Little Ribston Cricket Club in the land of glaciers and Knights

Mark Doherty heads to Little Ribston Cricket Club where their 1st XI hosted Knaresborough Forest CC 3rd XI in this Theakston Nidderdale League Division Seven fixture.

It’s a Bit Chilly – Not!

If I had found myself standing where I was at 1pm on Saturday 31st May…maybe 20,000 years ago…Little Ribston’s ground would potentially have been under about a kilometre of ice during the Late Devensian period, and probably a good reason for the Theakston Nidderdale Division Seven game to be postponed.

No such issues to deal with in 2025, as our climate has warmed slightly!

I’d arrived at this hidden little gem of a ground early, knowing that I’d have to get through the security gate at the entrance to the Ribston Hall estate and walk down to the ground partially hidden by some magnificent oak trees, and a few apple trees [the Ribston Pippin apple having originated from a seed brought over from Normandy three hundred years ago and planted here].

A flock of sheep eyed me suspiciously as I wandered past them, but seemingly not too bothered by my presence as they continued to graze on the grass just outside of the cricket club.

I’m happy to report that I wasn’t to have any trouble with any woolly delinquents throughout the course of the afternoon.

Situated on the south-east side of Knaresborough, Little Ribston lies on the relatively flat plain that extends to the west of the Vale of York…with the landscape carved out by the massive icesheets that once dominated.

As many who live in the area will know, the sight of Millstone Grit is extremely common…Great and Little Almscliffe Crags, Plumpton Rocks, and of course Brimham Rocks being spectacular examples that you can visit, climb, and in some people’s case (coughs awkwardly) fall off.

Magnesian Limestone

You can see smaller outcrops of millstone in the fields around Little Ribston, however, most of the land has been turned over to rich and fertile farmland, as the sedimentary deposits from the late glacial period still provide excellent soil.

The village also sits on a rich vein of Magnesian Limestone, part of the subsurface that can erode quickly and cause many problems…as the residents of Ripon (to the north of Knaresborough) can attest.

I know that any geologists reading the above will probably be squirming in their seats, itching to type various comments and corrections to what I have written, but I just wanted to give a feel to the conversation I was having with the groundsman before the game…chatting about the uniquely undulating playing surface.

Looking across the ground, just in front of the small wooden pavilion, it is like God looked down on the cricket club and froze the surface of an ancient sea in an instant as a ripple flowed across it.

Well, as we all know [and much to Lancashire’s chagrin], Yorkshire is God’s own country…so he can do what he wants!

Little Ribston is a small village that seems rather frozen in time and once formed part of the Earl of Harewood’s and Ribston Park estates. The houses in the village have long since been bought by the owners and no longer form part of those estates.

Ribston Hall is still owned [I believe] by the Dent family and was originally a preceptory (a fortified residence) of the Knights Templars, with the Hall having St. Andrew’s Church facing it. It’s just a shame that Dan Brown hasn’t woven this village into one of his books…it certainly would have made a great location for the Da Vinci Code!

Saturday’s weather was pretty good…with bright blue skies, dotted around by a mixture of white fluffy clouds and a few more serious-looking grey monoliths floating into view. It was warm, but with the occasional gust of wind that signified a change was coming from the direction of the Atlantic.

As the home team turned up, they got busy with getting the ground ready for their game against Knaresborough Forest.

The pavilion was opened, with tables and chairs brought out and placed in front; the boundary reaffirmed with chalk powder; boundary flags set up at regular points; and the two makeshift sight screens erected at either end of the ground.

The ground is shared with Pannal Ash, and the last time I had visited, I’d witnessed a Mankad…that started a whole ruckus (neither of the teams I was there to watch on Saturday were involved). I’m happy to confirm that there was no reoccurrence.

Little Ribston roots

Little Ribston have played in the Nidderdale League since formation in 1896, with the Nidderdale League itself having been founded in 1894 (but with roots back possibly another 100 years).

I will say, the dates given when you do the research on the league don’t quite match up, with various sources stating 1894, 1896…and both earlier and later, with friendlies between villages being cited.

A more detailed look at the history of the Nidderdale Cricket League is probably best left to another day, but I would love to hear from Cricket Yorkshire readers what they know about the early history of the league, the original league season and the six clubs that took part.

Getting the Ball Rolling

The home team won the toss and elected to field, putting Knaresborough Forest into bat first.

Captain Munro Goldfield and Howard Elgot strode to the centre and got the visitors off to a great start. Munro looked really at home as he stroked the ball around the small ground to score runs regularly.

A misunderstanding about the potential for a single when Forest had reached 55, was to prove the downfall of Howard, as both batsmen ended up at the same end, putting Ribston’s wickie Steve Smith under no pressure to delicately tap the bails off the top of the stumps at the other end.

David Alloway replaced Elgot, but he was to be bowled by Stuart Kerr’s next ball for a duck.

Thoughts of a hattrick were dispelled as Thomas Crouse defended his first ball…but his second, was caught by Martin Brown off the bowling of Kerr.

Munro Goldfield had managed to put on a few runs in between, however, with the score now being 64 for three, there was the threat of a potential collapse in the middle-order. New batsman Steve Hardy had other thoughts and formed a steady partnership with Munro to put the visitors back on track to a good total.

Goldfield & Hardy lead batting efforts

By the time Little Ribston got the wicket of Goldfield, Knaresborough had doubled their tally of runs. With overs running out, the visitors pushed hard to add to that total and lost a few wickets along the way, ending their allotted 40 overs on 175 for seven.

Munro Goldfield had top-scored with 64 from 95 deliveries faced, Steve Hardy had scored an impressive 31 from 48, with Neil Bell and Gary Hague ending the innings unbeaten.

The home team’s bowlers had all done a pretty good job, with Stuart Kerr probably being the pick with figures of two wickets for just 15 runs in his five overs.

A brief interlude for a packed tea and then Little Ribston came out to see if they could overhaul the total set for them to chase.

Edward Daniel and Malcolm Purvis were to prove more than capable, as they hit fours and sixes around the small ground, putting immense pressure on the visiting bowlers to make a breakthrough.

By the time Malcolm Purvis’ wicket was taken – bowled by a lovely Neil Bell delivery – the home side had scored 86…pretty much halfway to the total needed. Malcom had scored 22 but had partnered Edward superbly to ensure that the home team hadn’t had any major scares to that point.

So near for Daniel

Steve Smith replaced Purvis and took up the challenge to help guide the home team to victory. There was one final, cruel twist in the game as Edward Daniel approached his century.

Edward had reached 95 and everyone was waiting for him to flick the ball one side or the other to score the last few runs to take him past 100; but a nicely floated ball, slightly misjudged by Ed…hit him on the pad and there was a loud appeal as all faces turned to the umpire.

There was a pregnant pause as the umpire deliberated…eventually lifting his finger to indicate out and a roar went up from the visiting players.

They had their man, with Daniel departing having scored 95 from 97 deliveries.

To be fair, they sportingly applauded the Little Ribston player as he trudged towards the pavilion. It had been a magnificent innings, with 12 fours and three sixes…I don’t think anyone would have begrudged him those five runs if he had got them.

Raj Vyas now partnered Steve Smith as the new pairing knocked off the last few runs to win the game by eight wickets. As the final few runs were scored, it was agonisingly clear Steve wasn’t going to be able to reach his half century…ending up with an unbeaten 47 off 51 deliveries.

Homeward Bound

Both teams, at the start of the day, had been near the bottom of Division Seven…and as I’ve said over the opening weeks of this season, we can’t read too much into the current positions, as a single maximum point win can lift teams up six or seven places in the table easily.

I must admit, this is the sort of ground that I really love. It has bags of character, being tucked away from the ‘real world’.

The delight of being on a country estate, away from the main roads, with the occasional dogwalker passing around the outside of the rickety wooden fence, lends this cricket club a huge amount of atmosphere.

It feels like an old English cricket club…no thrills, no bells and no whistles. But that’s not to say anything bad, quite the opposite.

This is another one of those clubs that if you love cricket, you should put on your list to visit.

I hope to meet you there one day.

PHOTOS

Want to read more?

Here are all of Mark’s articles and photos on Cricket Yorkshire.

To see more of his photography, you can visit caughtlight.com or he’s @caughtlight on Twitter/X.

There’s also the Caught Light Photography Facebook page.

I also highly recommend his blog called Leica Moments which includes days out at grounds around Yorkshire.