I have again spent time this last week digging into records of cricket in Wensleydale. On Tuesday I had a couple of hours in the local studies room at Darlington Library absorbed in the film archives of the local weekly paper, The Darlington and Stockton Times and in particular its cricket reports for 1893, the first season of cricket in the North Yorkshire League (it added South Durham in 1896). The paper's cricket coverage at that time is a bit hit and miss and the film record is incomplete in some areas but I was able to find scores and reports for several clubs that more than half a century later became members of the Wensleydale league, even games between Little Crakehall and Big Crakehall. Those of you who know the village will wonder that there could be anything in a cricketing sense littler than Crakehall, but the stream that flows through the village divides minor and major, although it seems fairly certain that matches between them were played on the present very small ground on the village green.
On returning home I entered Crakehall into a search engine and came across an excellent website devoted to the village's history maintained by Ian Hancock. Late on Friday I emailed Ian to enquire if he had any material relating to the cricket club and was delighted when checking my emails on Saturday morning to find several attachments relating to Crakehall CC. What Ian apologetically called 'not very much' was far more than I dared to hope for. For example there was a report of cricket played at Catterick as early as 1831 between Catterick and Bedale and under this report mention of a game between Bedale Juvenile Club and Crakehall Clarence Club on the '11th inst' and played at Crakehall. Amongst the other reports that Ian attached was one of a match between Crakehall and East Witton, played at Jervaulx Park. East Witton is a village close to Jervaulx and I have a record of another match played there between East Witton and Danby Hall in 1892. The village is probably best known today for its excellent pub, The Blue Lion.
One innings that caught my eye on the card for East Witton v Crakehall was that of the Reverend HH Stewart, vicar of East Witton between 1874 and 1876. Why his vicarship was so short I have no idea: his parishioners would surely have tolerated lengthy sermons in exchange for his skills on the cricket field. In this match he carried his bat for 63 out of a total of 98, with extras the next highest scorer with 10.Even in two innings Crakehall could not surpass East Witton's total and the Reverend took seven wickets in the match, all clean bowled. The brief report of the match said that 'Mr (sic) Stewart batted exceedingly well.' Not half.
Looking a little further into the life of Henry Holmes Stewart one discovers a man of considerable sporting prowess for talented as he appears to have been as a cricketer his skill at football far surpasses this. Stewart was a member of The Wanderers XI that won the FA Cup in 1873* and he represented Scotland against England the previous year in what is described as a 'pseudo international'. Educated at Repton and Cambridge he does not appear amongst the list of Cambridge Blues. In spite of this he must have been more than a welcome member of any village cricket team. In the year of his FA Cup glory he represented Turnham Green CC and in the history of that London club he is described as 'a useful all rounder'.
As well as the cuttings Ian Hancock sent me two photographs. The older shows Crakehall as champions of The Northallerton and District League. It is not dated but I would guess it is early twentieth century. The second is 1960s vintage and I have been put in touch with George Pocklington who is on the photograph and who played for Crakehall for more than 50 years and he has kindly agreed to let me visit him to chat about his cricket career.
The upshot of all this is that I have had to readjust my ideas about Wensleydale Cricket for the knowledge that organised games took place as early as 1831 is much earlier than I had anticipated and goes back before the first publication of The D and S Times. The relevant cutting is from The York Herald which was published from 1790 which should be sooner enough, but you never know!
In last week's posting I referred to changes in the composition of The Central Yorkshire League and that I would report these in my next posting. Conscious that this one is already long enough I will hold that over until next week. My wife and I are away for a few days in Upper Teesdale this week but not wishing to miss an opportunity I have arranged a visit to see Derek Hammond who lives in that area and, aged over 90, is a legend in the history of Richmondshire cricket. Watch this space.
* a nice connection to cricket here is that the final was played at The Oval.
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