The road to Lord's: Yorkshire's clubs prep for Village Cup

The Voneus Village Cup is back for 2024 with 39 Yorkshire village teams ready for a crack at a fairytale Lord’s final.

There are a few hurdles in between though.

The preliminary and first-round matches are in April, with more than 350 clubs from England, Scotland and Wales involved in this year’s competition.

Yorkshire’s cricket clubs are divided into three groups: North Yorkshire (North), North Yorkshire (South) and West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire & Humberside.

The North Yorkshire (North) group has a whopping 19 clubs which requires a preliminary round of fixtures on Sunday, April 14 before the first round a fortnight later.

Woodhouse Grange, the most successful team in Village Cup history with four titles, lie in wait in Round One for either South Holderness or Hensall.

The winners of all three regional groups will progress to the national knockout rounds.

On Sunday September 15, two finalists will compete for the trophy at Lord’s – which has been run by The Cricketer magazine since 1972.

Patrington were the last remaining Yorkshire village in 2023 but plenty of sides from the region have won in London to lift the cup.

Who will represent Yorkshire this year?

Goldsborough are back

A scan of the fixtures for the 2024 National Village Cup (see below) caused me to notice the return of Goldsborough; a village ground I went to last season for Dales, Bails and Cricket Club Tales.

Once upon a time, they would enter the Village Cup annually but stalwart Graham Shorter told me: “We’ve had a (roughly) 15-year sabbatical owing to player availability and Sunday commitments.”

Goldsborough face South Milford in their opener, who they used to play occasionally in the Whixley Evening League. (The winners take on Sheriff Hutton Bridge).

I was curious why, with fixtures usually piling up for most clubs, they had returned to the National Village Cup?

Graham said: “Over the last couple of seasons, we’ve adopted a policy to invest in our youth players and with a more youthful first team and second-team prospects, there’s a renewed appetite to give the NVC a go.”

The chance to play different teams, get competitive Sunday cricket and dream about a Lord’s final all appealed too.

The focus on youth development continues with largely unchanged squads, albeit for Graham in his own words, a year older, less mobile and closer to retirement!

Good luck to all of Yorkshire’s villages entering in 2024.