Last week, I had the good fortune to bag an invite to the Yorkshire age group cricket presentation evening in the Long Room at Emerald Headingley Stadium. It was a way of getting updated on how the boys’ county under tens through to under twelves have fared this season along with the respective development squads. […]
Jekyll and Hyde: Life as Nidderdale Cricket League Secretary
It comes to something when stalwarts as invested in recreational cricket as Graham Hyde decide to call it a day. We are less than a minute into a roving conversation about the health of Yorkshire club cricket and the outgoing Honorary Secretary of the Theakston Nidderdale Cricket League puffs out his cheeks. In relief or […]
Tom Kohler-Cadmore on cricket bats, power and mindset
Yorkshire County Cricket Club batsman Tom Kohler-Cadmore is on the phone and we are talking raw materials. Dynamic, destructive, a typical Kohler-Cadmore innings tends to take on a demonic look when you cast your eye over the scorebook. 6.6.6. A Pepsi Max(imum), you might say. Pepsi’s his nickname in case you were wondering…not just because […]
Retiring from club cricket: Hanging up the bowling boots
I’ll be honest. I never thought this day would come. The decision to fold up the whites for the final time and decommission the knackered, muddy cricket spikes was neither impulsive nor thrust upon me. Yet, after 31 years of playing cricket, it is the right moment to flick off the bails and call time […]
Leeds Caribbean: Life in the Dales Council Cricket League
Rocking up at Leeds Caribbean Cricket Club for their last Dales Council match of 2017 was an exercise in crossing digits and glancing anxiously at the lashing rain pinging off the bonnet of the car. This Division A contest at Scott Hall Road against Bradford Moor looked doomed from the outset as cricketers and officials […]
Sowerby Bridge Cricket Club is back on its feet after the 2015 floods
As my fingers clatter over the keyboard to bring you this article, it is raining outside. Not chucking, tipping or siling it down but appropriate enough as this feature is all about a cricket club battered by floods, stripped to the bone but now back on its feet. Let’s rewind to August on a Saturday […]
The Laws of Cricket have had an update but what are the implications?
The game of cricket has now changed significantly as the MCC’s new Laws of Cricket 2017 Code came into force on Sunday 1 October. On the surface, amended rules may not have you frothing with excitement but these are the first changes to the laws of the game since 2000 and there are actually some […]
What are the lingering questions for Yorkshire CCC fans?
The county cricket season is officially over for Yorkshire CCC and in the harsh light of a crushing 376-run defeat in Essex, it has been far from a classic for those supporting the White Rose. That final nail in the 2017 coffin was the heaviest defeat (by runs) in the history of the club. Ponder […]
Restrictions on overseas cricketers are damaging club cricket
The news that Frinton-on-Sea Cricket Club lost their appeal to a Tribunal of the Two Counties Cricket Championship (TCCC) over the eligibility of their Australian player, Blake Reed, could have far-reaching implications for club cricket. If you’re unfamiliar with the saga to date, it revolves around an Essex club defending the status of one of […]
The Cricket Yorkshire 50 returns: Who’s in? Who’s out?
Ok, so last September I published the Cricket Yorkshire 50 – a shortlist designed to spark debate but mainly to give a nod to those from England cricketers to heros on the village green. It melted time and space and most of Yorkshire’s power supply for a year was thirstily slurped up coping with the […]