This is a feature about recycled plastic benches, volunteer time and a community supporting a cricket club. In this content collaboration with British Recycled Plastic, we’ll explore why Darton Cricket Club replaced their wooden seating, the thinking behind choosing recycled plastic and how they approached funding their benches. My interview is with Darton’s Chair, Joe […]
Cricket Grounds
Eggborough Power Station CC: The Eagles have landed
Going to Eggborough Power Station Cricket Club to check out their new ground offered a glimpse into the future and a reminder of the past. In 2017, I watched Eggborough’s evening league game against Carlton Towers when they had the power station’s cooling towers as the backdrop. Since then, the power station has been demolished […]
Killinghall take the points at windy Goldsborough
It was Bed Race day in Knaresborough, an annual event that sees up to 90 ‘beds’ being pushed nearly two and a half miles around a course that starts by the river. The route travels up around the steep roads by the castle and beds then descend through the town centre, back to the start…by […]
Bradford Park Avenue Ladies edge past Crossflatts at Windhill
Spoilt for choice on a Sunday that promised not to be chilly or wet for a change, I headed for women’s Premier League cricket in Shipley. Deposited on Platform 1 of the rail station, the lights opposite McDonalds were out so traffic had backed up into other postcodes. An electronic sign advertised ‘Clean Air Day’ […]
The game that wasn’t supposed to happen at Ripley
There’s something uplifting about a cricketer’s refusal to admit defeat to the weather. All the forecasts leading into Saturday’s Theakston Nidderdale League Division Six fixture between Ripley and the higher-placed Thornton Le Moor promised rain, rain, and basically more rain. The sort of forecast that encourages sensible people to stay at home, or since it […]
Bilton defeat Pool to lead Aire-Wharfe Premier Division
There are few feelings quite as reassuring as arriving at a cricket ground convinced you know exactly what you are going to do. There are fewer quite as humbling as discovering, within about thirty seconds, that you don’t. Armed with my trusty camera, monopod, seat, and a level of confidence that only comes from checking […]
Designed for altitude: Queensbury’s custom-made ACS cricket covers
Not all mobile cricket covers are the same. In this feature for ACS Cricket Equipment, we’ll explore the custom design made by Richard Shaw’s team at their Calverley HQ for Queensbury Cricket Club. ACS provides cricket clubs with covers, sightscreens, batting cages, flatsheets and accessories like their pitch water collector. As they have served the […]
Women’s Championship North: Wykeham shade it at Ouseburn
Over the years, I’ve been to Ouseburn many times to cover the men’s team playing in the league or one of the cups. It’s a lovely, compact ground on the edge of Great Ouseburn with plenty of that ‘away from the hustle and bustle of modern life’ vibe. A calmness – if you like. A […]
Harrogate Women’s 1st XI claim win against Bradford Park Avenue
Mark Doherty travels to the Kirbys Solicitors County Ground in Harrogate for the visit of Bradford Park Avenue Ladies in this West Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket League Premier Division fixture. Despite some dark clouds skirting around the edge of Harrogate, the County Ground was enjoying a longer burst of sunshine and the warmth it […]
Curry and chilling out among the penguins at Stainland
A return to Stainland Cricket Club recently, two years after my last visit, gave a chance to meet everyone again, marvel at the teas and be interviewed by BBC Radio 4. On a cold, grizzling day of rain, we had Halifax League 2nd XI cricket (credit to players and umpires), with appropriate fuss about the […]