Alex Miller, a committee member at Ben Rhydding Cricket Club, explains his club’s move to the Nidderdale Cricket League. Cricket clubs do change cricket leagues. It’s not revolutionary but there’s been two interesting examples with cricket clubs opting for something different in 2021. Ben Rhydding swapping Aire-Wharfe cricket for the Nidderdale Cricket League caught my […]
Aire Wharfe Cricket League
Aire-Wharfe Cricket: Harden vs Otley
As I walked through the St Ives Estate on this latest Aire-Wharfe cricket pilgrimage, an LBW shout echoed through the trees. It was otherwise eerily quiet for a dry but chilly Yorkshire Day. At Harden Cricket Club, play was underway in this Aire-Wharfe Cricket League Division 4 encounter. After a dousing of hand sanitiser at […]
Cricket grounds: How has it been for club cricket during lockdown?
I recently caught up with Kirkstall Educational Cricket Club’s groundsman of many years, David Hodgson, to get a feel for what life has been like at cricket grounds. Coronavirus has prevented club cricket across the country and seen us indoors for months. As an earlier Cricket Yorkshire feature showed, groundsmen like Hodgy have continued to […]
200 not out: Back to the future for Otley Cricket Club
As Bill Marshall reports, Otley Cricket Club are going back to the future as part of their 200th-anniversary celebrations. The Pool Road club, formed in 1820, is holding a single-wicket competition this summer – an event involving all-rounders that was more prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s. Otley CC chairman Chris Smith said: “We are […]
John Heald: My favourite cricket photos of 2019
John Heald is a brilliant cricket photographer whose work regularly appears on Cricket Yorkshire as well as our social media channels. Unusually, he covers the full spectrum from the epic Ashes Test at Headingley to grassroots league action such as Aire Wharfe cricket. I’ll confess…part of the reason for this photo-feature is to encourage you […]
What could a Yorkshire League Knockout Cup look like for 2020?
Each summer, writer and photographer Andrew Gallon explores the length and breadth of Yorkshire cricket and further afield. Having visited hundreds of clubs across the region over the years, he knows his Hanging Heaton from his Holmfirth and Townville from Tickhill. I asked Andrew to ponder the art of the possible around a Yorkshire League […]
Hail and pace at Rawdon Cricket Club
A trip to Rawdon Cricket Club last Saturday to watch their firsts at home to Pool in the Aire-Wharfe Cricket League proved to be an exercise in patience. No sooner had we left the sanctuary of the car than a sooty, pregnant cloud unleashed a brief but biblical ice storm, raining down hail from up […]
Rejoicing at cricket in Silsden & Addingham
An afternoon of exploring Yorkshire cricket grounds I’d never been to before began with a trip to Silsden Cricket Club who are aiming to rebuild after switching from the Aire-Wharfe Cricket League to the Craven Cricket League. We tipped up just as the home side were warming up; a prerequisite on a day where it […]
Jonathan Doidge on club cricket, Yorkshire and a dream job
It was a crisp March morning inside the Carnegie Pavilion when BBC Radio Leeds’ cricket commentator Jonathan Doidge joined me to gaze out at the Headingley outfield and talk county cricket, the club scene and all things sport. The Doidge name will already be known to many of you across club cricket in West Yorkshire […]
Post-first world war: Getting club cricket back on its feet
Author Jeremy Lonsdale examines how Yorkshire cricket clubs faced the challenges of starting again in April 1919, after the First World War. *** Exactly 100 years ago this month, the first cricket season after the First World War got under way as all over Yorkshire local clubs again took to the field. After the […]