Season off to a flier at Pannal amid cake and conversations

Our first outing of the 2025 club cricket season involved a trip to Pannal Cricket Club to watch Pannal play Pannal.

The inter-club friendly was a gentle way to catch some overs on a day that promised a bit of warmth, while also keeping a keen ear flapping for any gossip and presenting Penny Barrett with the Cricket Yorkshire Tea of the Year trophy.

Our cricket teas competition, sponsored by Yorkshire Tea, is in its fourth year in 2025 and last season, Pannal won the judges’ vote having wowed us with choice, generosity and epic feedback.

The journey over from CYHQ involved a police car momentarily dropping in behind us and firing up their blue lights.

Cue momentary panic. A bit like when you walk through customs, know that you’re all legit but still feeling weirdly suspicious for no reason.

Thankfully, it scooted on by to attend an accident in Shipley. Another police car had collided on a roundabout and hopefully everyone involved was okay.

Once you get past Pool-in-Wharfedale, it feels but a moment before peeling off the A61 onto Burn Bridge Road and into the field that acts as Pannal Cricket Club’s parking.

It’s a village club that puts you at ease. Conversations flowed and it was a relaxed start to proceedings. Rather than the last two years of quagmire and lakes engulfing outfields, the ground looked decadently ready.

A wander out to the middle to stare intently at blades of grass (highly recommended) showed that the surface was dry and dusty; like a pitch you’d see in July. Spring has been very kind for a change.

A chat with Penny followed; she is the central figure at the cricket club when it comes to Pannal’s fabled, blockbuster cricket teas. We had lots of entries from club members last year but also from spectators, umpires and opposition players who were all impressed.

Apparently Penny had been considering hanging up her teas apron for 2025 with the weekly juggle that is baking, making and brewing not without its challenges. Happily, that was postponed with the trophy win perhaps playing a small part.

It might not have been a league game but Penny wasn’t messing about.

There was chilli and rice, lasagne, two types of macaroni cheese, trays of garlic bread, an inventive Thai-inspired salad, a moist Victoria sponge, decadent brownies and plates of cookies.

Mrs Cricket Yorkshire and I have been binge-watching the Great British Menu on iPlayer so I feel even more qualified now. (I was quietly rooting for Yorkshire chef Minal Patel, whose vegetarian restaurant Prashad in Drighlington is really worth a trip.)

It has left me with all the lingo from “Are you happy with the cuisson on that spam fritter?” to “Did the acidity of your baked bean foam pack enough punch?” Thankfully, I managed to behave myself in public (not always a given) and it was a cricket tea that reiterated a worthy winner.

The brews – Yorkshire Tea obviously – were served out of a giant metal teapot; the kind that you can often see around the clubs of Yorkshire, complete with handles.

Some of the first innings was spent camped on the benches with the batting side, delighting in the smokiness from a woodburner nearby and its waves of heat on a day where temperatures swung more prodigiously than a Jimmy Anderson delivery at Lord’s.

Photo: Penny Barrett (Pannal Cricket Club, right) receives the Cricket Yorkshire Tea of the Year from John Fuller of Cricketyorkshire.com. Image by Caught Light Photography.

Pannal have opted to return to the Nidderdale Cricket League from Yorkshire Premier League North; against the tide perhaps as that league continues to swell like Mogwai after midnight in the Gremlins films.

The decision, voted for by members, was partly taken to cut down on travel and the first eleven slot back into Division One. The 2nd XI and 3rd XI occupying Division Four and Seven respectively.

I note that Ben Rhydding, not far from me, have made it to the top flight after switching from the Aire-Wharfe League for the 2021 season. In both cases, a potential step down in quality but one made to re-energise things.

Arthington, repeat champions of the top of the Nidderdale Cricket League, have moved in the opposite direction to Pannal. Arthington’s absence has livened up the title contenders for Division One in 2025 and Pannal reckon if they can call upon the usual stalwarts consistently, they are in with a shout.

With tea a few overs away, I am handed a leash with a black, doe-eyed puppy at the end of it.

This is Millie’s first game of cricket and a different times, it is overwhelming and exciting. While her young owner walks out to the middle to swat a boundary with aplomb, she sparks out heavily on my foot.

Nearby, Willow (Millie’s parent I’m guessing) is ever-watchful. ‘At one point can I launch myself at the lasagne?’ seems to be the un-woofed thought.

We should, I reckon, mention junior cricket at Pannal because it is ridiculously successful. They have 200+ juniors, with loads of teams across age groups often with a train-related team name like the U15 Flyers or the U11 Rockets.

There is a train station near the cricket club with services scooting between Leeds and Knaresborough and a steam train is the club emblem so there’s more than a nod to all things railways.

I should mention Mark of Caught Light Photography too who kindly joined me at Pannal to take some photos, video and drone footage for Cricket Yorkshire. I’m looking forward to his coverage of grassroots cricket and the quality of what he does always shines through.

No sooner had he organised us painstakingly for a group photo than the tallest cricketer at the club sheepishly sloped out of the changing rooms to require some last-minute human Jenga.

Photo: Penny Barrett (Pannal Cricket Club, left) and John Fuller of Cricketyorkshire.com with the Pannal Cricket Club teams. Image by Caught Light Photography.

From memory, (Solar) Pannal (258-ish) beat (Control) Pannal (80-8 when I left) by quite a bit unless there was a mighty act of defiance from the tailenders.

Yes, I am making up those teams but the game wasn’t etched into digital history on Play-Cricket. I can definitely tell you Pannal won if that helps.

We trundled off home, sated from generous hospitality in every sense. The charm of village cricket had delivered, as it so often does.

Stay tuned for how to enter the Yorkshire Tea Community Cricket Awards that are launching in May; a chance to nominate your volunteers for recognition during the season.

The Cricket Yorkshire Tea(s) of the Year is back too with new categories and a chance for cricket clubs to win a trophy and lots of Yorkshire Tea. We’ll be welcoming entries during June so take photos of your cricket teas this season as they all qualify. Best of luck for both!