Before there was a blog there was a book and for a while there were both and then the there was just the blog. The original book, and the one that opened my eyes to the possibilities of professional cricket watching, was published in 2007 and recorded the previous season's travels of Tony Hutton, Brian Senior and the late Mick Bourne under the title 'Off the beaten track'. I well remember buying my copy from the boot of Mick's car on a lovely day at Stamford Bridge. A copy of the book graces the library at Lord's and is one of the most treasured on my shelves.
On page 75 Tony describes a visit he made to Newburgh Priory for a game in the Pilmoor Evening league when Thirsk were the visitors. Tony's description on the ground was summed up by three words 'A magical place.' Since that visit eight years ago both Brian and I have made trips to Newburgh the subject of postings and both of us have endorsed Tony's sentiments. Magic indeed.
In a posting I made in May 2011, shortly before my visit to Newburgh, I suggested that the word Pilmoor might be more familiar to rail rather than cricket enthusiasts for it was from here, on the main line between York and Darlington, that a branch line ran for more than a hundred years to Boroughbridge until its closure in 1950. The league is organised in two divisions and last year Sessay won the first division title and Sheriff Hutton the second. There is coverage of the league in the York daily paper, The Press.
My interest in the league has been revived by the discovery that in its earlier days it was a Saturday League for, as is often the case when dipping into newspaper archives, one thing leads to another and in the Darlington and Stockton Times for 1925 I found a report on the previous Saturday's matches in the Pilmoor and District League. The league table below shows that there were just seven clubs and of these only one (Helperby) survives today.
Some of these villages are very small, Birdforth, six miles south of Thirsk on the A19 had at the 2001 census, a population of just 13. It is hard to imagine that it was ever much bigger. Still 13 is enough for eleven men, scorer and umpire but with not much cover for holidays and haymaking. Their local derby would have been with Carlton Husthwaite, less then a mile away, their longest journey and the longest in the league, was a whisker under nine miles to Myton on Swale. For the Birdforth players their annual trip to Myton must have seemed like going to the big city for the 1881 census gives Myton's population as 189 and in 2001, 154.
This photograph is of the splendid grade 2 listed Myton bridge restored for the millennium. Shortly downstream from here the Swale loses its identity when it joins the Ure.
When this league started and when it became an evening league, I know not and if I ever finish looking into the history of the Wensleydale and Swaledale leagues then the Pilmoor League can join
a list that includes the Felixkirk and District, the Vale of Mowbray and the Forest of Galtres leagues for future investigation.
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