Hunkered down beneath the Dark Peak’s Wessenden Moor, cradled within a near-circle of a Holme Valley tributary’s gritstone hills, Meltham must count amongst Yorkshire’s most attractively sited small towns. A Thursday evening Huddersfield Premier League T20 Shield Knockout quarter-final, against local and Championship division rivals Slaithwaite, tempted me into making only a second visit to […]
Miles Per Gallon
YPLN Hundred: Bridlington and Brandesburton shine
Always keen to increase my ‘grounds visited’ total, I leapt at the chance to watch two matches – at different venues – on the same day. The Yorkshire Premier League North’s 2025 Hundred first round provided an opportunity, on a Sunday, to take in Premier League Two Bridlington hosting Championship East Scarborough (10.30) followed by […]
Wolds apart as Hull Strikers win the Battle of Walkington
For the second time in five days, I found myself watching cricket on the fringes of the rippling Wolds, surely Yorkshire’s most underrated landscape. A quarter-final of the Yorkshire Premier League North’s Dave Conner Memorial Trophy, between teams placed second and first in Division Two Holderness, held sufficient eastern promise to tempt me back along […]
Welton win by a Furlong to top YPLN Championship East
Although cricket is a team game, individual performances frequently take the eye. An important Yorkshire Premier League North fixture, at Welton & Brough Sports Club, between Championship East promotion contenders Welton (second) and Pickering (first), featured two stellar solo contributions. Welton’s 104-run victory, in a contest whose outcome hung in the balance for much longer […]
T20: Sixes at altitude as Cumberworth United progress
On the hottest day of the year – albeit a temperature almost certain to be bettered several times in the coming weeks – I was desperate for a breeze. Heading for height seemed a sensible option for Thursday evening cricket, so I went to Cumberworth United’s Cumberworth Lane ground, which stands at 719 feet. There […]
Where does Yorkshire (and its club cricket) begin and end?
Geographically, where does Yorkshire (and its club cricket) begin and end? Plenty would say Saddleworth is still very much part of the Broad Acres, despite it being more than 50 years since this most scenic of upland districts, a West Riding outlier, was absorbed by the Greater Manchester behemoth. Yorkshire Ridings The Yorkshire Society sums […]
Parish Cup: Cullingworth welcome Mount to Roydwood
Who is the only US president to have received a Purple Heart? How many bones are there in an adult human skeleton? Who was the first woman in space? A fellow spectator, at Cullingworth Cricket Club’s Roydwood ground, was a quiz enthusiast. In addition to learning stuff I didn’t know, I realised, in some quarters, […]
Sambuca, Swans and stunning catches at Burton Salmon
Marooned amid acre upon acre of flat, fertile crop fields, almost a mile from the eponymous village, Burton Salmon Cricket Club is splendidly isolated. Located next to Burton Common Lane, a dead end, single-track and at this time of year cow parsley-fringed byway, which eventually peters out at a farm, the Burton Salmon ground is […]
Knaresborough stun York in YPLN Premier Division win
As you would expect of a cricket club established as long ago as 1815, Knaresborough have a storied history. Topping the remarkable achievements of the 1970s will take some doing. In an unparalleled run of success, featuring numerous league and cup triumphs, Knaresborough dominated the Airedale & Wharfedale Senior League. But the club’s Class of […]
Village Cup defeat but lease, grants and facilities boost at Hensall
There is a lot happening at Hensall Cricket Club, as I discovered when visiting their Bird Lane ground to watch a preliminary round tie in the 2025 Voneus National Village Cup. Hensall, who this season will play at tier four – Division One Ebor – of Yorkshire Premier League North (YPLN), gave Group Three (North […]