The Lancashire League is a cricket league that is evolving at quite a lick after 120 years of tradition and stasis around its core clubs. Back when it was blazingly hot across the country, I had the chance to watch my only my second Lancashire League game, reporting as I do on club cricket for […]
Club cricket
Can franchise cricket keep teens in the game for longer?
For this episode of the Cricket Yorkshire Podcast, I went to Sowerby Bridge Cricket Club who were hosting the ZWINGO® Halifax Junior Cricket League U19 T20 Final. Even if the Twenty20 concept is tried and tested professionally, this interpretation was new for Yorkshire club cricket. Four squads – Northern Knights, Western Wolves, Eastern Eagles and Southern Spartans […]
What role does balance play for a batsman in cricket?
Brett Hillary is standing on one leg and demonstrating the importance of a batsman’s balance, as I sit attentively outside a cafe and bemused shoppers walk by. Brett’s creation, the ZWINGO® Balance, is an oblong orange box designed to unlock a batsman’s potential by helping them to improve their body movement and be in the […]
Has anyone scored more runs in Yorkshire than Jabir Patel?
You only have to cast your eye down the weekly honours boards for batting and bowling for the ECB’s Play Cricket website platform to note how many cricketers across Yorkshire excel across the county. However, Jabir Patel of Mount Cricket Club has taken it to another level. He has sustained an incredible run of form in […]
All Stars Cricket offers Crossflatts a promising future
Thanks to the first rain I can recall since May, I am walking along Keighley Road, soggy and pondering wretched luck – but coaches Lee Bailey and Mark Pennington have kindly agreed to meet anyway to discuss how All Stars cricket has gone down at Crossflatts Cricket Club. In case you haven’t heard about All Stars […]
Club cricket on the doorstep from Old Town to Harden
Throughout West Yorkshire, you are never far from a game of club cricket. Halifax, Sheffield, Leeds, Huddersfield and Bradford are all teeming with clubs but that’s really just the start. So, Saturday came and an experiment of sorts…to see what was out there on the doorstep (within 15 miles of CYHQ), armed only with a […]
Folkton and Flixton face Scottish adventure in National Village Cup
Having been shaken, rattled and rolled as we drove from Leeds to the village of Flixton, (between Scarborough and Bridlington) along the abomination that is the A64, we found we had time to kill. This National Village Cup tie between Folkton and Flixton and Broadbottom had originally been scheduled for 1pm but pushed back until […]
T20 cricket…but not as you know it
There is a wealth of cricket being played each week across Yorkshire outside the typical formats of leagues, cups and tournaments. On a whim, I took myself off to a T20 friendly with visitors Great Horton Park Chapel coming to Beckfoot Lane, home of Bingley Congs. You might wonder what’s the point of a game of […]
Driffield Town Cricket Club nets deliver for the community
Driffield Town Cricket Club’s new ’tp365’ Non Turf Cricket Practice Facility, installed by total-play, has been a slow burner; a patient journey but it is now pride of place. On my travels around Yorkshire, I see superb facilities spring up year-on-year but the dedication and collaboration to make it happen can often take years. Discussions […]
Tradition and the art of pies championed at Todmorden
The blackboard at the entrance to Todmorden Cricket Club hints at the traditional heartland beyond and to one of the finest cricket grounds in Yorkshire. Their emblem of both red and white roses adorn each corner; for the record, ‘Tod’ (as locals affectionately, or with a sense of pragmatism, call it) is in Yorkshire though […]