Into the Bradford League

Posted by Peter Davies

Saturday 18 July

Cleckheaton, like Mirfield, is an interesting cricket town with five big league clubs: Scholes, Gomersal, Spen Victoria and the two on today's agenda: Cleckheaton and Hartshead Moor. Cleckheaton was first up. Not the prettiest environs - Chain Bar roundabout, lots of industrial units and houses - but a really beautiful playing area and good facilities. Woodlands 2nd XI were the visitors and there were plenty of spectators gathered on the clubhouse side of the ground. My dad was upset that the tea ladies weren't serving sandwiches pre-tea: 'a money-making opportunity lost', he opined to anyone who would listen! So he had to get in his car and patronise the local shopping centre. I bumped into two interesting people: the club barmaid (a former University of Huddersfield History student) and Mike Baker (a Bradford League VIP who had attended the East Bierley cricket heritage exhibition in May). Mike takes lots of photos for the excellent league website but was not on camera duty today. Instead he told me about the lack of big star names in the leagues these days, except the odd ex-county pro eg. Gareth Clough, John Wood. Inside the clubhouse - shared with the local bowling club and rugby union players - a mother and daughter-in-law were on catering duty. They seemed to specialise in egg mayo slices, scotch eggs and Mr Kipling's apple pies. The big screen was showing the Second Test - with England accumulating lots of runs before putting Australia back in at Lord's. Out in the middle the one noticeable thing was the number of run outs - very slipshod!

Down the road at Hartshead Moor, Great Horton were the visitors. When we arrived at teatime they were batting. Moorend Lane is one of my favourite local grounds. It has a real air of history - eg. the '1953' gates by the entrance - and the noise of the M62 (only yards away) is ever present. People tell me the club are not one of the big-hitters in the Bradford League but they have had their moments in local competition and in Len Squire they have one of the nicest and most kindhearted supporters/officials/ex-players. They also serve a fine pint of diet coke! We had eaten well at Cleckheaton so we had no need to nibble at the uneaten delicacies from tea (which seemed to include plenty of samosas and onion bhajis). Mike Baker had told me that the ground had been smartened up quite recently - the scoreboard and the benches round the ground - and he was right (although I think the benches had been done last year when I visited). There were dog-walkers on the boundary and a good huddle of supporters by the pavilion and also inside it. The plasma TV screen was showing the wonderful Collingwood-Prior partnership that was taking England to a position of strength in the Test.