Four clubs get total-play cricket nets from Bradford Park Avenue

This is the story of recycling materials, regeneration and four new outdoor cricket nets facilities funded by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), unveiled at clubs across the Bradford district.

 I went on tour with Anthony Burton from total-play Ltd; an installer of ECB-approved facilities who Cricket Yorkshire has partnered for years and whose team planned and built these nets.

You might recall that there used to be eight-lane nets at Bradford Park Avenue that were removed to make way for the Cricket Shield™; the city’s innovative all-weather dome that offers training and games right across the year.

Recycled materials saved for future use included steelwork, netting, carpets, shockpads and skirting. The Yorkshire Cricket Board (YCB) and Bradford Park Avenue trustees, in partnership with City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, began a process to find four suitable venues.

The YCB invited applications from clubs or organisations in the Bradford district who were interested in having a two-lane nets facility constructed outdoors.

This was a balancing act between identifying the most need, allied with grounds that had the space, site access and other factors such as proximity to trees, drainage and orientation of the site, as well as planning permission.

Understandably, demand was considerable given the incredible opportunity this was – but ultimately, four cricket clubs in Hepworth & Idle, Bowling Old Lane, Bowling Baptist and Steeton were chosen.

I met up with Anthony, total-play’s Business Development Manager (North), to visit them and chat to those involved in the process.

Hepworth & Idle Cricket Club

We park up at the ground on Westfield Lane to be met by Simon Raistrick who is heavily involved at this Craven League club to the east of Shipley.

They are a club on the rise having added a senior third eleven and launched junior cricket from 2021. This season reflects that progress with under-nines, elevens, thirteens and fifteens. As Simon says, success requires new thinking:

“Training-wise, what we had here was getting a bit congested…trying to make it safe for kids who were just starting with soft ball and then you’ve got kids training with hard balls.”

He added: “It’s changed the game for us…hopefully attracts more players to the club and it increases the profile.”

Clubs who’ve had total-play outdoors nets facilities in the past talk of how they take pressure off squares, allow for flexible training sessions and improve the quality of practice.

In this corner of BD10, there’s now a legacy that improves the experience for cricketers of all ages who come here.

From an over-subscribed, roll-on net on the outfield, there’s now more options available for coaches as well as juniors and seniors across each week.

Raising the bar

But as Simon mentioned, it’s also a statement. Raising the bar in terms of facilities provision and what’s available to Hepworth & Idle CC members.

We should talk about the recycled element of this project too. While integral components from Park Avenue have been incorporated, it’s so much more.

That goes from the planning and design to clearing the ground; from digging the site and laying the aggregate base to on-site to post-project expertise from total-play’s installation team.

Bowling Old Lane CC

A few miles away is Bowling Old Lane; the Bradford Premier League club whose first-team captain Kammy Siddique has talked to me this season about their renaissance.

What struck me with both visits, as we meet Secretary Haqueq Siddique to discuss Bowling Old Lane, is how the cricket club is at the heart of the community. They take pride in the ground, variety of cricket activities as well as a whole host of charitable and outreach initiatives.

With Haqueq’s background in social work and a drive to deliver meaningful change, the installation of these two-lane outdoor cricket nets is another piece of a broader puzzle.

The cricket club has junior and senior league sides, with the addition of women’s cricket alongside successes such as their 50+ Grey Fox Trophy side and mixed ability sessions on Tuesdays.

Like Hepworth & Idle, this desire to offer more cricket reinforced the need for proper nets and we learn how it is genuinely transformational:

“From nothing to having something like this, it’s a massive increase in numbers, usage and sessions…because literally we had no (net) facilities.”

At the moment, the nets are limited to members of Bowling Old Lane CC, which is plenty, with the need to manage numbers but this is a postcode with just the one club and yet dozens of cricket teams.

While it’s not roofed like the cricket dome, Haqueq hopes settled autumnal weather will allow extended cricket outdoors in the nets into October or even November. It could allow different audiences a chance to train in an ECB-approved non-turf pitch (ntp) system.

He tells me that for Muslims, the Friday communal prayer of Jummah means the Bowling Old Lane nets may suit those looking for afternoon cricket in the city and it’s about trying to accommodate as many as possible, both at the cricket club and beyond.

Haqueq absolutely fizzes with ideas. He is the first I’ve met actively looking at other ways to use the nets as well as cricket. Bowls or lanes for shuttle runs and exercise classes are just two of the suggestions.

It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest from this forward-thinking club for whom these total-play nets are a game-changer.

Bowling Baptist Cricket Club

At Bowling Baptist CC on Scotchman Road, Anthony and I meet Director of Cricket Shazaid Yousaf and the club’s honorary Treasurer Andrew George.

This is where Manningham Mills Cricket Club used to be based and thanks to the energy and vision of volunteers, the ground is now the home of Bowling Baptist, whose three senior teams play in the Craven Cricket League while their Sunday side are in the Quaid-e-Azam Sunday Cricket League.

There’s also an under-eighteen team who made the Aire-Wharfe League’s William Spencer Memorial Cup Final while plans are afoot for under-nines in 2026.

Great Horton Church CC support their near-neighbours with juniors looking for experience of senior cricket; one example of many where the recreational game helps each other out.

The two-lane outdoor nets were built by total-play’s experienced crew to replace tired strips of carpet that were not fit for purpose with a roll-on cage sometimes used in the past too.

In this part of Bradford with the majestic sight of Lister Mills towering nearby, Shazaid tells me that anything – such as the new nets – to tempt kids to consider cricket is of significance:

“It looks professional, doesn’t it? As soon as a kid walks into this…they know that what pros’ use is not much different. They feel that they’re getting the best training and it’s that extra motivation to come off the streets and play cricket.”

The impact has been immediate with more demand, punctuality and longer sessions as players eek out whatever time they can before it gets dark: “For the last three weeks, we start at half five, they’re here bang on time and it was sunset when they finished.”

One of the bays here has the three white training lines down the centre of the pitch in line with the stumps at each end. It is a useful reference for coaches while ensuring that batters know their guard and bowlers have a visual prompt too.

Installation thumbs up

As for the process itself, it was a thumbs-up for total-play Ltd who did the whole installation from start to finish in seven working days. Bowling Baptist CC could also appreciate the dry Spring weather that meant access was unhindered on solid ground; by no means a given in Yorkshire early-season!

A final, visual sweep of this historic ground where Adil Rashid played as a junior is to appreciate its appeal and potential. With three schools a six hit away, a large playing area and local demand for cricket, Bowling Baptists are well placed for their next evolution.

Steeton Cricket Club

Steeton’s Chair Mick Wilson arranged to meet us at their Summerhill Lane HQ in the afternoon of our Tour de Bradford. This Aire-Wharfe League outfit had old, non-gated nets that needed replacing and were delighted to be one of the four clubs chosen for this initiative.

While training has had a sudden and major upgrade, the nets are a selling point in the ever-present need to bring in new members:

“For junior parents, they’ll notice what facilities you’ve got for their children…the better the facilities, the more chance you’re going to retain those youngsters. Every year, we do something to improve the club and this is massive for us.”

Without prompting, Mick praises the quality of the staff and end product: “We had them done last time by someone a bit more local. I think the quality’s just different. Club members were impressed with the (total-play) team. They were hard-working lads who got stuck in and got the job done.”

Thoughts are now turning to looking after this new facility by keeping the weeds and leaves off, as well as the usual rules around no spikes, food or drink. Clubs like Pannal and Harrogate have put up terms of use signage so the community are all on the same page.

Fresh from crunching 90 not out in the Roses T20 at Old Trafford, it was nice to see Yorkshire batter Will Luxton had a game in the nets with the Steeton juniors. If that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is.

Thanks to Mick and the other clubs for their time and hospitality on the day as we toured Bradford postcodes. Inspiring to see how clubs are progressing on and off the field.

total-play standards

While these four projects were based on the former Park Avenue nets, it’s been a comprehensive process from the outset.

Design plans and specifications were generated to help the clubs progress through the planning process. Meanwhile, the overall design and construction of the facilities were all in line with total-play Ltd ECB-approved system specs.

The devil is in the detail so the base construction of each was laser-graded in to exacting gradients to ensure longevity and performance.

Full-width, full-length playing surfaces ensures a uniform, safe playing area free from multiple joins. Steelwork is all at 4m height, enclosed where possible and with lockable access gates to control usage.

The netting is the exclusive TP tension wire suspended HD Protection Tunnel design for a trouble-free, safe ball stop. The Batting Curtains provide shade and protection for the batters, whilst PVC protection skirting provides protection to the netting and prevents animal entanglement.

Contact total-play

If your cricket club would like to discuss cricket nets projects, contact Anthony Burton via [email protected] or you can visit total-play.co.uk.

Other services include the match pitches, support with grass renovations and cricket MUGAs.

To read more articles, case studies and interviews with clubs, check out our total-play Hub here on Cricket Yorkshire.

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