2011: What Yorkshire’s leagues looked like back then

In 2026, Cricket Yorkshire celebrates 15 years of covering recreational cricket with opinion, news, interviews and club visits. You can read about the canal walk that started it all, if you’re curious.

This time, I’m looking at 2011 when I began the website to consider who was playing back then, what league cricket was like and offer up a bit of a snapshot.

Photo: York CC league winners, Andy Tute

The League Landscape: 2011

In 2011, Yorkshire league cricket looked very different to today. Rather than five ECB Premier Leagues we have now, there was just the Yorkshire ECB County Premier League.

York (above) won the Yorkshire League that year as they accumulated nine titles between 2004 and 2015, interrupted only by Harrogate (2005), Barnsley (2006) and Yorkshire Academy (2014).

One observation would be that there were many more cricket leagues that have since folded or merged into others.

Here in West Yorkshire, league winners included Woodlands (Bradford Cricket League) and Honley who claimed their sixth Byrom Shield victory in seven years in the Huddersfield Cricket League. Thackley won the Aire-Wharfe League’s top flight for the first time.

Leeds Sikh lifted the Division A title in the Dales Council Cricket League while Barwick were triumphant at the summit of the Wetherby Cricket League.

Oakworth pipped Cullingworth to the Craven League’s Division One trophy in 2011 while Bradford Gymkhana (Bradford Mutual Sunday School League) and Onq (Quaid e Azam League) were other victors.

To cast an eye further North, the York Senior League was claimed by Woodhouse Grange. This ascent began the start of a four-year winning run and in the same year, a York Senior League XI (above) defeated Yorkshire CCC at Dunnington, part of Gerard Brophy’s testimonial.

When it came to the HPH York Vale League (Division A), it was Copmanthorpe who came top for the first time on the last day of the season.

Ouseburn began a profitable purple patch that saw their first team win the Nidderdale League for the first of four occasions between 2011 and 2017. Meanwhile, Pannal Ladies interrupted a period of dominance for Ashville in the Nidderdale Ladies Evening Cricket League.

In the North Yorkshire & South Durham Cricket League, Marton claimed the spoils in the Premier Division, just a couple of years (2009) since Graham Shaw had led them to the treble of Premier Division, Kerridge Cup & MacMillan Cup.

Duncombe Park became Feversham League champions, courtesy of an Adam Leckenby hat-trick against High Farndale. Further towards the coast, Heslerton win the Scarborough Beckett League.

If we plunge South to the Pontefract & District Cricket League, Streethouse regained their Premier Division title, lost to Ackworth in 2010. It was Streethouse’s sixth title in seven years.

The Central Yorkshire Cricket League (CYCL) was enjoying its last few years before merging with the Bradford Cricket League to become the Bradford Premier League in 2016.

Back in 2011, the CYCL was still the home of clubs like Wakefield Thornes and Townville. That year, Wrenthorpe won the Premier Division after a six-wicket win against Wakefield St Michael’s (who were bundled out for 49).

In the South Yorkshire Senior Cricket League, the Championship was won by Elsecar and it would go on to be claimed by seven different clubs in nine years (up to 2019). As for the Yorkshire & Derbyshire League, Holmesfield won their debut league win and the first of three in that decade.

Going, going gone?

Now, this round-up of 2011 is only the top division winners for leagues (and I might have missed a few) but it’s prompt some memories I’m sure.

A huge shoutout to Ian Sumner’s diligence for the Association of Cricket Statisticians (ACS). Their website is superb for any number of reasons but Ian’s research around league winners made my life much easier. Local press coverage, Play-Cricket and league websites, allied with Wayback Machine, filled in other gaps.

Thanks to those sending me photos from that year, including Andy Tute. I couldn’t use all of them but good to reminisce. I’ll endeavour to share pics on Facebook too.

My observation would be that some of this history of league cricket in Yorkshire has already disappeared (or is very limited) which is a shame. Former leagues have been overwritten on Play-Cricket which seems odd given their role in the broader history of the region.

Trends in 2011

Cricket provided its usual rollercoaster. While the year began with an earthquake shaking things up in North Yorkshire, bigger tremors were felt after England won the Ashes in Australia.

Things also got stormy when Yorkshire finished second bottom and were relegated from the County Championship’s Division One.

The weather was doing a few odd things back then. After the warmest and driest Spring on record for parts of the country, areas of Yorkshire saw nearly a month of rainfall in 24 hours in August.

According to a memorandum submitted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to a Parliamentary committee, there were 6,500 cricket clubs (compared to over 5,000 now).

In Yorkshire, league cricket was in good shape but gearing up for seismic change over the next five years or so. More of that another time – but it’s been fun to fire up the grey cells and be reminded what club cricket looked like as this website began.

What were you up to in 2011?

Any memories from cricket to share? What did you think of the article? Leave a comment below or add your thoughts over on our Cricket Yorkshire Facebook page.