Sat on a sofa in Huddersfield’s Cafe Society a few streets from St. George’s Square, the prospect of watching the earliest league cricket in Yorkshire, if not the country, was the reason I was grinning like a buffoon. The theme to the Austin Powers film bounced off the walls (‘Soul Bossa Nova’ by Quincy Jones […]
Gary Ballance talks captaincy and fast bowling promise
Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s captain Gary Ballance has come a long way in between our interviews that have bookended his Yorkshire career. I first met ‘Gaz’ as a shy teenager breaking into the first-team squad, who eyed my recording device suspiciously and spoke as bluntly as he was to end up treating the bowling from […]
Ben Coad on aggression, belief and the County Championship
In the aftermath of the hypnotic conclusion to Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s County Championship liftoff against Hampshire, the Friday heroics of Ben Coad felt like another lifetime. The message from Director of Cricket Martyn Moxon and Head Coach Andrew Gale has been for the young pretenders to push harder for a first-team shirt. Cue a […]
Remembering Tom Hardman: TH96
As the current first-class fixture between Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Leeds Bradford MCCU draws to a close on Tuesday at Headingley, spare a thought for a player no longer with us. For those that knew him, 28 November 2012 will forever be etched in the memory when the talented cricketer Tom Hardman died, just shy […]
How to upgrade your cricket bat
Picture the scene. It’s Saturday morning and the prospect of cricket puts a spring in your step. Your fixture at Upper Cragdale 3rd XI is looming and you gingerly prize open your dormant kitbag that reveals muddy, stale whites, several entirely new forms of bacteria and other treasures. Sound familiar? Ok, so some of you […]
Leeds Bradford MCCU raring to go
Lisa on BBC Look North had promised sunshine and mild temperatures but as the Northern Rail bonerattler dragged its way indignantly to Burley Park station, the clouds were grizzling, moping and pouting. The briefest of pitstops on Cardigan Road at Slips Deli afforded the luxury of taking the weight off my scrawny pins, unaccustomed as […]
Yorkshire County Cricket Club AGM: Stick, twist or bust?
Before my debut appearance at a Yorkshire County Cricket Club AGM, there were more pressing concerns at hand as a fine mizzle descended: where can you get a decent cooked breakfast around Headingley before 9am? Tripadvisor led to Caffe Latte on Otley Road (superb) and appreciable calm on my own, sprawled out on a leather […]
Meet Mel Neary; 74 and still in whites for Selby
There is nothing quite like delivering positive news on a Monday morning for kickstarting the week. Not so long ago, Cricket Yorkshire ran its first competition of 2017 – an absolute belter if I say so myself – in association with our website partner B3 Cricket – to win a custom-made cricket bat. This was […]
Would you become a cricket umpire?
With friendly fixtures likely outdoors in Yorkshire from April leading into league action, every cricket umpire across the land is dusting off their white coats, rummaging for ball counters and reacquainting themselves with the finer points of Duckworth-Lewis-Stern. ** There have been the usual appeals crossing my @cricketyorks Twitter timeline from leagues promoting their cricket […]
Winning momentum at Wakefield Thornes
Are Wakefield Thornes Cricket Club currently the best cricket club in Yorkshire? Discuss… Ok, that’s mischevious but the West Yorkshire club, with four senior sides and six junior teams, are understandably upbeat after their first eleven beat Pudsey St Lawrence in the Abu Dhabi final last October to be crowned the inaugural Champion club of […]