The advent of day-night County Championship cricket with a pink ball. What would Fred Trueman have made of it all? It was tempting to suggest the historic part of this experiment was not the floodlights or late start times but the presence of all of the England players for their counties. Seeing Jonny Bairstow playing […]
Records tumble at Pudsey St Lawrence but was it right?
Pudsey St Lawrence’s record-breaking 2nd XI Priestley Shield home tie with Brighouse will go down in history for any number of reasons. The Toft Road crowd saw their team go from 66-2 to 525-3 as Jack Allman hit 258 off 141 balls and Harry Cullingford was unbeaten on 206 before a curious declaration three balls […]
Leeds Bradford MCCU miss finals but should remain first-class
Leeds Bradford MCCU find themselves kicking their heels at the conclusion of their university summer having failed to qualify for any finals this year. Finishing fifth in the 50-over BUCS Premier A, fourth in the two-day MCCU Championship and not reaching the T20 Finals Day represents a disappointing return after several bumper years. It’s the […]
Cricket debates at Bradford Literature Festival
This year’s Bradford Literature Festival takes place between 30 June and 9 July incorporating 400 writers and 300 events across ten days. It promises to be a wonderful whirlwind of literature, debate and entertainment for all ages and I’m delighted to be a guest panellist on 1 July at 11am in Bradford’s City Hall Banqueting […]
Grey Fox Trophy: 50 Not Out at Church Fenton
Sunday got off to an inauspicious start. I made a grumbling noise of disapproval, like a wave crashing onto a beach, at the cost of a rail ticket to Church Fenton to watch Wetherby Wrinklies take on Bolton Villas in the over 50s competition, the Grey Fox Trophy. Ow much?! “It’s nearly at York,” said […]
Cricket’s War of the Roses delivers but how much does it matter to fans?
Match day at Headingley. Yorkshire v Lancashire in the County Championship. Serious stuff. The walk up Beechwood Crescent tried to lighten the mood with an appeal to ‘Smile Beautiful’ emblazoned in blue (lipstick perhaps?) on a road sign. It was muggy and threatening clouds confirmed that I ought to have paid closer attention to the […]
Wickets and wow factor at Eggborough Power Station
You can see the humongous chimneys of Eggborough Power Station for miles before you actually turn into the main entrance. In a cluttered vista of power lines and industry, they stand as monumental guardians. This is Yorkshire’s power station square mile (not literally but they’re close enough) with Drax and Ferrybridge also in the vicinity. […]
Allstars at St Chad’s: action-packed fun for under-nines
After one of the driest starts to a cricket season in Yorkshire, the pregnant clouds hovering over St Chads Broomfield Cricket Club signalled it was going to chuck it down; not a matter of if but when. No matter….contingency plans had been made to book the St Chad’s Parish Centre next to the ground to […]
Bradford Park Avenue cricket nets signal transformation
Crunching along the gravel path at Bradford Park Avenue’s cricket ground off Canterbury Avenue took me to the newly installed eight-lane, non-turf cricket nets. Walls of chipboard and construction detritus highlight that this ambitious £5.5m project to transform a much-loved former county cricket venue into a top-class sports facility are ongoing but that in itself […]
Yorkshire Women’s county squad on journey of discovery
The Yorkshire Women’s refreshed county squad are up and running in a season that is indicative of swirling change but no less optimism for it. Yorkshire Women compete in the Royal London Women’s County One-Day Championship & NatWest Women’s County T20 and they possess an exciting, young squad captained by Jess Watson and coached by […]