Looking back to September 2022, Beckwithshaw faced probably their fiercest local rivals, knowing that they had to win to retain their top-flight status. Ultimately, the visitors to The Stag Den, Bilton, dominated the game, relegating Beckwithshaw’s first team to Division Two. I was sitting on the boundary rope that day, covering what had been another […]
Aire Wharfe Cricket League
Rules vs common sense: Leafblowers and seeing the light
If there’s one thing that club cricket excels at, it’s rules, regulations and calculations, occasionally to its detriment. This is about light, leaf blowers and common sense. Seeing the light It’s not just the recreational game that can sometimes stray into a soap opera. Anyone who watched the third Test match at The Oval where […]
Winners revealed in the Cricket Yorkshire Tea of the Year 2024
The Cricket Yorkshire Tea of the Year for 2024, sponsored by Yorkshire Tea, has been a blast to run again. We have shaken things up with new categories to reflect the cost of cricket teas as well as the diversity in diets, culture and food here in Yorkshire. The standard has been phenomenal again. The […]
Beckwithshaw 2nd XI recover from 24-5 to defeat Bardsey
It’s come to that time of the season where the number of games scheduled in a week is dropping considerably. Leagues and cups are reaching their climax and others have finished, making the fixture list something of a tricky thing to navigate. Combine that with who is playing at home, who is away, which teams […]
Chappell Cup: Starfish among the shadows as Ilkley make semi-finals
Unfortunately, on Sunday, I wasn’t able to schedule in a women’s game due to having to head towards Burley in Wharfedale to pick my daughter up from a weekend’s Guide camp. To be honest, I had pretty much resigned myself to not being able to get to any sort of game as the location and […]
Bilton pay King’s ransom in Roundhay Park
Having not been for years, the prospect of a return to Roundhay Park was an appealing one. The rough plan was to take in some of North Leeds’ Aire-Wharfe League Division One game with Bilton and perhaps a dip over to watch Leeds Gladiators of the Dales Council League at the Roundhay Oval. The first […]
Ilkley Cricket Club host Saltaire in Waddilove Cup
In Ilkley, there is no escaping the presence of the eponymous moor, subject of Yorkshire’s unofficial anthem – and it dominates the Ilkley Cricket Club ground. Its gaunt, at times austerely blank, mass rises impressively and inexorably to the south. As the afternoon sun swings round, highlighting the moor’s dots and dashes, first-time visitors will […]
Birtwhistle Cup: Rain-soaked thriller at Beckwithshaw
When Prometheus decided to use lamb’s wool to give us mere mortals a sign that Zeus was sending rain our way [and in doing so, invented clouds], I’m not sure he was trying to depress cricket players and fans alike. However, as Wednesday turned into Thursday and Prometheus threw quite a lot of wool up […]
Village Cup: Yorkshire’s regional finalists confirmed
Yorkshire’s regional finalists of the Voneus National Village Cup are confirmed as Frickley Colliery, Addingham and Folkton & Flixton. Round 5 of the competition is on 23 June with the start of the national rounds. Frickley Colliery defeated Streethouse by 7 runs to win West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire & Humberside – Group 5. Their reward […]
Tough day in the sun for Bilton at Pool Cricket Club
In the past two weeks, my concerns with how much rain is going to fall each day and how I’m going to dry my waterproofs for the next pitch-side visit have abated. Being honest, after around seven months of atrocious weather, I am still leaving it late in the week to make a final decision […]