A North Kirklees afternoon

Posted by Peter Davies

At Liversedge it was a sunny but chilly afternoon with Gomersal the visitors in the Crowther Cup. A lone tea lady - the sister-in-law of ex-Huddersfield Town footballer Simon Trevitt - was working hard with cheese sandwiches, scotch eggs and pork pies on the menu. The boundary edge was lined with spectators both young and old. In the clubhouse, club stalwarts reminisced about the season West Indian legend Sonny Ramadhin turned out for the club (1966) and everyone sitting or standing on the clubhouse side of the ground could admire the wonderful and expansive Spen Valley vistas. I got chatting with a local umpire (ex-Crossbank Meths) who was watching the game from the pavilion - he wasn't impressed by the dissent shown by one of the batters when he was dismissed (the angry batter kicked a football into the pavilion which only just missed him!).

Down the road at Spen Victoria, the weather was similarly idyllic. Baildon were the visitors and it was an afternoon for batting with the ball going out of the ground on many occasions. The knowledgeable spectators, I was told, sit by the white wall near the scorebox - a sun-trap, I was also told. Ex-Yorkshire and Spen player Chris Elstub had one of his county shirts from 2000 framed in the clubhouse - and the tea lady on duty was another University of Huddersfield employee, Judith Davison. The club vice-president told me it was Spen's centenary year this year but celebrations were low-key with no history brochure and only an all-star game planned for mid-summer. An ice cream van visited the ground just prior to tea!

Finally, to Bennett Lane, Hanging Heaton, arguably the best appointed ground in the Calderdale/Kirklees area. The huge clubhouse houses some excellent trophy cabinets, framed items and a heavy-duty kitchen which serves square meals (eg. steak and onion pie, chips and peas) throughout the day. The Everton-Man United semi-final was on the big screen and on the boundary edge club president Mel Dearden - a great guy! - explained that the club was having problems with neighbours, even though it had put a huge net up at the far end to protect the nearby houses. They used a huge cherry-picker to put the net up but the wind had played havoc with it and it needed further attention. He also showed me round the new pavilion extension - a flat for the steward and stewardess. Earlier in the afternoon, the club pro had sent a six into the clubhouse and a window had had to be boarded up with serious injuries only narrowly avoided. Buttershaw St. Paul's were the opposition.