YPLN Hundred: Bridlington and Brandesburton shine

Always keen to increase my ‘grounds visited’ total, I leapt at the chance to watch two matches – at different venues – on the same day.

The Yorkshire Premier League North’s 2025 Hundred first round provided an opportunity, on a Sunday, to take in Premier League Two Bridlington hosting Championship East Scarborough (10.30) followed by Championship East Brandesburton welcoming Premier League Two Patrington (2.0).

With Hundred games lasting about two-and-a-half-hours, and a 25-minute drive between the grounds, a comfortable ‘double’ was achievable – and achieved.

The bulk of Bridlington’s sports facilities are grouped in the same quarter of the resort, close to the railway station and the town centre.

Immediately to the north of the cricket ground, Bridlington Sports & Community Club, are the back-to back grounds, akin to conjoined fraternal twins, of Bridlington Town Football Club (Queensgate) and Bridlington Rugby Union Club (Dukes Park), both of which, the latter for both rugby union and rugby league, I’d attended in years past. 

Also to the north are the multiple courts of Bridlington Tennis Club whilst to the east, hidden by a high hedge, are the two greens of Bridlington Dukes Park Bowling Club.

No on-site parking at Brid cricket, which obliges spectators to shell out to use the Moorfield Road pay & display car park. My wife was just paying on her phone when an ‘enthusiastic’ traffic warden wandered over. Are these people on commission?

Bridlington’s ground is flat, open and spacious. Its most striking feature is the view, to the north, beyond the football and rugby grounds, of the Priory Church of St Mary.

Before the Reformation, Bridlington Priory was one of the Augustinian order’s largest and richest, and a key monastery in northern England. Bar bits of the cloister, all the buildings of the priory, which expanded around the church, are long gone.

The cricket pavilion, single storey with a large, pitched roof and two gables, is positioned in the ground’s northwest corner, next to the entrance, a gate in a frankly ugly palisade fence that encloses the entire site. Still, I guess it deters uninvited guests.

The pavilion may lack the priory church’s architectural splendour, but it is smart and modern, and boasts a large bar. Not much call for booze, mind, at ten in the morning!

As the players warmed up, I overheard a scorer ask an umpire: “Are you looking forward to this as much as I am?” Came the reply: “It’s a bit early, isn’t it!”

No shortage of spare turf beyond the cricket pitch’s east and west side boundaries. On the west side, however, the outfield overlaps with a pitch used by Bridlington Rangers Junior Football Club.

At odds with the arrangements, space is tight at the south end. Beyond a line of benches, shaded by trees, runs the single-track Scarborough to Hull railway line. 

Decades ago, during the ‘It’s Quicker by Rail’ era, when for most car ownership was a fantasy, trains transported thousands of holidaymakers and trippers to Bridlington.

On this particular morning, the sun beat down from an azure sky. ‘East Coast Joys’, as artist Tom Purvis’s London & North Eastern Railway’s publicity posters used to bellow.

Being the lower-ranked team, Scarborough, a Premier Division side this time last year, were given a 15-run advantage.

Having won the toss, Scarborough elected to field. Apparently, they had 65 minutes to bowl their 100 balls.

Bridlington made a promising start. Sam Wragg (57 off 28, one six, 11 fours) and Jordan Baker (23 off 15, two sixes, two fours) put on 71 for the first wicket.

A purple patch, inspired by Kieran Rutter (4-15 from four sets), catapulted Scarborough back into contention, as Brid lost four wickets for the addition of just three runs.

Dan O’Connor, soon to star with the bat, spun his way to 1-24 from four, pouched two catches and ran out home captain Casey Rudd (9 off 8) with an accurate throw.

Bridlington, for whom No 5 Josh Mainprize chipped in with 25 not out off 13 (three fours), reached the end of their 100 balls at 151-8.

Opener O’Connor, a confident left-hander, batted throughout Scarborough’s innings. He scored an undefeated 89 off 53 balls, clubbing six sixes (one of which brought up his half-century) and eight fours.

Despite the heroics of O’Connor, backed chiefly by his captain, David Snowball (14 off 25), Scarborough fell agonisingly short, at 144-5, giving Brid a seven-run victory.

A Le Mans-style dash to the car, and we were underway, joining tree-lined Kingsgate before bidding farewell to Brid as we passed the sprawling South Cliff Holiday Park.

We reached Brandesburton’s Rial Ground, named after a former club president, with a little over half-an-hour to spare.

In complete contrast to the Bridlington layout, Brandesburton’s facilities are decidedly compact. The pitch is small. Bar a bit of grass either side and in front of the corner pavilion, there is barely room for a spectator to erect a folding chair.

The cricket ground, opened in 1933 and located south of Brandesburton village centre, is sandwiched between a bowling green and tennis courts.

Immediately to the south is the vast Dacre Lakeside Park, which offers (amongst other things) accommodation such as glamping, wooden lodges and shepherd’s huts. The lake, on which you can kayak or less energetically pump a pedalo, covers six acres. 

Access to the cricket car park is via a narrow lane. Then, a gravel path bisects the grass and tarmac tennis courts before a gate brings you out slap on the boundary rope.

To the right, in the northeast corner, is the pavilion. Opened in 1997, by Yorkshire’s then-captain David Byas, an East Riding lad, the pavilion is of a pleasingly traditional design: dressing rooms flanking a kitchen and loos, with a raised, picket-fenced terrace beneath a veranda and a clock-adorned central gable.

As at Bridlington, the lower-ranked Brandesburton were given a 15-run advantage. It so wasn’t needed!

Winning the toss (and electing to bowl) was as good as the afternoon got for Patrington.

Brandesburton smashed boundary after boundary. Amid stifling heat, the visiting fielders, and the seven bowlers employed, looked decidedly cheesed off with all the chasing and retrieving.

Tim Atkin (71 off 44, three sixes, eight fours) and Jatin Khurana (19 off 17, one six, one four) featured in a first-wicket partnership worth 57. 

That was bettered by Atkin and Queenslander Harrison Ryan (52 off 22, two sixes, eight fours), who put on 90 for the second wicket.

The 15-run advantage boosted Brandesburton’s 100-ball total to 205-3.

From a disastrous 13-4, after just 14 balls, a shellshocked Patrington did extremely well to go within nine deliveries of seeing out their hundred. Pacer Stephen Winterbottom (4-31 from four sets) spearheaded the carnage. 

Of the visiting batters, only No 6 Jack Todd (23 off 25, four fours), No 5 and captain Ashley McKinley (21 off 14, one six, three fours) and No 9 Josh Ratcliffe (19 not out off 15, two sixes, one four) offered sustained resistance as Patrington posted 106. A 99-run defeat. Ouch!

Ratcliffe did have the satisfaction of clattering the game’s biggest six. He sent the 80th ball of Patrington’s innings skydiving deep into the crop field beyond the north end sight screen. A search party was required.

In their Yorkshire Premier League North 2025 Hundred quarter-finals, scheduled for July 27 (2.0), Bridlington are at home to fellow Premier League Two side Stamford Bridge while Brandesburton entertain Woodhouse Grange Seconds, also of Premier League Two.

Enjoyed the read?

You can check out other club visits by Andrew in his column, Miles Per Gallon.

Here are all of our club cricket articles, with the latest first.

Or, you can read YPLN features here.