Super Sunday: Four clubs representing Yorkshire nationally

It is ‘Super Sunday’ this weekend – July 6 – for four of Yorkshire’s teams taking part in the climactic stages of blue riband national knockout club competitions.

The men’s sides of York (ECB National Club Championship) and Thornton (National Village Cup), and their women’s counterparts from Sessay Emeralds (ECB Women’s Club Cup T20) and North Leeds (ECB Women’s Club Plate T20), face big games.

York, from the Yorkshire Premier League North’s top-flight, have a tough assignment at Gosforth, Newcastle, where they face, at 1pm, North East Premier League titans South Northumberland in the ECB National Club Championship’s Round of 16.

Both York, Yorkshire’s last representative in the 40-over competition, and South North – as they’re known on and around Tyneside – lie third in their respective Premier Division tables, going into what is the ECB National Club Championship ’s first ‘national’ round.

To reach this point, York, drawn in qualifying Group One, have beaten the North Yorkshire & South Durham Premier League’s Marton (by 50 runs) and Richmondshire (by 76 runs) then Bradford Premier League pair Pudsey St Lawrence (by five wickets) and Woodlands (by 189 runs).

In the tie at Oakenshaw-domiciled Woodlands, on June 15, York rattled up 340-3 before dismissing their hosts for 151 in 28 overs.

South North, aiming to take a fourth Yorkshire scalp, came through Group Two by seeing off Harrogate (by 70 runs), Castleford (by 83 runs) and, on June 15, Sheffield Collegiate (by 67 runs).

Both York (1975 and 2012) and South Northumberland (2006, 2010 and 2016) have won the ECB National Club Championship, the 2025 final of which will be staged at Lord’s.

Richmondshire – in 2018 – are Yorkshire’s most recent national champions. 

The competition’s two other northern survivors, Ormskirk and Crosby-based Northern, each of the Liverpool & District Cricket Competition’s top-flight, also face off on Sunday. They meet at Ormskirk. Northern were beaten finalists last season.

Thornton, third in the Halifax League’s Premier Division, will have Lord’s on their mind, like York, as they contest round six of the 40-over National Village Cup.

In what is the competition’s second ‘national’ round, featuring 16 clubs, Thornton are at home to Woodhouses, placed third – the final promotion slot – in the Greater Manchester League’s third tier Championship. Start time is 1pm.

The road to Lord’s

Thornton have progressed via Group Five (West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside). After a first round bye, the Hill Top team defeated the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League’s Frickley Colliery (by nine wickets), the Bradford Premier League’s Streethouse (by one run) and the Huddersfield Premier League’s Slaithwaite (by five wickets).

In the first national round, round five, on June 22, Thornton won, by six wickets, at the Yorkshire Premier League North’s Carlton Towers.

Owing to an unfortunate clash of dates, Thornton were forced, that afternoon, to prioritise the National Village Cup over the Halifax League’s Parish Cup. They conceded a Parish Cup quarter-final against Copley.

Woodhouses, whose ground is in the Failsworth district of Manchester, progressed via Group Seven (South Lancashire), recording comfortable wins over Foulridge, Sedgwick and Ainsdale. Their round five victims, beaten by 136 runs, were the Yorkshire Premier League North’s South Milford.

The North’s other two survivors, Cleator (Cumbria League) and Stayley (Greater Manchester League), meet in west Cumbria on Sunday.

Sessay Emeralds are away to Durham City, at Green Lane (dubbed the ‘Theatre of Seams’), in a Group One regional semi-final (1.30) of the ECB Women’s Club Cup T20. In the other semi, Ramsbottom host Stockport Georgians.

Over earlier rounds of the four-group competition, the Courtney Gounden-captained Emeralds have beaten Wrenthorpe (by five wickets) then St Chad’s Broomfield (bowl off). Durham City disposed of Norton (by 64 runs) then Willington (by five wickets).

Sessay lie second, trailing only Saxton, in the Premier League of the Yorkshire Women & Girls League.

Durham City play in Durham Women & Girls competitions, notably the county’s Women’s T20 League, in the North Pool of which they are second to Hetton Lyons.

North Leeds travel up to Priors Flat, Hexham (above), for an ECB Women’s Plate T20 Group One final against Tynedale (start time to be confirmed). As with the Cup T20, the Plate competition features four regional qualifying groups.

Already, North Leeds have knocked out Hartlepool (by 38 runs) and Menston (by eight wickets). Tynedale’s victims were Barnard Castle (by 10 wickets) and South Northumberland (by eight wickets).

North Leeds are placed fourth, behind Bradford Park Avenue, St Chad’s Broomfield and Crossflatts, in Division One of the West Yorkshire Women & Girls League.

Tynedale lie second, to South Northumberland, in the Premier Division of the Northumberland Women’s League.

With Durham’s county side securing Tier One professional status for the 2025 season, it is said cricket for women and girls has never been bigger in the North East.

Enjoyed the read?

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

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Read our women and girls features here.