Muff Field Cricket Club: Make, do, mend and marvel

Muff Field Cricket Club’s entrance has a number of blokes assembling a bench while a big black dog excitedly jumps up at the fence that separates us.

(Mrs Cricket Yorkshire reckons I’m a dog whisperer and so it proves over the next few hours, becoming best friends with various canine companions.)

I like to note and reflect on first impressions; as it happens, the image of sleeves-roll-up graft, power tools and ground improvements is spot on.

Incidentally, I have turned up via the superb Pearls Tearoom and Patisserie nearby and carry a dainty bag of macarons and biscuits, tied in flamboyant purple ribbon for Mrs F. First impressions go both ways and I can only imagine what these three sweaty men make of me.

Muff Field are at the end of Sunny Bank Road, with two teams in the Dales Council Cricket League. You walk past the allotments and on the right looms the deserted Richard Dunne Sports Centre, named after the Bradford boxer who fought Muhammed Ali on 26 May 1976 in Munich for the undisputed heavyweight title.

Closed in 2019 and earmarked for demolition, it was in use during Covid as a temporary gym and lined up as a morgue during the pandemic but thankfully, that wasn’t required. Historic England stepped in and the building was granted protected Grade II listed status.

As I shoot the breeze with Steve Broadbent, Muff Field’s Chair, I learn the Richard Dunne Sports Centre was also used by Danny Boyle for filming his 28 Years Later film. I can’t dislodge the post-apocalyptic scene of two zombies staggering onto the outfield to field in the slips.

Beg, borrow, make and mend

The tenets by which many of Muff Field Cricket Club’s upgrades have happened are a combination of creative thinking, hard work and occasional chance.

The current clubhouse was bought on Ebay from a garden centre in Perthshire, Scotland. There was need for a new home with damage to the previous structures in winter storms.

What they’ve achieved since is mightily impressive. There’s attention to detail from the potted plants to the signage outside and then you step into a social space that has a bar, kitchen and plenty of seating.

I should add ‘applications for lots of grants’ to the impressive drive that sums up this plucky cricket club. Treasurer Matt Wilkinson is a bearded, flat-capped pocket dynamo. Every club should have a Matt. Some already do.

It’s casting the net far and wide to look for funding pots that match Muff Field’s needs and ambitions. Add in many hours of reading and understanding guidance, sourcing paperwork, conversations, emails, jumping through hoops and delivering what you said you would.

The cricket club has benefited from tens of thousands of pounds of investment from the likes of the ECB’s County Grants Fund, Bradford Council, Co-op Local Community Fund and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, to name a few.

This isn’t charity for a few players running around in whites. Muff Field are a warm and welcoming space in the depths of winter; a place for locals where the beer flows at a reasonable price and anyone can tuck into leftovers after the cricketers and umpires have had their tea.

The cricket club aren’t just grateful for any and all donations, they make sure those meaningful acts of generosity are put to good use.

Warburtons donated a mountain of teacakes to help with the bread demands of hungry cricketers. Meanwhile, the grounds equipment came from Shipley Providence CC; my old club who folded and suddenly had an inventory to shift.

This is BD5. It is not an affluent area where members can afford to donate massive sums to the club. Instead, they give what they can and also come together to do those jobs that always crop up.

Their sponsors certainly chip in too financially and/or in-kind with Cedar Court Hotels gifting a smart set of chairs as well as being the shirt sponsor.

Wibsey Roofing are on the back of the playing shirts while Coral Windows, MD Autos, PFP Wealth, Enigma Mortgages and LJK Window & Guttering have all supported (and hopefully renew with this stellar club for 2026 😉).

Everywhere you look, there are nods to design, repurposing and never more so than the way the large TV is cleverly embedded into the far wall that’s surrounded by a cricket scoreboard.

Tables have been made out of the old angular, black and white painted scoreboard numbers with an electronic scoreboard now installed at the top end of the ground.

Steve, Matt and I sit at the bar and talk teas. They won the Budget category of the Cricket Yorkshire Teas of the Year in 2024 for a generous spread that didn’t cost the earth. I discover it even fuelled internal ideas and gentle competition as well as a huge amount of Yorkshire Tea, some of which still sits in boxes above the line of mugs with club logo on.

Maddie, a doe-eyed bundle of energetic fluff, deposits a ball at my feet, licks me and requests my attention at all times. At one point during the interview, she even leaps into my arms for good measure. The fact that I’m already married seems to make no difference.

As I leave, Matt is untangling a mass of fairy lights to hang for the club’s Fun Day on Sunday 6 July at 1pm. Face painting, food, archery and a ladies cricket tournament all feature though not, presumably, at the same time.

The very next day, I return to Muff Field to watch their seconds play Leeds Super Kings in Division D. I can’t recall a time where I’ve ever gone back to a club so soon. It was tugging at me to see a match on this quirky ground that ducks and dives, as Richard Dunne once did against Ali.

Steve B and others tend to this wonderful patch that is in the middle of a hat-trick of A roads at Odsal and the start of the M606. Some clubs suffer for the thunderous drone of traffic but this one doesn’t.

The sun is beating down like a hammer and there’s a lively wind making my eyes rattle and water but it’s peaceful here. The ground ripples as if a grassy carpet has been unfurled and quite a few of the creases still remain.

The square itself, that none other than Yorkshire’s Head of Grounds Richard Robinson has visited to advise on, is a flat, elevated shelf that is in fine working order. I am no grass scientist but I can spot a surface that is likely to tread that line between bat and ball.

It’s immaculately cut and looked after. I am a big fan of these grounds with a difference. Give me slopes, changes in perspective and in this case, overhanging trees bursting with wild cherries for shade and character.

Cricket Yorkshire’s Facebook is going absolutely off the charts right now. I say that not to boast but 2.1m views in the last month represents significant attention on the grassroots game. My wider point is that I posted some videos from Muff Field and it has prompted a torrent of discussion from across the UK.

A bit of publicity for Muff Field, the Dales Council and a chance to chat with cricket fans about grounds and topography from Yorkshire, Wales, Scotland and all over really. Job done.

To return you to the ground, it represents a challenge of teams who come to Muff Field and perhaps, on auto-pilot, might set their normal field to each bowler, only to watch a tragicomedy unfold with boundaries leaked all over the place.

Leeds Super Kings, a smiling, friendly, energetic group who played some absolutely gorgeous cricket at times, struggle a bit with wides. It can be hard to find rhythm when your run-up feels as if you’re on the travelator from the BBC’s Gladiators show.

Home advantage?

At what I am calling the ‘allotments end’ there’s also the decision around where to position the keeper and slips. Do you stand very close on a flat bit or further back on an incline?

Fielding represents the same thought process with the added need to watch both ball in the air for a catch and where you put your feet. Preferably at the same time (although if your eyes can do that, I’d probably consult your GP).

On a ground where a par score if you bat well is easily 250+, I’d probably have scattered the fielders to the boundary and invited the batting team to rotate the strike instead. Not very Bazball but there you go.

I ask all these tactical decisions open-mindedly, by the way. It’s certainly not a criticism. Quite the opposite actually. You’ll read about the Lord’s slope or the nuances at Headingley but Muff Field is, er, another level.

Wouldn’t cricket be dull if all pitches and grounds were the same?

So, to the scores on the doors. Muff Field’s 165-9 off 40 overs is built around Piyush Vishwakarma (41), Sudheer Bathula (34) and captain Sateesh Maurya (28).

The visitors go through seven bowlers with the pace of Vignesh Kathiravan (2-34) a steady, economic presence on an afternoon where the breeze resembled a hairdryer on hot frizz mode.

Tea is taken indoors and there is plenty for everyone as England Women’s record dismantling by India in the T20I plays in the background. I chat to the host club’s President Michael and his mother who are also keen ground-hoppers and full of stories.

Super Kings scorch to target

The successful run chase gallops along like those horses I filmed charging across the square at Low Moor Holy Trinity back in May. Leeds Super Kings wobble at 24-2 and 50-3 but captain and opener Adalarasan Elangovan (60 not out) shows flamboyance and steady defence.

Keeper Mohan Kantharaju carts 68 off 49 balls to end any discussion of an upset including three maximums, one of which landed in the mirror pool at Centenary Square. (Give or take, if you’re getting Google Maps out).

Sateesh Maurya (2-24) and Ben John (1-37) cause a few headaches but it’s too few to defend when all is said and done. So, Muff Field 2nd XI (91pts) find themselves in eleventh place while Leeds Super Kings (129pts) occupy sixth.

Thanks to Muff Field for their kindness and hospitality, while Leeds Super Kings invited me to their home ground at East Keswick for curry and cricket. Sometimes, quite often actually, I love my job.

Before I go, check out Muff Field’s Play-Cricket website. They’ve done well in personalising their digital pavilion so it doesn’t look like every other site. The homepage cover image, custom pages and menu all caught my eye.

Want to read more?

So, that’s it for this roving travel report, one of the longest ones you’ll read on the Cricket Yorkshire website which reflects how much I liked writing it.

✍️ Club Cricket Headlines

🔥 Dales Council Articles

✅ Cricket Grounds Features