By Brian Sanderson,
Recently I purchased the above book on e-bay as I like to collect books on the history of Yorkshire Cricket Leagues . Reading the book a number of interesting facts came out.
The League was established on the 6th of April 1899 at the Green Dragon Hotel, Leeds.I did not now the hotel and found out that in the Leeds photographic archives there is a picture of the Green Dragon yard which is next to the Guildford Hotel near Leeds Town Hall.There were 22 clubs in the first offical year of 1900.Clubs were Barnsley, Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield , Keighley,Leeds, Sipton,Wakefield, Bingley , Bowling Old Lane , Idle, Saltaire, Yeadon, Brighouse, Elland, Harrogate, Hull, Ilkley ,Otley, Rotherham and Sheffield United.
It lists a number of matches and one which caught my eye was in 1910 Morley 34 with Peel ex Yorhshire was top score of 6 runs. Yeadon won by 5 wickets. Bobby Peel was sacked by Yorkshire for being drunk on the field during a match. He was great friends with Geirge Hirst and the two of them put two sides to play against each other in 1922 and 1923 which acted as search for county talent. They were played at Headingley with Peel and Hirst as umpires. You can see pictures of the match on Pathie Film Archives under Yorkshire cricket.
In 1952 there were 23 colliery clubs and two are interesting who no longer play.Hickleton Main won the County Championship in 1946 and 1947. One of the players was Freddie Brown ex England cricketer who was not playing First Class cricket. During the war he was in the same Prison -of -War camp as Bill Bowes in Chieti , Italy. He weight before the war was 14 1/2 stone put after the war it was 10 stone.There is photograph of him in the book in the Hickleton team but was not captain. He went on to be England captain in the 1950-51 England tour of Australia.I would be interesting to find out why he played for Hicleton.Another side lost to cricket is Rawmarch which was another colliery team. They won the Championship in 1934 and lost the Victory Final to York in 1951.It seems a great shame that these clubs have folded with a great history behind them.
There were nearly 150 players who have figured in the County,s eleven played for, or been associted with the Yorkshire Cricket Council at that time. They included players from W.R.Allen of Castleford and N.W.D.Yardley Yorkshire and England captain.
An interesting book which is worth buying. All the very best for 2013 and may the summer be dry so that all cricket watchers can see the matches this wish to see.
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