Ilkley Cricket Club host Saltaire in Waddilove Cup

In Ilkley, there is no escaping the presence of the eponymous moor, subject of Yorkshire’s unofficial anthem – and it dominates the Ilkley Cricket Club ground.

Its gaunt, at times austerely blank, mass rises impressively and inexorably to the south. As the afternoon sun swings round, highlighting the moor’s dots and dashes, first-time visitors will find it impossible, between overs, to avoid glancing across to an awesome natural feature which, technically, is part of the vast, sweeping Rombalds Moor.

From the Ilkley ground, on well-heeled Middleton Avenue, the moor’s finest gritstone outcrops, the Cow and Calf (or Hangingstone Rocks), are clearly visible.

Akin to artist L.S. Lowry’s ‘matchstalk men’, walkers and climbers can be seen, on the Cow’s sloping summit, absorbing what is a sensational view of an attractive stretch of Wharfedale.

Not that I was short of cricket distractions as I watched a compelling second round tie in the Waddilove Cup, the Airedale & Wharfedale Senior League’s blue riband knockout competition. 

With the outcome in doubt until the pre-penultimate over, Saltaire, seventh in the Premier Division, pipped by 22 runs an Ilkley side lying third in the league’s second tier. Saltaire’s reward for victory is a last-eight trip to holders Steeton.

All Ilkley’s sporting activities appear to be concentrated in the same district. Occupying sites north of the Wharfe, doubtless this was less sought-after land when, during the 1800s, the ‘Malvern of the North’ was developed as a spa – spaw, in Yorkshire speak – and a hydropathy (cold water treatment) centre.

The Ilkley cricket ground is hemmed in by Ilkley Rugby Union Club’s Stacks Field (to the south, across Denton Road; note its £1.8m, two-storey clubhouse – unveiled in 2011 and futuristically designed) and tennis courts (hard up against the north perimeter). 

Immediately to the east is Ilkley’s pool and lido, opened in 1935 and protected by Grade II listing, then the well-appointed ground (featuring an eye-catching, modern clubhouse, opened in 2022) of Olicanian Cricket Club. Ilkley Golf Club and, just south of the Wharfe, Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club are close by, too.

Ilkley is a major cycling hub (indeed, the town boasts the UK’s largest cycling club, Ilkley Cycling Club, founded in 1896), which means pedal-pusher after pedal-pusher passes the cricket ground on the relatively free-of-traffic Denton Road.

Proximity to the river can cause problems, of course. In early 2020, for example, the Ilkley ground was affected badly by two separate incidences of flooding. I was told the height of the water table means the outfield is often on the slow side.

Arriving via the gated Middleton Avenue entrance, the first structure encountered, in the ground’s southwest corner, is Ilkley’s tidy pavilion, opened in 2010 and dedicated to Peter Marshall, a former club president.

Peter, club president for 13 years, died in 2012. He was noted for his ability to assist in securing grants and for mucking in with necessary physical chores.

A long, low building, with a veranda-shaded patio out front, the pavilion houses the dressing rooms, bar/tearoom, kitchen and loos.

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Aire-Wharfe League founder members, Ilkley, established in 1850, do a wonderful line in memorabilia, most of which is displayed in the bar/tearoom. The collection includes everything from caps and ties to bats and scorecards. Even crockery!

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Amongst the numerous mementos, seek out a photo, of and signed by the competing players, from a September 1976 game, at Middleton Avenue, between Ilkley and Yorkshire. The match was an element of former England international and future Yorkshire County Cricket Club president John ‘Jack’ Hampshire’s benefit season.

In the loo corridor is a photo of an old wooden pavilion, looking rather decrepit. I assume this was the original replaced in 2010.

Initially, the Ilkley club played on land behind the New Inn (now the Listers Arms) before moving to the Crescent ground, covered subsequently by housing on Nile, Trafalgar and Victory roads, thence to Middleton Avenue.

Always had a soft spot for railway posters (a number grace my walls at home). From 1865, the railway, built jointly by the Midland and North Eastern companies, played a key role in transforming Ilkley into a holiday resort and visitor hotspot. Two Ilkley-themed posters – featuring the lido and the moor – can be seen in the bar/tearoom.

When I arrived, the players were laying out the tea. This doesn’t happen every week! Apparently, what was described as an “administrative stuff-up” about the rearranged date of the Saltaire Waddilove tie meant the usual providers hadn’t been given notice.

The pitch is large, flat and circular. To my delight, picking a spot beneath trees, next to the scoreboard, in the northwest corner, meant I could stay in shade all afternoon.

Dedicated to Mark Wilcock, the scoreboard was revamped in 2023. It provides a good deal more information than many at club cricket grounds. During Ilkley’s innings, I particularly enjoyed tracking the ups and downs of the ‘required run rate’.

Other than the pavilion patio benches and adjacent picnic tables, the seating offer is backless benches. Forms, I suppose you’d call them.

There is more on-site parking, behind and alongside the pavilion, than I expected.

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No wonder Ilkley have been given the opportunity to stage the final of the 2025 Waddilove Cup. Their ground will cope admirably with a four-figure attendance.

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I was told Ilkley hosting the Waddilove showpiece used to be a “permanent fixture” in the Aire-Wharfe calendar. It returns to Ilkley for the first time in circa 12 years. A club official, keen to extend a warm welcome to an unfamiliar face, despite being engaged in various matchday tasks, told me Ilkley are “really looking forward” to the occasion. 

A hybrid wicket – “it gives a truer bounce” – was used for the cup clash with Saltaire, who on a progressively sunnier afternoon won the toss and elected to bat.

Saltaire were indebted to No 3 Awaise Hussain (78 off 92), No 4 Haroon Mahmood (26 off 40) and No 5 Sandeep Singh (27 off 22) as they posted 224-9, a defendable total, from their 45 overs. From 98-3, Hussain and Singh added 51 for the fourth wicket.

Thomas Rowell (9-29-2), James ‘J.B.’ Bourke (9-41-2), an Australian spending a second summer with Ilkley (47 wickets in 2023), and Paul Dover (9-51-2) shared the bulk of the wickets. To my eye, effective pacer Louis Brown deserved more than 1-47 from nine.

It was, I thought, a decent effort from Ilkley. At one stage, Saltaire looked on course for 250. To echo an Ilkley fielder: “Really good standards, out here, really good.”

At drinks (23 overs), Ilkley’s 92-3 compared favourably with Saltaire’s 85-2. But when No 4 James Raper (64 off 94 including two sixes) departed, a home win seemed unlikely. 

No 6 Isaac Luffman (38 off 49) did his utmost to prove me wrong, by keeping alive Ilkley hopes. With his exit, however, the writing was on the wall. 

Ilkley needed 24 off the last 18 balls. Energetic No 9 Dover (15 off 15), something of a cricketing silver fox, produced a lovely cameo, featuring a glorious, driven four, before becoming the first of the last three wickets to fall in the 43rd over. Just one run added.

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That late burst of wickets, which saw Ilkley dismissed in 42.5 overs for 202, enabled spinner Nasir Shah to post figures of 6.5-27-3. His victims included Isaac Luffman.

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Other Saltaire bowlers amongst the wickets were Ihsan Ihsanullah (2-32 from nine), Tawkal Zadran (2-34 from eight) and Singh (2-46 from nine).

For Ilkley, a parlous 9-2 early on (“if we’re light anywhere, it’s batting”), Raper and No 5 Woody Luffman (26 from 28) put on 42 for the fifth wicket.

I was impressed with Saltaire’s enthusiastic fielding. Constantly looking for run out opportunities, they never allowed Ilkley’s batsmen a moment’s peace. 

Catch of the day, a spectacular, low, on-the-run effort, was taken by Woody Luffman. It dismissed, off Bourke’s bowling, No 8 and captain Sajad Ali (8 off 13). 

Good sportsmanship, too. Typifying the spirit in which the game was played, a Saltaire fielder fist-bumped Isaac Luffman as he returned, post-dismissal, to the pavilion. In a moment of game-breaking triumph, the visitors congratulated the vanquished.

With three other delayed second round ties completed on the same afternoon, the full draw for the Waddilove Cup quarter-finals can be confirmed as: Beckwithshaw v Addingham, Olicanian v Horsforth Hall Park, Pool v Otley, Steeton v Saltaire. The four ties are to be played on Sunday, June 30 (1.30pm start).

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