I’ve done quite a few more cricket-watching miles – inside and outside Yorkshire – than my 2024 Miles Per Gallon reports suggest. Nice to reflect, briefly, on visits to 11 Yorkshire grounds which, for one reason or another, didn’t receive a ‘full’ write-up.' One sultry June evening,
Having earmarked a fixture with ‘meaning’ for each team, the final Saturday of my 2024 season found me at Clayton Cricket Club, west of – and high above – central Bradford. Clayton were hosting Halifax League rivals Upper Hopton; a crunch instalment – “huge”, according to Clayton’s social media – in the Division
This is the extraordinary case of the club cricket match that was abandoned because of the sun. That it happened in Yorkshire after what has been, by all accounts, a fairly lamentably cold and wet summer, is doubly surprising. Nostell St Oswald 1st XI were at home to West Bretton
England’s strolling mercenaries on the telly? Or live midweek cricket on a gloriously sunny June evening? No contest, really. Off to Nostell St Oswald Cricket Club I went. There aren’t that many Tuesday evening cricket options in Yorkshire, but the Pontefract & District League’s two-division Evening
You would expect, come mid-August, sixth against seventh, in a 12-team competition, to be a dead rubber. Not in the 2024 Yorkshire Premier League North’s second tier! The league’s new Premier Division Two, to launch next year, will comprise teams placed second to sixth from this
It’s come to that time of the season where the number of games scheduled in a week is dropping considerably. Leagues and cups are reaching their climax and others have finished, making the fixture list something of a tricky thing to navigate. Combine that with who is playing at
August promises to be an eventful time at Conisbrough Cricket Club. On the month’s opening Saturday, I dropped by the club’s St Peter’s Drive ground to watch an absorbing third-versus-first Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League clash with Division One promotion rivals Oughtibridge War Memorial, who
I had two potential destinations to choose from on Saturday, one being an Airedale & Wharfedale Senior Cricket League game, and the other in the Theakston Nidderdale League. As I passed Blubberhouses’ ground on the A59, heading up to the recently re-opened Kex Gill pass, the discussion between Connor
I am not an early bird but Saturday promised adventure and an Owl Experience at the National Centre for Birds of Prey in Duncombe Park. So it was that Mrs Cricket Yorkshire and I were zipping through the quiet streets of Shipley, Otley and then zooming along past Harrogate and
I am a big fan of club cricket leagues’ internal cup competitions. Come the second half of the season, when many league games are becoming dead rubbers, they offer meaningful fixtures. I do like a bit of jeopardy. Better still, most of these cup matches take place on Sundays, providing
A decade ago, I first met Anthony Burton of Total Play Ltd at a winter event where a few companies were attending Sutton-in-Craven Cricket Club to chat with clubs in the area. For years since, he has been heavily involved when it comes to supporting clubs realise their
Not so much a battle but a skirmish. I can hear the collective groan, “Not Harrogate again! You only visited there last week!”. I know…I know. Apologies, but hear me out. I headed to St. George’s Road last week when the weather was poor, knowing I had two
I’ve certainly struck gold with my T20 cricket spectating this season. Augmenting a list of exciting finishes, a second midweek excursion, in 24 hours, to the scenic Wolds, this time to Wetwang Cricket Club, was rewarded with a last-ball finish. Some controversy. With the scores tied, and the
Lurking on my ‘groundhopping’ bucket list for years, a visit to the sublime, sleepy setting of Thixendale Cricket Club lived up to – nay, exceeded – expectations. Put simply, it was a slice of sporting serendipity: when each piece of the jigsaw slotted neatly into place. The weather, in what is proving
I’m not obsessed by the weather, but by the very nature of my job, I have to keep an eye on the forecast to ensure that I have the correct coats, boots and hats to hand…as well as ensuring I pick up the correct camera equipment and rain
‘Spofforth is the centre of the universe’ – a schoolfriend once said in all seriousness to answer a question posed by the young unsuspecting geography teacher during a lesson one Thursday afternoon at Harrogate Grammar School. Now, being totally honest, he probably knew that wasn’t the case, but watching the
