On my daily travels online exploring Yorkshire club cricket, I’ve noticed the growing support for charities doing incredibly important work around mental health and suicide prevention. Charities such as Opening Up Cricket, Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) and Andy’s Man Club offer specialist help but also vital messaging such the #Itsoktotalk campaign. Here on Cricket […]
Cricket Interviews
Club cricket’s Ashes: Norton Oakes and North Ryde RSL
There’s always been a strong connection between cricket clubs in Yorkshire and those over in Australia. Whether it’s social tours or players getting opportunities overseas in leagues. Stephen Cook explains how a club cricket Ashes came about between Sheffield & New South Wales – and the enduring friendship ever since. The history of friendly rivalry […]
Joanne Wootton: The All Stars Effect at Worsbrough Bridge
With clubs in the midst of their All Stars and Dynamos programmes, it felt like a good time to share this interview with Joanne Wootton of Worsbrough Bridge Cricket Club. She’s at the heart of one of the most successful programmes in the area, with lots of girls joining and playing for the club. Dean […]
Pudsey St Lawrence: Primed, proud and ready on all fronts
The last time I saw Chris Marsden or ‘Spike’ as he’s known in Bradford Cricket League circles, was a visit in 2019 to their Tofts Road ground for their rain-affected game against Methley. It was for a feature in The Cricket Paper and a lot has happened for all of us since. I tend to […]
Mollie Ovenden: From the Nidderdale Cricket League with Raskelf and Alne to Bengaluru
Though we’ve never met, Mollie Ovenden strikes me as a cricketer who doesn’t wait for opportunities to come her way but grabs them. She has represented Yorkshire in county age group cricket, captained a men’s league team (Raskelf) in her teens, and at just eight years old, won the Wensleydale Creamery’s Junior Voice of Cricket competition. […]
Even having one of the best grounds in Yorkshire might not save Glasshouses
Recently, I spotted news on The Stray Ferret about the fact that Glasshouses Cricket Club in the Nidderdale Cricket League was in danger of folding. I was horrified. ‘No, this will not do!’ I said out loud to no-one in particular. Our cat looked up a little concerned. You see, Glasshouses Cricket Club is one […]
How on earth do leagues find more umpires for next season?
NEWSPAPERS, who tend to have skeleton staffs these days due to drastically reduced income from just about all of their traditional financial streams (about the only growth area these days is from the internet), have taken to re-printing pages from days gone by. Some would say that was a benefit to older readers, despite the […]
Bradford Park Avenue: Our hybrid cricket pitches
It was a relentlessly hot day at Bradford Park Avenue cricket ground for Interlink versus Cookridge in the Dales Council Cricket League. For this content collaboration with SIS Pitches, I returned to the city of Bradford to learn how hybrid pitches are helping this famous cricket site. *** Once a neglected former county ground, Park […]
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 […]
Tian Koekemoer: Taking all ten wickets for Tickhill
History was made at Shaw Lane on Saturday as Tian Koekemoer became the first player to take all ten wickets in an innings (10-38) since the establishment of the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League. Koekemoer, from Eastern Province in South Africa, had already contributed 40 with the bat before putting in a stunning bowling performance […]