Stockton & Hopgrove Cricket Club field one of just six First XIs contesting the three-division York Vale Cricket League. The others, on the off chance this crops up as an obscure question at your pub quiz, are Ben Johnson, Hirst Courtney, Melbourne, South Cave & Brantingham, and Thorpe Willoughby. Stockton & Hopgrove’s ground, part of […]
Six of the Best: Leagues, cups and ambitions across Yorkshire
With the 2022 season about a third complete, the standings across Yorkshire’s recreational cricket leagues are taking shape and cup competitions approaching their climactic phase. We take a close look at six appealing matches over the June 11-12 weekend: three league fixtures on the Saturday and a trio of cup ties the following afternoon. Saturday, […]
Ryedale Beckett League: Midweek cricket at Duncombe Park
There is always a danger, with midweek cricket, one will arrive at a ground to discover a team – maybe both! – has scratched and the game been called off. Many clubs don’t seem to bother posting social media information about the activities of their midweek XIs, which adds an element of ‘wasted journey’ risk […]
Bradford Premier League: Birstall beat Baildon at Leeds Road
I am not one for soaking up the sun, hour after hour – whilst watching cricket or doing anything else. Acquiring a tan? Two weeks comatose on a beach? No, thank you. It means cricket grounds lacking shade, to the south and/or the west, must wait for a cloudy day before I’ll visit. Digital satellite […]
Jack Hampshire Cup: Altofts beat Brighouse
How many of the cricket matches you’ve witnessed really stand out in the memory? My visit to Altofts Cricket Club won’t easily be forgotten, simply because it was unusually brief. The Tofts took just two hours, 20 minutes – including the tea interval! – to dispose of Third Division rivals Brighouse in the Bradford Premier […]
NYSD Cricket: Great Ayton edge past Thornaby
According to club president Ken Home, Great Ayton Cricket & Football Club (to use the full and correct name, after a 1976 amalgamation) “punches well above its peers”. Ken’s eminently justifiable claim features on the second line of his welcome piece in the 2022 edition of the annual club brochure, an impressive 28-pager, available – […]
Elsecar Cricket Club vs Barnsley Woolley Miners at Crab Field
I’ve started the 2022 cricket season in pretty good nick. For me, ‘good nick’ means, during the early weeks of the summer, when enthusiasm is sky-high, watching games at grounds that have spent too long on my ‘must-get-around-to-visiting’ list. Elsecar Cricket Club’s Crab Field (crab apple trees once grew along one side) falls into this […]
Stokesley topple Richmondshire in NYSD season opener
I’ve got a soft spot for the far corner of Yorkshire which, when I worked on Teesside during the 1990s, was dubbed ‘Cleveland’, an ancient name reinvigorated by the local authority. At the time, I lived at Great Ayton, a pleasant village where the future Captain James Cook went to school. Ayton was an ideal […]
Eleven To Watch: Early-Season in Yorkshire [2022]
Andrew Gallon picks his must-watch club cricket matches across Yorkshire in April & May. *** Throughout an unexpectedly sunny, mild March, my anticipation grew, day by day, as the 2022 club cricket season loomed closer. I’ll gloss over the recent snow! It seems Saturday, April 16 is the earliest date to take in a competitive […]
York Senior League Cricket: Home victory for Beverley Town
Andrew Gallon journeys to Norwood where Beverley Town 1st XI play Folkton & Flixton in their last home match of the York & District Senior Cricket League. Summer – blue sky, warm sunshine (remember them?) – made a welcome return for my penultimate cricket outing of the 2021 season. I headed southeast, down the A1079, […]