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Crunching along the gravel path at Bradford Park Avenue’s cricket ground off Canterbury Avenue took me to the newly installed eight-lane, non-turf cricket nets. Walls of chipboard and construction detritus highlight that this ambitious £5.5m project to transform a much-loved former county cricket venue into a top-class sports facility are ongoing but that in itself […]

When I was sixteen, I thought about cricket, girls and the next meal. The motivations of Julius Caesar, fiendish fractions and the periodic table went in one ear and out the other. This might have explained why my GCSE results passed only a vague resemblance to the infinitely more positive predicted grades my teachers thought […]

There is nothing quite like delivering positive news on a Monday morning for kickstarting the week. Not so long ago, Cricket Yorkshire ran its first competition of 2017 – an absolute belter if I say so myself – in association with our website partner B3 Cricket – to win a custom-made cricket bat. This was […]

The Queens Hotel in central Leeds is buzzing with tables in their Queens Bar taken up for business meetings. Stewart Reynolds, CricHQ’s Sales Manager for Europe, joins me for a mid-morning brew and to outline how the company are making noticeable technological strides aimed at recreational cricket. If you’re not familiar with them, CricHQ offer […]

As the frost crackles the leaves and we all cross our fingers against winter floods, spare a thought for the groundsmen around the country safeguarding sporting facilities from the elements. Based in Northampton, the company total-play has been working with those professional and amateur groundsmen, designing and installing top-quality sports surfaces, including cricket covers, since […]

Harold “Dickie” Bird, he of the iconic white umpire’s cap and mischievous humour wrapped in a broad Barnsley accent, has had many honours bestowed over the years from MBE and OBE to Yorkshire County Cricket Club President. The latest focus on the charismatic octagenarian sees an exhibition entitled ‘Dickie Bird: My Life in Cricket’ in […]

After a frenetic pre-Christmas rush to fulfil cricket bat orders while moving their headquarters to an old textile factory in nearby Hucknall, B3 Cricket are relishing all that 2017 has in store. The Nottinghamshire bat company have ambitious plans to set up their own Cricket Academy to coach the current and next generation of cricketers […]

David Barnes will be known to many in league cricket across West Yorkshire, and his story, told to me when we met at a cup final last month, is a cautionary tale worth heeding. After retiring from Southport Trinity Cricket Club in the South West Lancashire League, he began a distinguished career as an umpire first […]

While not my final destination, the 9.54 Sunday service through to Knaresborough was swelled with Yorkshire fans off to watch their heroes against Surrey in the cup semi at Headingley. As we all gathered waiting for permission to board, a man caught my eye for his commendable T-shirt with YORKSHIRE plastered across his belly in […]

Folk don’t half undertake some daft, ok, admirable challenges for a good cause. By the time you read this, Mark Sugden and Daniel Hill, who play and coach at Rodley Cricket Club, will have completed their charity walk from Headingley to Scarborough in aid of Yorkshire Cancer Research. That’s eighty miles over four days with […]