Height, heat and horses at Low Moor Holy Trinity

Today was a visit to the Halifax Cricket League and a club I’d never been to before. Low Moor Holy Trinity 2nd XI were at home to Stones in the First Division for 2nd XIs.

It was a weird day weather-wise. I had a coat and jumper but expected to shed both at some point. The Met Office reckoned it would peak at 20°C but the Weather app on my Google phone had been wrongly predicting much cooler climes all week.

📍 City centre Bradford

The train into Forster Square was quiet and the walk across central Bradford to the city’s other railway station, Interchange, allowed time to reflect on urban improvements.

On foot, to get to Interchange, you cut through the now pedestrianised, tidier and plant-festooned city centre, with the council regenerating areas such as Norfolk Gardens with wild meadows, planters and cycle paths.

It managed to be both busy with locals enjoying the sun, and yet without traffic, peaceful with a drummer on a bongo drum tapping out a beat.

It’s only about five minutes to Low Moor by train and I step out to be greeted by a giant robot head on the other side of the fence.

A mysterious installation I could find absolutely no information about online; itself quite satisfying.

The walk to the cricket club takes me up Cleckheaton Road to the corner of Park House Road where the cemetery for Low Moor Holy Trinity Church begins. A red Royal Mail letterbox in the wall feels like a portal between worlds.

🐓 Chickens and creative navigation

Park House Road scoots past a pub and gradually peters out. Google Maps urges me to continue though if you’re in a car, access to the ground is on the right via Bekaert, a company whose expertise lies in steel wire transformation and coating technologies.

I sometimes like not to know where I’m going. Fortunately, my travels for Cricket Yorkshire over more than a decade have provided ample opportunity to get hopelessly lost.

A track past a property with chickens in the back garden affords the first view of Low Moor Holy Trinity’s fenced off oval, off to the right. I get into the adjoining field and walk up to the fence, asking a startled spectator how I can get in.

Thankfully, a nearby gate is open – not the one that will be problematic later but we’ll get to that bit of unexpected drama.

The ground itself is well looked after; beyond which there is a field with horses flanked at the far end by trees and the fringes of a golf course. Given the M606 is not far away, the cricket club looks out over a wall of foliage in the distance.

As I park myself on a bench to catch a few overs and gradually crisp under a belligerent sun, a red kite circles slowly way up at altitude, pausing every now and then to hover.

We’re high up here at around 550 feet above sea level. Today, a warm breeze buffets everything; I imagine a typical Yorkshire early-season April fixture might need the umpires to glue the bails on.

Low Moor Holy Trinity’s opposition are Stones; themselves no strangers to playing cricket at dizzying heights where the rapier wind can rattle your teeth even in the height of summer. It’s a stunning spot though.

It’s about an hour into the match and Low Moor have Stones 60-3; a batting fightback from 9-2 that requires defence, picking off the bad ball and regular drinks breaks.

James Robbins top scores with 52; the mainstay around which the visitors hope to build a decent score. Ian, who let me in the gate and comes to watch at The Trinity Oval with his mum, is chatting to me about the club’s history.

🐴 Horsing around: Equines stopped play

It dates back to 1894 but I was told that the cricket club has only been on this site since the 1990s. They moved from nearby and the investment over decades is clear to see. Creating a cricket ground from scratch must have been quite the endeavour.

As we chat, I glance to the right at a flash of movement by the fence and in a surreal few minutes, the horses from the adjoining field have burst onto the pitch and are doing laps around the perimeter.

No-one seems too concerned. Might not be the first time it has happened and after some careful directing from fielders, the horses return to their paddock and the game continues.

There was also a fluffy goat with long horns and a mighty beard who didn’t see what all the fuss was about and opted to stay where he was during ‘Horse-gate’.

I grab a drink from the interior where the Pakistan Super League is on the big screen from Rawalpindi.

Low Moor’s bar is called The Shouldered Arms. At the entrance, there are plaques up to recognise the contributions of the Tetley family, including Brian, Trevor and Peter.

Peter Tetley played for Low Moor Holy Trinity for 56 years making his debut in 1947 aged nine. He took 3,500 league wickets over 50 years. Topped up by action in the Bradford & District Evening League, he tallied an incredible 7,000 wickets. (Thanks to Bill Marshall at the T&A for that one).

Back outside, I catch up with with both scorers on everything from scoring tech to favourite grounds to cheesecakes. Teas inevitably get aired as the Cricket Yorkshire Tea of the Year is back for 2025 soon with a month (June) to get your club entries in.

🍰 Teas and match reports

After due consideration, Mytholmroyd and Southowram both get a mention in dispatches by the duo. I also learn that the home club does match reports and having been shown one written by 1st XI Chief Scribe James ‘Jabba’ Broadbent, creative writing is alive and well on this Bradfordian hilltop.

It’s another way clubs can build team spirit, mention performances or highlights on and off the field and keep everyone in the loop.

After a really enjoyable natter with the scorers, I go and say hello to Rob, the host club Secretary who I haven’t seen for about a decade.

On the field, the 1st XI and 2nd XI senior teams are going through some transition with plenty of juniors stepping up. Low Moor have an impressive range of teams with two sides on Saturdays and Sundays as well as a Women’s 1st XI that formed in 2022.

Girls cricket followed with U13s and U15s and the club has the younger age groups covered with U9s in Division B of the Halifax Junior Cricket League, as well as efforts to build All Stars.

There is lots going on – including a partnership with the Yorkshire Cricket Board (YCB) to run the club’s first ever ‘Softball Summer Camp’ for boys/girls aged between 8-11.

Rob tells me it’s a proper family club; something you might hear often round Yorkshire but they certainly walk the walk here, as I reported last year when there were three families and eight players in an XI last season.

The club have been selected to host the Orox Crossley Shield on 7 August and it should be a chance to showcase what they’re about.

Other host venues for Halifax League cup finals include Sowerby Bridge (Parish Cup, 3 August), Mytholmroyd (T20 Finals Day, 6 July) & Shelf Northowram Hedge Top (Rod Warhurst Cup, 29 June).

🏆 Eurovision and hosting Cup finals

A little like with Eurovision (that I watched with the usual surreal delight after my visit to Low Moor), hosting finals must be a double-edged sword in club cricket. A feather in the cap and a chance to fill the coffers but the time and cost to organise them, hoping for a hot day and attendance.

While it would be good to share the finals around, I imagine with some leagues there aren’t lots of possibilities in terms of capacity, parking and some of the practicalities.

Off the top of my head, the Halifax League has a good number who could cater for a showpiece. Either way, should be a grand day out in BD12.

I should also mention an extraordinary charity feat taking place at the moment. Low Moor Holy Trinity CC member Richard Clough is doing a bike ride around all 18 county grounds to raise money for Marie Curie; the end-of-life charity offering hands-on nursing and hospice care.

The 6C’s charity bike ride (Cloughy’s County Cricket Club Cycling Challenge) is in aid of his son Mikey who passed away at the age of 28. This endurance challenge is a smidge under 1,000 miles from Chester-le-Street to Chelmsford; a solo adventure of some 22 days.

The fundraising target is £5,000 which equates to a single day’s care at the hospice. Very best wishes to Cloughy for his ride and fundraising.

Back to the cricket…

Stones 2nd XI have a late flurry of boundaries to conclude their 45 overs on 179-9. Liam Price (4-42) has led the home side’s bowling attack while Ben Thompson (3-25) took the prize wicket of Robbins when set and accounted for the middle order.

In reply, the hosts have to dig in to salvage a draw. Phil Robbins is the pick of the Stones attack with 4-24, along with Tim Hallewell (3-25). Nick Thompson (31) and captain Ethan Wells (28) start well for Low Moor but they are 133-9 at the end of the match.

Stones head back to Ripponden with 10pts to Low Moor Holy Trinity’s 3pts. In the table, the latter are in 7th (21pts) while the winning draw for Stones sees them in second (46), just 2pts behind leaders Shelf Northowram Hedge Top after four games.

Out of curiosity, I head back via the car park and a tree-lined avenue; incongruous in the midst of an industrial estate but a perfect example of where you’ll find cricket in the most unexpected of places all across Yorkshire.

A moorhen and two chicks are sploshing their way round an algae-lined body of water and then it’s back downhill to the railway station, pausing briefly to marvel at a full-sized Dr Who TARDIS (blue police box) in a back garden opposite the Singing Fryer chippie.

The reverse trip home include a brief detour into Bradford’s Waterstones bookshop in The Wool Exchange on Hustlergate. A chance to marvel at the architecture again and happily note that both of my club cricket books are still stocked years after they came out.

As Mrs Cricket Yorkshire and I settled in for an otherworldly Eurovision TV experience that involved a rubber-limbed Estonian singing about expresso, I could reflect on a grand day out.