Yorkshire County Cricket Club batsman Adam Lyth is at home and about to feed his baby daughter, Ruby, but finds time to reflect on a winter packed with new experiences. The thirty-year-old from Whitby made the headlines last summer with a sensational 161 off 73 balls against Northamptonshire in a televised NatWest T20 Blast game. […]
Yorkshire CCC
Who would be your Christmas guests from any era of cricket?
The Christmas turkey is in the oven, the pigs in blankets are tucked up, there is not a sprout in sight (author’s licence) and enough roast potatoes to feed an entire cricket club. All you need are your guests…but in this utopian, sprout-free world, who would you choose to invite from the world of cricket, […]
Stars of tomorrow: Yorkshire’s age-group cricketers
Last week, I had the good fortune to bag an invite to the Yorkshire age group cricket presentation evening in the Long Room at Emerald Headingley Stadium. It was a way of getting updated on how the boys’ county under tens through to under twelves have fared this season along with the respective development squads. […]
What are the lingering questions for Yorkshire CCC fans?
The county cricket season is officially over for Yorkshire CCC and in the harsh light of a crushing 376-run defeat in Essex, it has been far from a classic for those supporting the White Rose. That final nail in the 2017 coffin was the heaviest defeat (by runs) in the history of the club. Ponder […]
Limelight on Yorkshire but time to tame the Headingley beer snake
I was meant to be at the Sunday of England’s Test match battle with the West Indies at Headingley. I’d been looking forward to it for months as Test cricket in Yorkshire is a carnival party and when the eyes of the cricketing world lock on our wonderful county. As it turned out, life dealt […]
Sarfaraz Ahmed factor hits Bradford
Journalists milled around, shooting the breeze, making phone calls and waiting for a particular car to arrive at Bradford Park Avenue cricket ground. Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s new overseas player, Sarfaraz Ahmed, who captains Pakistan in all three formats, was due any minute to meet the media and talk to cricket fans at the new […]
Day-night Championship cricket: novel but don’t take the members for granted
The advent of day-night County Championship cricket with a pink ball. What would Fred Trueman have made of it all? It was tempting to suggest the historic part of this experiment was not the floodlights or late start times but the presence of all of the England players for their counties. Seeing Jonny Bairstow playing […]
Cricket debates at Bradford Literature Festival
This year’s Bradford Literature Festival takes place between 30 June and 9 July incorporating 400 writers and 300 events across ten days. It promises to be a wonderful whirlwind of literature, debate and entertainment for all ages and I’m delighted to be a guest panellist on 1 July at 11am in Bradford’s City Hall Banqueting […]
Cricket’s War of the Roses delivers but how much does it matter to fans?
Match day at Headingley. Yorkshire v Lancashire in the County Championship. Serious stuff. The walk up Beechwood Crescent tried to lighten the mood with an appeal to ‘Smile Beautiful’ emblazoned in blue (lipstick perhaps?) on a road sign. It was muggy and threatening clouds confirmed that I ought to have paid closer attention to the […]
Liam Plunkett on fitness and Yorkshire’s trophy quest
Liam Plunkett stands up tall on the railing in his aqua blue Yorkshire T20 shirt, puffs out his chest, points that chiselled chin and stares into the distance while the photographer reels off multiple frames. The Yorkshire and England bowler doesn’t grumble when asked to model moodily but flashes his best ‘blue steel’ pose (Zoolander […]