Knaresborough stun York in YPLN Premier Division win

As you would expect of a cricket club established as long ago as 1815, Knaresborough have a storied history.

Topping the remarkable achievements of the 1970s will take some doing. In an unparalleled run of success, featuring numerous league and cup triumphs, Knaresborough dominated the Airedale & Wharfedale Senior League.

But the club’s Class of 2025, playing for the first time in the ECB-rated Yorkshire Premier League North’s Premier Division, are primed and ready to rise to the challenge.

On the Saturday of May Day’s Bank Holiday weekend, I was fortunate to be at Aspin Lane to witness Knaresborough’s hugely impressive home debut at this highest level.

A dramatic, nine-run victory over big guns York, secured after a stomach-churningly tense finish, is being described as Knaresborough’s most significant scalp.

The quality and determination apparent in Knaresborough’s performance bodes well for the weeks to come, suggesting the top-flight newcomers can not only survive but thrive, having clinched promotion as 2024’s Championship West title-winners.

After 58 years as Aire-Wharfe members, an ambitious Knaresborough switched to Yorkshire Premier League North in 2017. Since then, starting from the third tier, they have worked their way up, building steadily, both team and spirit, towards a day when they could meet, as equals, the likes of York. And beat them.

Knaresborough have played at their present ground since 1965. The preceding 102 years were spent a few yards back up Aspin Lane, at Crag Top, a site since redeveloped.

Looking at the ages of the houses surrounding the ground, I’d hazard, in the mid-Sixties, when Knaresborough relocated, the setting was merely a field amongst fields.

I was told the club had hopes of being able to use, for practice, land immediately to the southwest. But permission for housing was given, and the owner cashed in.

Twenty years or so ago, another batch of new houses was erected beyond the ground’s southeasterly perimeter.

With older housing to northwest and northeast (the latter, on the far side of Aspin Lane, looking very much mid to late Sixties designs), Knaresborough do not lack neighbours.

The three-element clubhouse – a plaque in its bar reveals an extension and refurbishment was completed in 2006 – is on the ground’s northwest side, from which the pitch slopes down, markedly, towards the square then beyond.

This close to the Harewood Estate, we are in red kite country. I was thrilled to see one soaring and swooping above Aspin Lane’s rooftops before, with the sun swinging round into the west, switching its territorial patrols to air space at the ground’s opposite end.

Although Knaresborough’s formation year is 1815, cricket had been played in the town during the previous century. In 1796, for example, at a ground called Rigg Moor, Knaresborough ‘Gentlemen’ took on Burton Leonard, for a £20 stake.

Between 1909 and 1959, when they joined the Aire-Wharfe, Knaresborough contested the Thirsk and Nidderdale leagues then, from 1923, the Yorkshire Council.

Knaresborough’s dazzling decade of glory as Aire-Wharfe members merits detailing: the First XI lifted the Waddilove Cup in 1970 (as a ‘B’ Division team), 1971, 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980, with the league title landed every year between and including 1975 and 1980 (and again in 1983 and 1984). To boot, the Second XI topped their league in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979, and won the Birtwhistle Cup in 1976, 1977 and 1978 (and in 1982).

Fielding in the breeze

Beneath initially thick cloud, with a cold (is there any other type?) northeasterly blowing across Aspin Lane, York drew first blood by winning the toss. To the bemusement of many (one York supporter dubbed the decision “insanity”), the visitors opted to bowl. I gather Knaresborough were more than happy to be asked to bat.

York struck an early blow by removing, for nine, with the score on 30, Knaresborough’s returning overseas Blake Weymouth.

Judging by how Weymouth flipped his bat, when striding off the square, the New South Walian, a Sydney first grade cricketer, was disappointed and frustrated with the shot that allowed Ed Booth (2-56 from nine) to have him caught by wicketkeeper Tom Brooks.

Knaresborough will be looking for Weymouth to reproduce his sparkling 2024 form: according to the club’s socials, 962 Yorkshire Premier League North second tier runs at an average of 60.13, with a top score of 120. The stats of play-cricket.com state he rattled up another 324, at 46.29, in the Harrogate & District Amateur Evening League. 

Against York, Knaresborough showed they could win, even when Weymouth has a rare off-day with the bat.

Tattersall and Pickles partnership

At 72-3, with Weymouth’s fellow opener Will Wade (14), a close-season recruit from the Bradford Premier League’s Ossett, and wicketkeeper James Ford (2) also out cheaply, York were probably reasonably content.

Then came a game-changing fourth-wicket stand, worth 140, between No 3 Jonny Tattersall (111 off 117) and captain Greg Pickles (75 not out off 94), in at five.

A former Knaresborough junior, England Under-19 cap and later Yorkshire captain, Tattersall is a legendary figure at Aspin Lane. On the wall of the clubhouse bar, framed and signed, is one of his Yorkshire shirts, along with a citation, listing his achievements.

Watching Tattersall bat was such a pleasure, I almost forgot how numbing the wind was. Footwork, shot selection, balance and timing. Sublime.

Good players make cricket look easy. One must not forget the hours of practice and coaching required to do that.

The latest victim of Nelson, Tattersall was bowled by Booth. Having struck three sixes and 13 fours, the game’s entertainer-in-chief left the field to a tremendous ovation.

From 212-4, Pickles and Caribbean-born Tashmial Henry (30 not out off 20), two long-serving Knaresborough players, put on a valuable 50 in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand.

Frozen fingers

Frozen fingers – increasing amounts of sunshine did little to raise the temperature – undoubtedly contributed to York putting down five potential catches. Unafraid to swing the bat, Henry, watched by his partner, who toured the boundary, selling raffle tickets, was dropped three times.

Would 262 from Knaresborough’s 50 overs be enough? Opinion around the boundary rope seemed divided. Looking at York’s top four batters – Duncan Snell, South African professional Breidyn Schaper, Will Fraine and Fin Bean – I wasn’t at all sure.

For a time, my caution about Knaresborough’s prospects seemed justified. Snell (43 off 63) and Schaper (81 off 120) put on 111 – Nelson again! – for the first York wicket before Schaper and Fraine (35 off 38) added 62 for the second.

Once again, however, never-say-die Knaresborough turned the contest on its head. Ash Watson (3-62), a winter signing from Yorkshire Premier League North rivals Sheriff Hutton Bridge, trapped Schaper leg before; the second of three wickets to fall at 183.

In rescue mode, No 5 Luke Kilby (33 off 28) and No 7 Brooks (21 off 24) teamed up to add 55, pushing York on to 238-6, leaving the outcome tantalisingly in the balance.

Jordan Tear (3-47 from eight), brought back into the fray at exactly the right juncture, then split Kilby and Brooks, having the former caught by Pickles. 

Watson, who got through 12 overs, could be heard, whilst fielding on the boundary, calculating, ball by ball, how many runs York required: 53 from five; 38 from four; 29 from three; 21 from two.

Between them, Watson and Tear ensured York’s seventh, eighth and ninth wickets added only nine runs. Finally, in the last over, with victory all but assured, Knaresborough could breathe more easily. York closed on 253, fractionally short.

Knaresborough’s players and supporters celebrated noisily. A sweet moment!

The following afternoon, Knaresborough underlined their credentials by taking another major scalp, Appleby Frodingham, this time in the first round of the 40-over K3 Dental Cup. 

With Pickles (65 not out off 72) and Tattersall (45 off 49) again starring with the bat, Knaresborough won by four wickets at Scunthorpe’s Appleby Frodingham, in many ways the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League’s equivalent of York. What a weekend!

Enjoyed the read?

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

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