CLUB CRICKET

Hallam Cricket Club aim for national indoor cricket title

February 7, 2019 by Cricket Yorkshire

For those of you who refuse to fathom the concept of not playing cricket for six long, tortuous months, there’s always indoor cricket – and for one club in South Yorkshire, they’ve developed quite a knack for it.

Hallam Cricket Club is a success story on many levels with a history that can be traced back to 1804.

Their 1st XI play in the ECB Yorkshire South Premier League with other sides in the South Yorkshire Cricket League, Yorkshire & Derbyshire Cricket League, Sheffield Midweek Alliance and so it goes on.

Cricket available at every standard and age group seems to be the ethos and so it should be no particular surprise that they embrace carpet burns and flickering overhead lights in winter.

They used to compete as Dearne but are now entered as Hallam Cricket Club as the rules of the competition state that a side must be affiliated with a Saturday team from the outdoors season and each player needs to have played a minimum of six outdoor games the previous season. As it was suggested to me, not really the best initiative from the ECB if participation is the name of the game.

Here, Joe Cooper offers an insight into the latest indoor cricket adventure for the perennial challengers from South Yorkshire.

Hallam have been playing together as an indoor team for nearly 10 years, every Autumn taking part in the Sheffield League. They primarily do this to stay in shape during the winter, an excuse to socialise on a Monday night and plugging the dark gap between the end of the outdoor season and Christmas.

Over the past six seasons, they’ve won the league on five occasions – no mean feat given the strength of some opposition including both university first teams.

In 2014, they went all the way to Lord’s, winning six knock-out matches across the North of England to qualify. In the finals, they defeated Neyland from Wales in the semi before beating Bridgwater by just 2 runs in the final to become National Champions.

Since then, there’s been a couple of near-misses with defeats losing in Northern Finals. This year, after an incredibly competitive season, Hallam won the league on head-to-head record having finished joint-top with Asian Lions. Another close battle ensued in the Yorkshire Final at Headingley. With the game being tied, Hallam progressed against Warley CC (from the Halifax Cricket League) by virtue of having lost fewer wickets.

Hallam now progress to face Burscough CC, the Lancashire champions, at Ormskirk on February 17th, with the winners facing the Lincolnshire champions and a place at Lord’s at stake.

To find out more about Hallam Cricket Club, visit https://hallam.play-cricket.com, link up with them on Twitter as @HallamCC or Hallam CC on Facebook.

BY JOE COOPER

Fryup, anyone? Still off the beaten track

January 31, 2019 by Cricket Yorkshire

Cricket Yorkshire continues to welcome a raft of new writers (see Write for Cricket Yorkshire, if you’re interested) and Tony Hutton is the latest contributor with his incredible knowledge of Yorkshire club cricket.

I’ve been fortunate to know Tony for quite a few years and we bump into each other everywhere from a windswept Weetwood for an MCCU match to a little-known village game in the Dales.

Like me, he seeks out and celebrates the variety of Yorkshire cricket and below, he has penned his thoughts and recommendations on a few grounds from Fryup to Lofthouse and Middlesmoor.

It is hard to believe that almost thirteen years have passed since I set out to keep a diary of the 2006 cricket season with fellow cricket watchers Brian Senior and the late Mick Bourne.

Thanks to the efforts of Peter Davies, then of Huddersfield University, we published the book of our travels – ‘Off the Beaten Track’.

We followed cricket at all levels, the more obscure the better, and came across some wonderful grounds and met some very interesting people along the way.

Looking back, cricket has obviously changed dramatically in the intervening years and we are now at a stage where what I would call proper cricket, played over two, three or four days, seems about to self-destruct.

The County Championship is being sidelined, University cricket has rather surreptitiously reduced the number of games this season and the Minor Counties plan to do the same next season. County Second XI cricket may well be the next for the chop.

All very disturbing for the traditionalists among us, but fear not, all is not yet lost.

Despite problems affecting league cricket, with some clubs merging and others changing leagues, even some clubs falling by the wayside, there is an awful lot of cricket still being played, particularly in Yorkshire.

It is still possible for the adventurous cricket watcher to find out of the way places and often to become involved in what might be called ‘tales of the unexpected’.

Curiosities abound as you do the rounds of league cricket and although attendances are rather sparse these days, you will invariably come across someone with a lifetime of memories only too willing to talk about the club’s history and the characters who have played for them.

You will find close evenly matched contests and other times very one-sided games, with runs galore or wickets aplenty tumbling.

I recall visiting one of the remotest grounds in Yorkshire at Fryup in the Esk Valley League. A couple of wickets fell shortly after arrival and the scoreboard then showed 0-4! Obviously a game that did not last long.

The Esk Valley League is one to treasure. Always a problem finding out fixtures but worth the effort to go as there are some very picturesque grounds. Teams struggle to get players and you feel that the league is somehow living on a knife-edge in a very largely rural community near Whitby.

Even further north is the Langbaurgh League going into Teesside. It’s again worth exploring as I found last season when visiting the very scenic Broughton ground (above) with wonderful views of the North York Moors.

Somewhat closer to home for me is the Nidderdale Cricket League which runs to nine divisions and covers a huge area of North Yorkshire. Soon after my retirement in the mid-1990s, I set myself the task of visiting every ground in this league.

I got there in the end during 2002 when I eventually ticked off the very last ground at the very top of the Nidd valley – Lofthouse and Middlesmoor (above).

It was my third attempt after two long drives when rain had prevented play at the top of the valley with games going on further south at Pateley Bridge and Glasshouses.

A very small ground but good to watch cricket at this outpost of the league near the road up to Scar House reservoir.

Again, too many grounds to mention in this fascinating league, many of which have already had a mention here on the Cricket Yorkshire website.

Looking back again to 2006, I can recall a delightful visit to Blubberhouses on a long summer evening, when someone scored a century including ten sixes in a perfect setting.

Pateley Bridge is the place to go for an end-of-season game in September when a Nidderdale League XI take on the Craven Cricket League on Nidderdale Show Day. Thornton Watlass, with its unique ground is something unusual and another must-visit venue. It’s incredibly small with a chestnut tree inside the boundary and Mike Amos sums it up well in the Northern Echo.

When you get to the end of September, and cricket is slowly fading away, there is only one place to be – Arthington in Wharfedale, now a very successful Nidderdale Cricket League side, but not that very long ago they were one of the last friendly cricket sides around.

Their end of season festival is unique going on as it does until the second weekend in October with the same players and spectators returning year-after-year.

arthington cricket club

As I said earlier, there is a great deal of cricket going on in Yorkshire. It might take a bit of finding on occasions but I have found that by using Google Earth, you can discover the whereabouts of any village cricket ground in Yorkshire just by looking on the map.

You will see a cut square and away you go. A major step forward from my early days of ‘ground hopping’ when you had to find your own way there and asking for directions often led to blank looks from local residents.

Obviously there are many more Saturday leagues and evening leagues available. Another one I should mention is the Dales Evening League, again with fixtures often shrouded in mystery, but worth the effort to set off on a summer’s evening for such outposts as Malham, Cracoe, Burnsall, Barden, Littondale and Kettlewell.

Again,you need good weather to set off to such distant spots but given another long, hot summer…who knows what you might find?

I could go on as I have not yet mentioned schools cricket or age group cricket.

Some people are still surprised to learn that Yorkshire has an Over-50s side who are national county champions…also an over 60s side, both with former big name league cricketers in their ranks.

Finally a word for the Yorkshire Academy side, who I have had the pleasure of watching at their various homes of Bradford Park Avenue, New Rover and now Weetwood, for many a long year.

To see these youngsters progress over the years from young schoolboys to county veterans is well worthwhile. As well as following the big names like Root and Bairstow, you can also see the ones who don’t quite make it still have long and successful careers in the leagues.

BY TONY HUTTON

Follow @grandad_tony on Twitter for more Yorkshire cricket adventures and I recommend the writers on the Cricket Heritage blog (as I now refer to it).

There are plenty of very astute contributions on club cricket but also Yorkshire CCC, Minor Counties and much more.

IOG issues rallying cry to groundsmen

January 21, 2019 by Cricket Yorkshire

No-one involved in club cricket will be particularly surprised that the evolution of volunteers in key roles is an ongoing concern. Struggles to recruit enough umpires and shortages of scorers is as old as the hills.

Is it as bad as it ever was? I’ll leave that to you to ponder but the relatively small pocket of volunteers propping up tens of thousands of players across Yorkshire isn’t germinating, if I can put it like that.

In his first article for Cricket Yorkshire below, former Telegraph & Argus journalist Bill Marshall looks at the issue of where the cricket groundsmen of tomorrow are going to come from.

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Rod Heyhoe, secretary of the Yorkshire branch of the Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG), has issued a rallying call in order to attract younger members.

In his report to their annual meeting at Cleckheaton Sports Club, he wrote: “We again published and circulated to all members our programme of events, giving details of speakers and meeting dates.”

“Attendances at meetings are still very good – long may this continue into the future. We must be doing something right?”

“But we seem to have peaked on numbers attending this year and we cannot be complacent in moving forward. We need more younger people involved in branch matters. Where are you?”

Heyhoe added: “Your committee believe that we are here to help all the groundsmen – from professionals to amateur volunteers – to raise their profile and improve their knowledge and the playing surfaces in their respective sports and pastimes.

“Just over four years after the appointments of Jason Booth and his regional advisers running GaNTIP (Grounds and Natural Turf Improvement Programme), a lot of their time has been spent helping local county FAs, county cricket boards and rugby league clubs improve their pitches.

“With the young directors and your branch officials working hard for the cause, I think we are moving forward and also encouraging the younger end into the business with apprenticeships and training schemes.

“This raises the profile of groundsmanship along the way, and it is good to see younger people attending our branch meetings, but there are not as many as we would like.”

Meanwhile, deputy chairman David Robinson wrote of the four pillars that hold the Yorkshire branch together.

He said that there were “the willingness of excellent industry speakers and sponsors who support the meetings, the sterling effort put in by Keith Johnstone and John Hawksworth at Cleckheaton Sports Club, all members and friends who regularly attend the meetings and contribute to the camaraderie, raffle prizes, cakes and overall ambience, and the small band of committee members who tie it all together.”

Robinson added: “Should any of these pillars begin to creak, the other three may begin to lean, despite all the goodwill generated to bind them.”

He also said that it was a great pleasure to listen to branch president Keith Boyce, the former groundsman at Headingley, at the ordinary meeting in December, even though he brought news of his impending retirement.

Robinson added: “Keith, you are inspirational and the reason that so many are committed to excellence in groundsmanship.”

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Many Yorkshire County Cricket Club fans will remember Keith Boyce but he then transferred his knowledge to transforming the Richmond Oval, New Rover Cricket Club’s home.

Thanks to Bill for that contribution, he has had his ear to the ground on local cricket across West Yorkshire for many years and we hope to have more club features from him in the months to come.

Of course, the groundsmen may be out there already, just not necessarily members of the IOG, but the general point stands around the sustainability of cricket clubs and the key part that groundsmen play in that, along with ongoing training and knowledge transfer.

HAVE YOUR SAY…

Who’s the groundsman at your cricket club? How long have they been cultivating your cricket square in all weathers? Tweet @cricketyorks or leave a comment on our Cricket Yorkshire facebook page.