]
Pontefract & District League: Down to the wire at Feverley Hills
Two days before my trip to Thornton Dale, I had been in the markedly different surroundings of Featherstone, a former pit village synonymous with – and renowned for – rugby league. They used to say, if you were after a decent scrum-half, all you had to do was whistle down the shaft of one of […]
Mick Savage Trophy action from Penistone Cricket Club
Penistone Cricket Club’s Queen Street ground could look very different when the 2025 Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League season gets underway. The club, whose First XI play – and are going great guns – in Division Two, the league’s fourth tier, hope next spring to unveil a state-of-the-art pavilion. According to Penistone Cricket & Sports […]
Huddersfield Cricket League: Sixes among the alpacas at Denby
It is going to be impossible to write about a visit to Denby Cricket Club, one of many smashing grounds in the Huddersfield League, without mentioning Chris Holliday. So, I’ll do it straightaway (right off the bat, as it were). In 2020, which will go down in cricket history as ‘The COVID Season’, Holliday, then […]
Ilkley Cricket Club host Saltaire in Waddilove Cup
In Ilkley, there is no escaping the presence of the eponymous moor, subject of Yorkshire’s unofficial anthem – and it dominates the Ilkley Cricket Club ground. Its gaunt, at times austerely blank, mass rises impressively and inexorably to the south. As the afternoon sun swings round, highlighting the moor’s dots and dashes, first-time visitors will […]
Bradford Premier League: Wrenthorpe win the Battle of Adwalton
Visiting cricket grounds and sites of famous battles. Would that combo work for you? I gave it a shot last week: Saxton Cricket Club (Foss Evening League, Division Four) and the Battle of Towton (1461); Northallerton Town Cricket Club (North Yorkshire & South Durham Premier League, Collingwood Hundred, Round One) and the Battle of the […]
From pitch to pinnacle: Upper Hopton progress in Parish Cup
“It’s a long walk for a duck!” The words of Luddendenfoot opener Harry Denham after his first over dismissal at Upper Hopton Cricket Club’s Sutcliffe Memorial Ground. Playing in a Halifax League Parish Cup second-round tie, Denham had almost scaled the summit of a taxing, 45-step climb from pitch to clubhouse at what must be […]
Northallerton & District Evening League: Thornton-le-Moor on the up
It is always good to visit a cricket club then learn about encouraging developments. Very much the case when a Thursday found me at Thornton-le-Moor Cricket Club, to watch a game against Ingleby Cross in the tiny Northallerton & District Evening League. With just seven members (the others being East Harlsey, Hutton Rudby, Northallerton, Northallerton […]
Ken Welsh Cup: Friday night T20 from Yarm
The North Yorkshire & South Durham Premier League appears to have more cup competitions than you can shake a stick at. Spectators are spoilt for choice! Always keen to try something new, in this case the Ken Welsh Cup, I had a drive up the A19 to Teesside, an old stomping ground of mine, for […]