Bric-a-brac for sale!

Posted by Peter Davies

A three-pronged Cleckheaton tour: Spen Vic, Gomersal and Scholes. At Spen Lane, Woodlands were the visitors in the Heavy Woollen Cup. A drab, melancholy afternoon but in the tea room all the fun of the fayre. Not every day you see a second-hand bookstall at a game, with plenty of bric-a-brac and car-boot-type stuff on sale also. Some good cricket books available for 50p paperback and £1 hardback. We had a cup of tea and Dad, rather than me, had a couple of fruit scones. He declared them to be the best-quality scones he had eaten in a long while and went back to buy four for the week ahead. He also bought a new wallet and a Roy Hattersley book. I signed up to sponsor a Spen matchball in early August, took a photo of the FOUR tea ladies on duty, and purchased a 2010 Bradford League handbook.

I sat on a bench dedicated to Harry Hoyle - a very loyal club man who died last year. Harry had helped us with our Spen research in 2004-5 and it was very sad to realise that he had passed away recently. Then some chance encounters: Stuart Thompson of Illingworth St Mary's CC who passed on a copy of the new club history by Andrew Smith. A very beautiful volume - in-depth historical research plus really attractive modern design. Very impressive. Then Alan Birkenshaw of Spen and the Bradford League who told me that David Morgan of the ICC - no less - was going to be opening the league's history exhibition at Bradford Industrial Museum later in the summer. And Jeff Bulmer from Leeds who described himself to me as an 'Amateur Professional Cricket Watcher'. He just couldn't keep up with his PCW friends and kept blotting his copybook by going to watch football...

Down the road at Gomersal, Baildon were in town in the same competition. Oxford Road is a well appointed ground with some very nice features. You feel you're right in the middle of the village when you're sat at the ground, with shops and terraced houses overlooking the playing area. The clubhouse is also mightily impressive - bar and function room with the same feel as Hanging Heaton. There's also a new 'shelter' outside - for smokers perhaps? Some nice yellow flowers added to the ambience. I bought a designer Gomersal cricket shirt and enjoyed a double orange J20 in a huge pint glass. The clubhouse was busy with football on the big screen, a function seemingly going on in the function room, and cricket punters drinking in the bar. At tea I took some great action shots of the two GCC groundsmen rolling the wicket and whitening the creases. The real hard workers on a Saturday afternoon!

Finally, Scholes, a lovely rural venue just off the motorway. A very friendly and sociable place with the best pavilion decking in the area, I would argue. Kirkheaton were the Heavy Woollen visitors - with one couple saying they had bumped into me yesterday too at Hill Top. My SCC friends Mr Jackson and Mr Mitchell were wandering round the boundary when I arrived - two very friendly guys who have helped us with our project research. The latter said the club should in reality be winning lots of 'most improved ground' awards but wasn't for some reason he couldn't put his finger on.

Scholes were struggling on the field but the afternoon was lovely, even though there was no sun to be seen. I had a couple of cups of tea and we dined on some gorgeous cheese and spring onion open-topped sandwiches, with a couple of small scotch eggs and mushroom vol-au-vents. The Scholes tea ladies also did some slices of baked potato - very nice indeed. Bought a raffle ticket and retired to a picnic table to read the Observer and, in particular, an article about the pointlessness of being an Athletico Madrid fan these days. I also enquired about buying a Scholes replica cricket top and the club are going to get back to me. Just fancy building up a collection of local cricket shirts.