Green Moor lift Billy Oates Memorial Cup at Hill Top Lane

Just when I thought I’d been to the Yorkshire cricket ground with the finest view (insert your own favourite here), I happened upon Green Moor Cricket Club’s Hill Top Lane.

When I arrived, shortly before an August heat haze obscured the eastern horizon, I could see the cooling towers of Drax power station – something like 40 miles away.

A Green Moor regular told me that, on a very clear day, the Humber Bridge, another 20-plus miles or so further on from Drax, is discernible from the Hill Top Lane ground.

Other, more local landmarks dotting a stunning panorama include the Emley Moor telecoms mast and the humbug-banded main building of Barnsley Hospital.

The seriously elevated Hill Top Lane, close to the South Pennine watershed separating the valleys of the Don and the Little Don (or the Porter), is appropriately named. 

With a high summer sun beaming down, a pleasant, cooling breeze afoot, and a small herd of Herefordshire cows in an adjacent field, it was a delightful setting for cricket.

Not always so, as that same regular suggested when remarking: “Oh, it’s lovely on a day like this.” Hinting, I imagine, at howling, chilling gales in April and September.

Green Moor Cricket Club had been invited, before this season began, to host the final of the 2025 Billy Oates Memorial Cup, a knockout competition for the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League’s divisions six, seven, eight and nine members.

In fairytale fashion, Green Moor reached the final, where, on their own turf, they met (and, as we shall see, defeated by two wickets) Division Six rivals Waverley.

Victory was a real coup for Green Moor, who lie fourth in the division, the league’s eighth tier, a place and 12 points off the three promotion positions and 46 points behind their Totley-based opponents, the unbeaten leaders.

It was lovely that several members of the late Billy Oates’s family watched the action from in front of Hill Top Lane’s pavilion. Guests included Billy’s daughter, Margaret.

It was lovely that several members of the late Billy Oates’s family watched the action from in front of Hill Top Lane’s pavilion.

Guests included Billy’s daughter, Margaret. Billy (not to be confused with his son, also Billy, who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire and Derbyshire) was president of the Aston Hall club and of the defunct Sheffield League.

Hill Top Lane, with its undulating pitch (not dissimilar, I felt, to nearby Hoylandswaine’s), is surely as quirky a cricket ground as you’ll find in the Broad Acres.

Owing to Hill Top Lane’s prodigious slope, when viewed from the south side, boundary fielders in certain locations opposite are hidden from the chest down. 

Clearly, Green Moor went to a lot of trouble to make their staging of the 2025 Billy Oates Memorial Cup showpiece a special occasion.

Food available included a barbecue and home-made cakes (a big rap for the Rocky Road), and a raffle featured a selection of prizes. Usually, Green Moor’s sole matchday raffle prize is a breakfast. “You’ve got to cook it yourself,” I was told, by the ticket seller.

Green Moor’s efforts were rewarded with a three-figure attendance, and a lively contest containing satisfying ebbs and flows.

I guess, too, takings were healthy at the clubhouse bar. A Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League official told me Green Moor were selected as final host partly because it was an opportunity for a smaller club to gain a financial boost.

Green Moor’s ground, accessed via Chapel Lane then an unmade track (Hill Top Lane), is at the highest point of a village once noted for large scale sandstone quarrying.

During the 1800s, Green Moor sandstone was sent to Goole, by boat, via Worsbrough Canal, before continuing its water-borne journey to Hull then London. Later, transport was from Wortley railway station, where there was a sawmill.

Stone flags from Green Moor can be seen around the Houses of Parliament. Some London streets, it is said, were paved from the same source. Since Green Moor’s last working quarry closed in 1936, all have been filled in, wholly or partially.

Green Moor boasts an interesting connection to the silver screen: acclaimed director Ken Loach based himself in the village while shooting the 1969 film Kes.

Waverley won the toss and, in gloriously cloudless conditions, probably surprised nobody present by electing to bat. 

However, Green Moor were only too obviously fired up, from the afternoon’s first delivery, and by the 24th of the 40 scheduled overs had reduced their opponents to 85-6.

No complacency from the home players, mind. One bellowed to his team-mates: “All the way down, boys. They bat all the way down.” 

Just days into the new football season, spectators behind me were bemoaning how “terrible” Sheffield United look at the back. 

That would have pleased my late father, who was raised a ‘Wednesdayite’ before, on relocation, switching allegiance to Halifax Town. Out of the frying pan!

A chaotic runout, for the eighth wicket, signalled Waverley’s growing anxiety. Captain Vishnu Das Devadas (9 off 9), in, would you believe it, at 9, was the batter to depart. It was the third wicket in which Green Moor glovesman Julian Bates had a hand.

Waverley were bowled out for 109, in just under two hours, after 29.5 overs. No 4 Sajid Hussain (32 off 21, three sixes, two fours) was their top scorer.

Tellingly, Green Moor’s bowlers shared out the wickets. Useful contributions came from Satinderpal Singh (2-7 from three), Joe White (2-17 from 6.5), Curtis Coles (2-24 from eight) and James Christopherson (2-23 from five).

Perhaps keen to make amends, Waverley’s players wolfed down their tea, and were out on the pitch a full 20 minutes before Nigel Dowkes’s Green Moor lads.

The visitors, bit between their collective teeth, had Green Moor 27-3 in the seventh over.

But No 5 Singh (28 off 45, two fours), the official man of the match, then featured in two important partnerships. With No 3 Coles (29 off 32, four fours), he put on 38 for the fourth wicket before, with No 6 Jake Sharp (17 off 26, three fours), adding 34 for the fifth.

At 99-5, despite the departure of Singh, trapped leg before by Belgin Thomas (2-6 from two), Green Moor had victory in their sights, only to be struck by a nerve-wracked wobble, reducing them to 108-8.

With the scores tied for what seemed an age, a no-ball clinched, in anti-climactic circumstances, a memorable Green Moor triumph. 110-8 from 25.2 overs.

Joe Karedan, who opened the bowling for Waverley, finished with 2-20 from five.

It is encouraging to see Green Moor Cricket Club bouncing back from recent troubles. The last time I watched Green Moor, at Sprotbrough, in 2022, they were playing in the Championship – level two – of the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League.

But Green Moor, formed in 1950 and who switched, in 2017, from the defunct Huddersfield Central League to the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League, fielded only one senior team last year. A reduction in senior player numbers was the issue.

In 2024, however, Green Moor secured promotion from Division Seven, and are continuing to progress, on and off the field, as the July edition, posted on the clubhouse noticeboard, of the club’s excellent monthly newsletter informs.

Following up the “resounding success” of their under-15 girls’ team, Green Moor have set up an inclusive cricket section, for children aged 10 to 18 with a special educational need and/or a disability, including those with a neurodiversity.

The “tireless” efforts of club treasurer Donna Rhodes ensured Green Moor’s inclusive cricket section was established. Its first session took place on May 31. Sessions are held at Hill Top Lane on Sunday mornings at 10 o’clock.

In recent years, Green Moor have undertaken substantial work to level their ground’s square and outfield, and renovated Hill Top Lane’s clubhouse.

An improvement for 2025 has been the addition, to the patio in front of the clubhouse, of wooden spectator benches. They have proved a hit with Green Moor’s visitors.

A thriving junior section runs Dynamos and All Stars sessions, along with age group teams from under-nines to under-17s. Under-13s returned in 2025 after a brief absence.

In a pre-season article posted also on the clubhouse noticeboard, Green Moor chairman Phil Simpson states: “The club was facing a period of uncertainty this time last year but went on to record some notable achievements.

“But we are not looking in the rear view mirror. We are concentrating on the road ahead. Although hosting the final of the Billy Oates Memorial Club is a great credit to everyone at Green Moor, the club needs seriously more volunteers and fundraising to allow it to prosper.”

Waverley (the name derives from a Rotherham housing development, where the club began life) Cricket Club joined the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League, from the Yorkshire and Derbyshire League, for the 2025 season.

Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League chiefs are very pleased with Waverley’s debut campaign in their competition, and regard the Totley club as a major asset.

This November, at its 2025 annual meeting, the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League is expected to rubber stamp a huge expansion and ambitious restructuring.

For 2026, the league will absorb the Yorkshire members of the Yorkshire and Derbyshire League, which is calling it a day after 56 years, and bring in at least two more Pontefract and District League clubs. Pledwick and West Bretton, I was told.

Watch out for a full report, on cricketyorkshire.com, of decisions made at the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League’s annual meeting.

This Sunday (August 17th), Darfield Cricket Club stage the final of the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League’s Mick Savage Trophy (12.00).

It is a meeting of the top two teams, Coal Aston (second) and Upper Haugh (first, 20 points clear), in Division One. Coincidentally, the title and promotion rivals play each other, the day before, in a league fixture, at Dronfield-based Coal Aston’s Stonelow Playing Fields (12.00).

Enjoyed the read?

You can check out other club visits by Andrew in his column, Miles Per Gallon.

Here are all of our club cricket articles, with the latest first.