Northallerton & District Evening League: Thornton-le-Moor on the up

It is always good to visit a cricket club then learn about encouraging developments.

Very much the case when a Thursday found me at Thornton-le-Moor Cricket Club, to watch a game against Ingleby Cross in the tiny Northallerton & District Evening League. 

With just seven members (the others being East Harlsey, Hutton Rudby, Northallerton, Northallerton Rugby Union Club, and Silton), this must be one of the smallest cricket competitions in Britain. As we know, in sport and in life, small can be beautiful.

Incidentally, for those who aren’t aware (and I had to check one of my OS maps before setting out from York), Thornton-le-Moor is an attractive, affluent village, midway between Thirsk and Northallerton, a short distance west of the A168.

I discovered Thornton-le-Moor Cricket Club’s smart pavilion, which looks down on the pitch from the ground’s northeast corner, is in the final stages of a three-year renovation/restoration.

Lovers of traditional pavilions might mourn its predecessor, but Richard Harland, described as “Mr Thornton-le-Moor Cricket Club”, by an Ingleby Cross opponent, advised it was in a “poor” state of repair and an “unsuitable” space for junior players and families.

The pavilion, which replaced a prefab structure donated in 1960, was acquired and erected in 1989, having acted as a site hut in the construction industry. Top recycling!

Richard, who fills club roles including player, secretary and groundsman, said: “We began in 2022, by taking down an old mower sheds and toilet block then replacing this with new toilets in the right-hand side of the pavilion (as you look from the front).

“We followed this with new changing rooms and shower facilities in 2023, and have this spring nearly completed work on a new clubroom/bar and kitchen area. We hope to hold an event for the opening later in the summer. 

“The work was funded through a number of grants, various fundraising events, kind donations from members and villagers, and our sponsors, including our primary club sponsor and shirt sponsor, Shepherds Purse Cheeses, whose cheese factory can be seen across the fields from the cricket club. Ninety-five per cent of the work has been carried out by club members, which has enabled us to keep the costs down.”

Better still, this season, for the first time in their history, Thornton-le-Moor are fielding a Saturday Second XI, who play in Division Eight of the Nidderdale & District Amateur League. The First XI are members of Division Three.

“Over recent years,” explained Richard, “we’ve seen a gradual increase in playing members, and were struggling to get everyone a regular game on a Saturday. 

“West Tanfield Cricket Club [15 miles away, in lower Wensleydale] were in a similar position, so we have come together to create a combined team.

“The team has given some older players the chance to continue playing the game at a level at which they can be competitive, as well as giving some juniors and new players a taste of senior Saturday cricket.”

Thornton-le-Moor are having great success introducing cricket to a new generation.

“We ran All Stars for the first time in 2023, with around 20 participants, all from local villages, and received great feedback from all the kids and parents.

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“This year [for eight weeks, from May 12], we have expanded to running All Stars and Dynamos, and have over 30 kids taking part. Also this year, for the first time, we are running an under-nines team, who have had a successful start, winning two of their first three games.”

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All Stars cricket at Thornton-le-Moor is for five to eight-year-olds, with Dynamos cricket covering the eight to 11 age group.

All this activity points to a club very much on the up. I am sure Thornton-le-Moor’s founding fathers, who established the club circa 1955 (the exact formation date isn’t entirely clear), would be thrilled. 

A minute book, dating from 1955, records Eric Sturdy as the 1955 club captain. Eric’s wife, Blanche, was club secretary between 1955 and 1974. Sturdy family members have been mainstays of the club for most of their history. Eric’s son, Denis, was captain, for 19 seasons, between the mid-Sixties and 1987.

Thornton-le-Moor’s competition history is both complex and fascinating: Northallerton and Thirsk Knockouts (joined 1956); Northallerton & District Evening League, Smith Cup and Thirsk Knockout (1958, the club had withdrawn from the Thirsk Knockout in 1957); Felixkirk & District League (1959); Wath League (1963); Wensleydale League (1991); Nidderdale & District Amateur League (1999).

After playing at a site called Bosomworth’s Field, down Endican Lane, Thornton-le-Moor moved to their present ground in 1964.

Together doubtless with many first-time visitors, I missed the turn, off the village’s twee cottage and English country garden-lined main street, down a hedged track to the ground. Look carefully, and nestling in the verge, right by the turn, is a small, low ‘TLMCC’ sign.

The lane curves to the right then through a metal gate before – kaboom! – the whole site appears and is spread before your eyes. Any dedicated groundhopper will know this is the hobby’s supreme moment: that first glimpse of an unvisited venue.

The pitch, a good size, which Richard had cut in eye-catching, concentric circles, is a little way to the west. Plenty of parking, on grass, between gate and pavilion, which inside and out is as smart as you like. 

To the left, immediately behind the east end sight screen and a spectator bench presented, a plaque informs, in 2021 by Geoffrey Butler, is a wildflower meadow, groaning beneath a carpet of buttercups. This wet spring has brought some benefits!

All but the near (east) end of the pitch is fringed with tall, thick hedges, whose chief function is to attempt to prevent balls flying into neighbouring fields of knee-high crops.

The Vale of Mowbray scenery undulates (something the Vale of York’s cannot manage!), as would the gentlest rollercoaster, resulting in the district’s signature ‘big sky’.

One striking feature is the presence, about half-a-mile to the west, of the main east coast railway line, which is both heard and seen. During the game, a procession of noisy passenger and freight trains either hurtled or trundled along the metals. 

Nearby Otterington station served Thornton-le-Moor between 1841 and 1958, when passenger trains ceased calling. Freight traffic lingered until 1964. Happily, station building, weigh office, loading dock and signal box have been preserved.

As per, I arrived at the ground ridiculously early, allowing an opportunity to confirm the game was on (and, if not, go elsewhere).

The chap who gave the thumbs-up turned out to be the groundsman at Chop Gate, the Bilsdale cricket club who play in the Langbaurgh League.

He told of drains damaged by the months of unprecedented rain, and of Chop Gate being forced to explore the possibility of a season-long groundshare with Ingleby Greenhow Cricket Club, who no longer run a Saturday team.

Our conversation was interrupted, 45 minutes before the scheduled start, out of the blue (out a darkening sky, actually), by bloated drops of rain. Within minutes, the shower developed into a downpour. Seriously? None of this was in the weather forecast!

I feared for the uncovered wicket. Needlessly. Prima donnas are conspicuous by their absence from the Northallerton & District Evening League, of which Thornton-le-Moor were the 2023 champions. After half-an-hour, the rain stopped. Fifteen minutes later, we had play!

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Richard turned out to be the game’s star performer. After Thornton-le-Moor won the toss, and elected to bat, opener Richard hit 66 off 46 balls – but only after Ingleby Cross had reduced his side to 5-2 in the fourth over. Two wickets in consecutive deliveries. 

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Richard’s knock included five sixes and six fours. Modestly, he put his success down to the wicket of choice, closest to the south side hedge. “The short boundary helps.”

The Ingleby Cross fielders were overjoyed to dismiss dangerman Tom Stead, the former Thirsk player, in at number three, for a golden duck.

George Bramley (28 not out off 28), in at number five, was the other chief contributor to an 18-over total of 130. No inconsiderable number of minutes was spent, in those crop fields, searching for the ball.

The effects of the rain were apparent by the seventh over, during which a call for sawdust was made in the direction of the pavilion.

Had to smile at an overheard conversation, between a father and his young son, during the brief between-innings break. The little lad was keen to see more, but his dad remarked, firmly (as dads do): “We’ve got to go home. It’s bedtime.”

Ingleby Cross, whom one of their players described as a “perennial bottom-of-the-table team”, had a fair stab at reaching a demanding target. Safwan ‘Saffy’ Akram, their fifth batsman in, clubbed 31 – including two sixes and four fours – off 12 balls. Early on, Josh Barley claimed two wickets in as many deliveries.

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Towards the end, in failing light, wicketkeeper Usman Adeel provided an entertaining cameo, cracking four fours as the visitors saw out their 18 overs to post 79-8.

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A moment of agile fielding, close to the wicket, drew praise from a Thornton-le-Moor team-mate: “Got it on camera. Sky Sports in the morning!”

During ball-seeking breaks in the play, I learned some interesting stuff about Ingleby Cross’s ground, which is overlooked – handily – by the Blue Bell Inn’s beer garden.

The ground doesn’t have any sight screens, and Coast to Coast wayfarers, using an adjacent field, are prone to pitching brightly coloured tents in line with the wicket. 

From what I was told (and not for the first time), the Silton club’s ground, at Silton Hall, in the village of Nether Silton, is well worth attending also.

Of the Langbaurgh League, I know relatively little. But an Ingleby Cross player revealed: “The standard is very good. They [the players] farm and they play cricket.”

Better see about watching a Langbaurgh League game this season. And, of course, consider getting along to more Northallerton & District Evening League venues.

Want to read more?

Here are all of Andrew’s excellent travel features from his Miles Per Gallon column on Cricket Yorkshire.