For several years, I put together, on behalf of a Skipton-based publisher, the editorial side of an annual (bi-annual, initially) visitor guide to Yorkshire. It meant spending a lot of time in the Dales (well, somebody had to do it). Quickest access to Wensleydale, for me, was via the eastern outskirts of Ripon and the […]
Club cricket
Watching on FrogBox: Illingworth 2s vs Oxenhope 2s
We’d done a Saturday walk to Saltaire – no cricket at my old place of Shipley Providence – they’re down to one team and the square was cordoned off. A shame to see that empty on a summer’s day – an opportunity for the host club to earn by renting the ground and a chance […]
Andrew Watson: 45 years in Yorkshire Cricket
I first met Andrew Watson, the former Managing Director of the Yorkshire Cricket Board, at Headingley to talk about Cricket Yorkshire. He fizzed with ideas, had a myriad of names at his fingertips then sealed a lifetime friendship by buying me fish and chips at Stumps Restaurant. We catch up by phone a few months […]
NYSD Hundred: Sea fret and sixes for Whitby versus Guisborough
There is a lot to like about Whitby. Maybe too much! The town hit the headlines recently when, in a local referendum, residents voted in favour of measures aimed at cutting the number of homes used for holiday accommodation. About 28 per cent of properties in Whitby are second homes. Families say they are being […]
Aire-Wharfe Cricket: Beckwithshaw vs Bolton Villas
Visiting Beckwithshaw Cricket Club has been on my radar for years. Those of us who hop around cricket club grounds tend to rub shoulders and recommendations get passed on. On a scorching Saturday, it was time to put that right with their Second Eleven at home to Bolton Villas in Inter-Division 5-6 of the Aire-Wharfe […]
Halifax Cricket League: Luddenden Foot vs Old Town
A trip to Luddenden Foot for the Halifax Cricket’s League Parish Cup was an eventful one. The drive takes you up into the clouds of the Upper Calder Valley, along narrow stretches until you plop out on Sowerby Lane. We parked up just as a tractor wanted to squeeze past the row of parked cars […]
Viking Cup: Jake Weatherald stars for Barnsley Woolley Miners
For which club did Dickie Bird OBE, Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Sir Michael Parkinson play? Surely, everybody – even me – knows the answer. Barnsley Cricket Club. After visiting Shaw Lane Sports Club, to watch a Viking Cup quarter-final against York, I know quite a bit more about the Barnsley club. The eventful history of […]
Summer solstice cricket derby at Allerton Bywater
June 21: the summer solstice, midsummer’s eve, not a hint of rain. What to do? Stonehenge is a long drive, I cannot count any Druids amongst my circle of acquaintance, blood sacrifices are terribly messy (and likely to be illegal), and I am probably rather too near 60 for stripping naked and making love beneath […]
Ackworth represent Yorkshire in National Village Cup
Ackworth Cricket Club fly the flag for Yorkshire in the last 16 of the Voneus National Village Cup, the September 18 final which will be played at Lord’s. New to the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League for the 2022 season, Ackworth travel on Sunday (July 3) to Rainford, a club from a community five miles […]
York’s Finlay Bean wins Yorkshire contract after his 441
A 20-year-old club cricketer, Finlay Bean, who plays for York Cricket Club has won a rookie contract with Yorkshire County Cricket Club, after his 441 against Nottinghamshire Seconds at Lady Bay. He has committed his future to the White Rose in a deal that keeps him at Headingley until at least October 2023. Yorkshire’s Interim […]