Autumn Treasures

posted by John Winn

Monday was  a perfect autumn day and few places could have shown the colours of the season to better effect than Wensleydale as I drove to meet the President of Middleham CC, Keith Gamble.
Keith's memorabilia covers The Wensleydale League's 51 year history from its foundation just after WWII to its demise in 1998 and remarkably Keith played in each one of the league's seasons, all but two for Middleham. Ninety minutes has rarely passed so quickly as we talked about many of the more than 30 clubs who at one time or another were members of the league until it was reduced to just eight* and stumps were pulled for the last time on August 1st 1998. Who today can  remember what it was like to play at places like Bellerby, Cover Bridge and Wensley?

Keith was a prolific wicket taker in the league and thankfully, a man who has kept his collection of fixture cards and league handbooks to this day, supplemented by press cuttings and photographs all in splendid condition for their age. Keith is a regular attender at Headingley for championship matches and I look forward to seeing him again in the spring. In the meantime much of my spare time will be spent in the relevant newspaper archives seeking  the fine detail to go with the information I brought away from my trip to Wensleydale.

The league cricket carousel continues to turn with The Central Yorkshire League announcing the names of three new clubs that will join the league in 2013, namely Azaad and Thornhill from the Huddersfield Central League and Rodley who resigned form the Dales Council in July. The minutes of that league's executive committee  cover the circumstances surrounding Rodley's departure and make very distressing reading. How did club cricket come to this?

* Six of the final octet still enjoy Saturday cricket  in The Nidderdale League today and the other two lived on to  play in The Wensleydale Evening League which was formed in response to the end of Saturday cricket in the dale and continues to thrive with the possible addition of a sixteenth team in 2013.