Cricket Grounds

Lurking on my ‘groundhopping’ bucket list for years, a visit to the sublime, sleepy setting of Thixendale Cricket Club lived up to – nay, exceeded – expectations. Put simply, it was a slice of sporting serendipity: when each piece of the jigsaw slotted neatly into place. The weather, in what is proving to be a […]

I’m not obsessed by the weather, but by the very nature of my job, I have to keep an eye on the forecast to ensure that I have the correct coats, boots and hats to hand…as well as ensuring I pick up the correct camera equipment and rain covers. These past two years have seemingly […]

‘Spofforth is the centre of the universe’ – a schoolfriend once said in all seriousness to answer a question posed by the young unsuspecting geography teacher during a lesson one Thursday afternoon at Harrogate Grammar School. Now, being totally honest, he probably knew that wasn’t the case, but watching the reactions of the only adult […]

Having not been for years, the prospect of a return to Roundhay Park was an appealing one.  The rough plan was to take in some of North Leeds’ Aire-Wharfe League Division One game with Bilton and perhaps a dip over to watch Leeds Gladiators of the Dales Council League at the Roundhay Oval.   The first […]

If you don’t like the weather in Britain, wait an hour. There’s a lot of truth in the saying, usually trotted out by knowing locals to overseas holidaymakers. I was reminded of it recently when, a mere 45 minutes before the scheduled start of a Thursday evening fixture at Thornton Dale Cricket Club, whipped up […]

Two days before my trip to Thornton Dale, I had been in the markedly different surroundings of Featherstone, a former pit village synonymous with – and renowned for ­– rugby league. They used to say, if you were after a decent scrum-half, all you had to do was whistle down the shaft of one of […]

The final day of June became a bonus dose of T20 cricket from Roberts Park in Saltaire, after a planned event at the Bradford Literature Festival was cancelled. It was an overcast day that threatened rain but thankfully, none materialised which meant an uninterrupted programme for the Quaid e Azam Sunday Cricket League’s T20 Finals […]

I love grounds like Pannal; secluded from the main road, transporting you away from everyday life, almost suspending normality. There are still the distant sounds of cars travelling on the main road that runs between Harrogate and Leeds, and the occasional blast of the train’s horn to signal its final approach to Pannal Station – […]

Penistone Cricket Club’s Queen Street ground could look very different when the 2025 Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League season gets underway. The club, whose First XI play – and are going great guns – in Division Two, the league’s fourth tier, hope next spring to unveil a state-of-the-art pavilion. According to Penistone Cricket & Sports […]

It is going to be impossible to write about a visit to Denby Cricket Club, one of many smashing grounds in the Huddersfield League, without mentioning Chris Holliday.  So, I’ll do it straightaway (right off the bat, as it were). In 2020, which will go down in cricket history as ‘The COVID Season’, Holliday, then […]