Coming home: Village cricket returns to North Cave

“Village cricket is dying” is a common soundbite but there are reasons for cheer, if you seek them out.

North Cave is a village in East Yorkshire, separated from the River Humber as it makes its way inland by the M62.

Cricket returns to the village in 2024 as it welcomes the newly formed North Cave Coal Exporters Cricket Club to Church Street.

The cricket club’s Chair Andy Swallow gave me a brief history lesson and brought us all up to speed on the remarkable relocation of a cricket club, lock, stock and sight screen the six miles from their former home at Brantingham Park.

From the late 19th century, there was North Cave Cricket Club with the game played at its current ground since 1973 and then part of a sports and social social club that began in 1980.

The club folded in 2019 after struggling for some time with players and volunteers – and that could have been that.

Committee reboot pays dividends

Happily, it wasn’t.

Hull Ionian Coal Exporters Cricket Club (HICE), known as the ‘Coalies’, agreed last September to move to North Cave.

Andy acknowledged that this came about after some soul-searching as well as a restructure that’s had exciting consequences:

“The club has overcome many challenges in recent years and we are really proud of our journey. Like many village clubs, in its former guise, HICE relied on the dedication and commitment of a handful of amazing members – but there was a limit to what the club could achieve with so few hands at the pump.”

Again, I’m struck by how this tale hasn’t gone the same route as many before it: A slide to decline and perhaps worse.

From what Andy shared, 2022 was a bit of a fresh start that’s had the desired result:

“At the end of the 2022 season, we decided to make fundamental changes to the way the club was run. We set up a new committee structure with five sub-teams tasked with running finance, admin, coaching, communications and ground maintenance.”

It has led to more members helping to run the club, freeing up time to grow the membership, bring in more money and be more ambitious for the club’s future.

An epic move

If the decision itself was relatively straightforward, everything else since has come with its own hurdles to jump.

To meet league regulations and get the pitch playable again, there was much to do; even though the grounds team at North Cave had kept up basic maintenance of the square which was roped off, in case cricket ever returned.

“Moving an entire cricket club was a huge undertaking. Roll-on nets, score box, sight screens, covers, rollers, and lots more were transported via low loader on a very soggy moving day in November 2023.”

The new (or is that old?) home for North Cave Coal Exporters CC at Church Street in the village has been upgraded ever since from protective screens on the windows to stop balls disappearing into an adjacent field with fencing.

A new club needs a new badge and identity to usher in the era to come and I do like the direction that they’ve gone.

An Ionian column to represent the past and a tree to symbolise new roots and a nod to the tree that grows on the outfield in the village.

13 April: Event with former England wicketkeeper and artist Jack Russell MBE

To raise awareness of cricket being back in North Cave, encourage some volunteers and players as well as a bit of a fundraiser, Saturday 13 April heralds a day of celebration.

It starts with an intra-club match from 10.30am, captured on canvas by former England wicketkeeper Jack Russell MBE; an accomplished artist of many years.

Get ready for a tombola, cricket skills sessions, juniors match and a Q&A with Jack and cricket journalist Rory Dollard (himself an ex-Coalie).

With a fundraising auction and impressive cricket memorabilia to be snaffled, funds will be split between North Cave Playing Fields Trust and North Cave Coal Exporters CC.

The club has two senior teams, a mid-week T20 outfit and Under-11 juniors as a pathway to continue their Dynamos and All Stars programmes.

You can follow them as @NCaveCoalies on X/Twitter, @NCaveCoalies on Facebook or email [email protected] for more details.

So there you go. The Coalies have found a home in a (North) Cave. How fitting is that… and the start of a new adventure. We wish them well.