It was a crisp March morning inside the Carnegie Pavilion when BBC Radio Leeds’ cricket commentator Jonathan Doidge joined me to gaze out at the Headingley outfield and talk county cricket, the club scene and all things sport. The Doidge name will already be known to many of you across club cricket in West Yorkshire […]
Interviews
Abbeyfield sees the potential of Clock Cricket
It’s not often you witness an entirely new form of the game where Mary, a 94-year-old blind woman is happily sat indoors trying to launch a cricket ball at the roof. Welcome to Clock Cricket, created by Richard Hill, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) Disability Cricket Support Officer. The goal is to encourage […]
Leeds Bradford MCCU: First-class…for now
As the sun streams through the balcony window of the pavilion at Weetwood, Andrew Lawson, Head Coach of Leeds/Bradford MCCU, is summoning the words to assess the 336-run defeat down at Derby that concluded the day before. It has been a chastening few days for the student sides against county opposition, highlighted by Somerset’s enormous […]
Martin Ivill on life as Yorkshire Over 60s cricket captain
Nowhere in the lyrics by the Beatles of ‘When I’m 64’ does it mention scrapping against the new ball on a sapping afternoon at Kirkstall Educational in the Over 60s County Championship. Such reticence by John Lennon and Paul McCartney reflects the fact that even though cricket is viewed as a game where we can play […]
Ray Illingworth on Farsley and life in the Bradford League
For an assignment on behalf of The Cricket Paper, I found myself puffing up Red Lane to Bradford League outfit, Farsley Cricket Club. On a day with only the occasional whisper of wind and a crackling heat, getting myself thoroughly lost amid the myriad of streets from New Pudsey station proved thirsty work. Farsley turned […]
Jack Brooks on fitness, form and emptying the bars when he’s batting
Yorkshire County Cricket Club seam bowler Jack Brooks must have broken a few mirrors last season such was his bad luck with injury. Sporting what he laughingly refers to as an Oxfordshire tan after catching the sun in the pre-season tour to Potchefstroom, the Headband Warrior is on fine form at the County Media Day. As […]
The MCC Foundation Hubs supporting cricketers from state schools
The topic of cricket in state schools – or rather its conspicuous absence – is something that will fire up anyone who cares about the present health and future of cricket. “There is no cricket in state schools” is a comment I hear all the time and compared to the heady days after the 2005 […]
Albert Pagan: Tutoring Michael Gough and triggering Desmond Haynes
Albert Pagan, 88, well known in the North Yorkshire & South Durham Cricket League (NYSD) cricket circles, is reflecting on national umpiring recognition: “I’ve been very lucky to be selected to represent all of my colleagues. The effort they’ve put into setting standards in the North Yorkshire South Durham League…the players have done remarkably well […]
Jekyll and Hyde: Life as Nidderdale Cricket League Secretary
It comes to something when stalwarts as invested in recreational cricket as Graham Hyde decide to call it a day. We are less than a minute into a roving conversation about the health of Yorkshire club cricket and the outgoing Honorary Secretary of the Theakston Nidderdale Cricket League puffs out his cheeks. In relief or […]
Martin Andersson vying with Gary Ballance as first to 1,000 runs
Two of the most prolific batsmen in the embryonic stage of our cricketing summer are from Yorkshire. Yorkshire County Cricket Club captain Gary Ballance is one (scoring hundreds for fun) but can you name the other? Leeds Bradford MCCU batsman Martin Andersson is not a name who is up in lights just yet but he […]