Ben Fudali: Building the next pavilion for Newton-Le-Willows

Ben Fudali was our Yorkshire Tea Community Cricket Award winner for September and we caught up about his key involvement in building the new Newton-Le-Willows cricket pavilion.

I’m sure that Ben isn’t the first Aussie to come to the UK, discover the magic of Yorkshire and decide to settle down here.

After backpacking round England, a conversation in a pub led to two seasons with Newton-Le-Willows Cricket Club in the early 2000s.

He began life as a tearaway fast bowler but turned to spin later in his career as well, as a reliable batter. Some 4,500+ runs have followed along with 204 wickets: “I just love the game but I’m no great shakes!”

He would return in 2012, swapping New South Wales for North Yorkshire permanently: “I found Yorkshire people very friendly…when I got to Yorkshire, I thought ‘these people are like Australians really!’ “

By trade, Ben (above) is a builder who was “battling with a staircase” when we talked recently and it was ultimately good fortune that he settled in prime Nidderdale League territory at a club who had long been desperate for a new pavilion.

“We’d been speaking for years and years about a new pavilion because ours was just a weatherboard shed with holes in it. We just never had the expertise in fundraising and were only a single team club.”

He credits Craig Brown, a stalwart of the club and primary school headmaster, for being instrumental in leading the fundraising once momentum swung behind making the project happen.

Ben won the Yorkshire Tea Community Cricket Award because we were impressed with his role and dedication with such an undertaking. No pavilion is down to one single person but having a builder willing to give such a huge amount of time must have been a huge boost.

“Once the project was talked about, I said I’ll do it and then last winter, we knocked down the old one. Once you knock the old one down, you gotta do it!”

Ben tells me: “We got a lot of help…everyone in the club has been down at some point to do a day. It brought the club together a bit more.”

With time ticking on and the usual harsh weather to contend with, the wooden structure grew, cladded and waterproofed. Ben worked all through the Christmas holidays and every weekend for six months with a brief pause in January when the snow was too deep.

Timing when to do something like this is led by funding but also not wanting to be without a home during the cricket season for long, if at all. As a result, it meant long hours over winter with logistics such as tricky access to the ground and rain turning the ground to a muddy quagmire.

Ironically, as a dry Spring arrived, the opposite challenge became apparent with ground preparations requiring a rota to water the outfield and square so it was ready for the 2025 season.

Happily, that meant work on the new pavilion could crack on and the exterior was up in time for the summer. The interior such as electrics, toilets and then finishing touches lie ahead but a 2026 launch is planned.

Ben asks me to mention his ever-patient wife Amy who would see her husband disappear off for a good chunk of a year with an extension at the back of their house put on hold. Ian Noonan, who stepped in as groundsman this season, also gets a shoutout.

We even get to talking about Nidderdale cricket teas (it wasn’t me instigating that thread for a change) and Ben laughs as he acknowledges the power of baking: “Sometimes, I think it influences selection because if one player’s wife does good scones, it might drag him up to the firsts!”

Newton-Le-Willows are on a roll in their club’s proud history with a senior 1st XI and 2nd XI on weekends and a midweek team in the Wensleydale Cricket League.

Add in a women’s softball side, a range of junior teams including Under 12 girls at Railway View, plus All Stars and things are looking really positive. All those players, parents and supporters will need a new hub for socialising and the outstanding work that Ben and others have committed to will be a cornerstone for years to come.

🫖 Congratulations to Ben and thanks to Yorkshire Tea for their support in backing these awards, as we championed volunteers during 2025 in a new way and told their stories.

✍️ Here are interviews with previous monthly winners.

This is Partner Content for Yorkshire Tea – if the mood takes you, click to read Cricket Yorkshire’s policy on Partner Content.

🙏 Thanks to Mark / Caught Light photography for the drone footage of the Newton-Le-Willows cricket ground.