CRICKET MEMORABILIA

By Brian Sanderson,

When I retired nearly twenty years ago I had to decide what I would do with my time. As I live near Headingley cricket ground  and I had played cricket for thirty-five years ,it seem logical to watch  Yorkshire cricket.While watching early on I met Bobby  Turner who lived near me. He had a large collection of cricket books however he died suddenly. The family very kindly allowed me to take over his library as none of the family was interested in cricket.

This started me off on collecting cricket memorabilia and over the last ten years my collection has grown to take over two rooms of our house.On Friday  afternoon, I went down to Leicester to see the Knights Auction items for myself and Yorkshire Archives.Going down early allows you more time to see the items and not have to get up early next morning.

A few years ago I purchased the above photograph of Maurice Leyland X1  V  Mr J.A. Birchall,s X1 which was a match on 7 th July 1940 on e-bay.However I was out bid on the scorecard.The match took place at Norwood Park Beverley. On the front line at the left is Norman Yardley and Maurice Leyland.

One of the items at Knight,s  was a scorecard for the above match which had been signed by Norman Yardley and Frank Smailes. I was lucky to purchase the scorecard so it is now with the photograph. So you never know what you find in auctions and e-bay.

Rag pudding and an England star

Posted by John Winn

Stepping down from the train at Todmorden yesterday I made  a quick check of the other detrainers  but didn't recognise any other likely Jim the Dog attendees and when I arrived at Centre Vale, for a moment I though I might have come on the wrong day. Not to worry, for the tables were set and the bar soon started to fill up with the usual worthies, including Brian Senior who had come on an earlier train and taken the opportunity to see a bit of the town.White rose reps were scarce though and Brian, Adam from Knottingley and I sat together at lunch for solidarity. After delicious vegetable soup we were served a local delicacy, rag pudding which together with a range of vegetables, splendid gravy and a choice of desserts was great value for £11:00.

This was the first JTD lunch I had attended since the eponymous Jim died last year but many were wearing the appropriate tie and with next winter's dates already confirmed memories of him will not fade away. Yesterday's speaker was England women's cricketer and star bowler in the recent win over Australia at the WACA.. Katy Cross. The session took the form of questions to Katy, which she handled with poise, modesty,  a sense of humour and just an occasional dig at male cricketers. Aged 22  so much opportunity lies before her and I'm sure all present yesterday wish her well. Straight from TCC  she was off to Old Trafford for fitness training. Looking round the room a few of us might have done well to have followed Katy's example but on top of rag pudding, probably not.

As I made way back to the station I spotted this notice in the red cabin which serves as the splendid Todmorden tea room, nice thought that April is just 40 days away.

ECB National Club Championship 2014

posted by John Winn

I may have been a mite tardy in picking up that the draw has been published for National Club KO,  but our Hartlepool correspondent has jogged my elbow for his local team are entering for what I think may be the first time and have drawn tough opposition at Park Drive in the form of Chester le Street.

First round matches are to be played on Sunday April 27th. In group 1 which covers North Yorkshire and the North East the 2012 winners York are away to Whitburn, local rivals Harrogate must also head north and are at Newcastle outfit, Benwell Hill. Close to home for me, Easingwold of the York League take on the NYSD champions Richmondshire at Back Lane and another club who may have gulped when they saw the draw, Clifton Alliance,  will host the champions of North East Premier, Stockton at Clifton Park. Knaresborough Forest who I saw defeated at Easingwold in a preliminary round match last April by 189 runs, must set their sights even higher for they will travel to South Northumberland, another of the top sides from the North East Premier.

Group 2 takes in clubs in West and East Yorkshire as well as entries from Lincs and Derbyshire and, among others sees Yeadon take on Driffield, Beverley host Doncaster and Barnsley will travel to Notts outfit Cuckney. Group 3 contains last year's winners, West Indian Cavaliers who have a home tie against Leicestershire opponents Kegworth Town. The beaten finalists, Ealing CC have home advantage against Brentham CC in what is a local derby. The full draw is available at the ecb play-cricket site.

Mention of Stockton CC links to the second XI fixtures, for Durham II will play four days cricket at the Oxbridge Avenue ground in August against Lancashire. Durham have played a number of first class matches here, even since the opening of The Riverside. The last visitors were Kent in 2006 when some blistering hitting from South African Justin Kemp gave Kent victory by 95 runs after trailing on first innings. Only two of the Durham XI from that match are still playing regular first team cricket, the culinary combination of Mustard and Onions. The last second eleven championship cricket was in 2003 when a Yorkshire side including Tim Bresnan and Richard Dawson took on a Durham XI for whom Graham Onions took 6 second innings wickets. This was not enough to stop Yorkshire inning by one wicket. Mark Lawson and Harry Anderson got the white rose over the line.

Finally news of Jim the Dog this Wednesday at Todmorden CC where the speaker will be England women's Ashes winner, Kate Cross. For those living east of the Pennines Todmorden is the most accessible of JTD venues and the train that leaves Leeds station at 11:07 takes just under the hour and allows time for a sharpener before lunch at 1:00.

 

Not the England team but Tholthorpe Ladies pre World War One with chaperones

Le Grand Depart II

posted by John Winn

Early in January I posted a summary of leagues' responses to the traffic problems that will be linked to the presence of the Tour de France in Yorkshire over the weekend of July 5th and 6th. I can now add a little to that.

Fixtures not yet available: Langbaurgh, Darlington and District, York Vale (to be released 'next week'), Bradford Mutual

Business as usual: Derwent Valley and Huddersfield Central

Fixtures switched: Dales Council

The Bradford Mutual and Sunday School website announces that there will be three new teams in the league in 2014 but alas does not say who they are. Founded in 1896 the league will have 27 clubs and 38 teams in four divisions in the new season. Promoted to Div 1 are Apperley Bridge who were expelled from the Dales Council in 2012 for their poor disciplinary record. 'Cast into the widerness' according to the Telegraph and Argus, the club appears to have responded positively to its shame.

The splendidly named VVS Laxman XI are promoted to Div II.

The final Jim the Cat for the 2013/14 season will be at Pudsey St Lawrence on Friday 21st February with the bar open at noon. the speaker is Robert Davies on  'Cricket in Wales'.

Cricket round Thirsk

posted by John Winn

'a club .....deeply troubled and in desperate need of re-invigoration on and off the field' were the words of the chairman of Thirsk CC when delivering his annual report at the club's 2012 AGM. Happily a year on and chairman George Gifford was able to speak more positively about one of the oldest and most historic clubs in Yorkshire,

Thirsk is a small market town in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire with a population of just under 5000. The town lies in the Vale of Mowbray, an area of low lying land north of the Vale of York and which until 1971, had its own cricket league which had begun life after the 39-45 war. Teams came and went and when it folded the seven remaining clubs  all found homes elsewhere. Six survive until today.

Thirsk CC's CV is an impressive one. Founder members of the North Yorkshire Cricket league in 1892 a competition which thrives to this day in the form of the NYSD, Thisrk were only briefly members of this competition for after just four years, by which time clubs from north of the Tees had been admitted, they left to join the Thirsk and District League and in 1912 were founder members of the Thirsk and District Senior Cricket League. This was renamed the York and District SCL in 1932.

A Thirsk player, Yorkshire's George Macauley, became the first player from the competition to play test cricket when he took a wicket with his first ball against South Africa in 1923. Thirsk is the birth place of Thomas Lord and in 2005 a match was arranged at HQ between Thirsk and the place of Lord's death, the Hampshire village of West Meon but sadly rain prevented any play. Thirsk's ground is in the centre of the town's racecourse and there is a record of cricket being played here in 1851 when 22 of Thirsk took on an All England XI.

Cricket in Thirsk has not been confined to Thirsk CC for below is a photograph of Thirsk Junction CC, champions of the T and D SL in 1933

Stick Thirsk Junction into a search engine and you will get plenty of information on the town's railway station but before the second world war they were a strong side who ended their days in the late 1960s as members of the Wath League. The cup is kept in the trophy case at Thirsk CC.

In my recent piece on the Felixkirk and District League I made reference to another Thirsk Club, Thirsk Victoria who were admitted to the league in 1951 but whose history stretches back into the previous century. This shows them as champions of the Thirsk and District in 1898.

The Vics were champions of the Felixkirk league on more than one occasion and here they are in 1957

Earlier in the piece I touched on the closure of the VOM league in 1971 and the fact that six of those clubs who were there at the end survive today. The one that does not is Sowerby CC, a village club just three miles out of Thirsk. They too competed in the Felixkirk league and the Wath and were champions of the VOM in 1958 (pictured below).



Cricket clubs who have relied too heavily on one person to do the work are not unknown and Sowerby probably come into that category for the untimely death of its inspiration, Brian Dalloway, in 1990 led to it being disbanded. The ground is now arable land.

I am grateful for much of this material to Pat Ruecroft who I met on a number of occasions last year and who has kept splendid records of cricket in the Thirsk area. A nice touch is that Pat's grandfather was the contractor when the 'new' pavilion was built in 1907 and when it was re-roofed in 1966 Pat was the man. There is a splendid history of the club on their website thirskcricket.co.uk. Would that more clubs cared so much about their past.



The league that didn't come in from the cold

posted by John Winn

Felix of Burgundy is widely credited as the man who introduced Christianity to East Anglia and several English churches are dedicated to his name. One such is in a small village near Thirsk in North Yorkshire and here the name of the village as well as the church commemorate the first Bishop of the East Angles.

The population of Felixkirk has varied little in modern times and stands at little over 100 today but the Darlington and Stockton Times in 1923 confirms that this was the first season of the Felixkirk and District League, including a side representing the eponymous village. In a 'Specially Contributed' article in September of that year the D and S reviews the first season of the league and concludes that the league had met its aim of 'encouraging a healthy rival between the hillside villages'. The league appears to have begun with these ten teams,

Kilvington

Silton

Sutton

Felixkirk

Boltby

Knayton

Kilburn

Upsall

Bagby

Thirlby

The 'hillside' referred to is the western edge of the Cleveland Hills and the longest journey would have been from Bagby to Silton, as the crow flies about eight miles. Having driven on some of the roads linking the villages earlier this week I suspect the crow made quicker progress than whatever mode of transport was used  90 years ago.

Cricket lives on in some of these small communities for (South) Kilvington are members of the Nidderdale League and Brian visited Silton CC in July of last year. (picture below)

                    



 Going through Bagby a couple of days ago and asking for the cricket field provoked no surprise in a resident but despite ruining a pair of shoes in the cause I could only find this evidence of sporting endeavour.

For much of my research into 'lost leagues' I have been dependent on local newspaper coverage and at times this has been frustratingly sparse but the NY archive in Northallerton holds the minute book for the Felixkirk League from 1945 to 1963. I spent a captivating hour there last week when having got through security I was allowed access to the book. The record begins with an informal meeting in Felixkirk School on November 12th 1945 when representatives of 8 clubs 'agreed that the league should be restarted.'

Felixkirk School

Sowerby were the first winners but the competition was dominated for the next few years by Kilburn with four successive titles . Clubs came and went, Bagby replaced Sutton, two villages about a mile apart, Kirby Wiske joined in 1948 when the secretary was to 'urge Knayton to continue', which they did but were 'doubtful' again in 1951. Northallerton Central depot were admitted in 1950 as were Thirsk Victoria in 1951. These more metropolitan clubs were successful, Central Depot winning in 52 and 53, on each occasion after a play off, and the 'vics' in 1954.

Throughout these comings and goings there were certain constants. The league secretary was the Reverend Reginald Smith, vicar of Felixkirk, meetings were always held in the school and the caretaker always paid 2/6d (12 and a half pence) for his or her trouble. By 1958 the league was reduced to six clubs but then admitted Thornton le Moor and Topcliffe British Legion. From this relatively healthy state things seem to have gone rapidly down the hillside for by 1963 the league was reduced to just three clubs. In 1960 Rev King had announced that on his imminent retirement he would be leaving the area and a new secretary would be required. This, the minutes record, would be the new vicar. For whatever reason this did not come to pass the reins which were passed to Mr N Sadler  remained in his hands until the league's demise.  One other interesting change in the league's organisation is that as soon as the Reverend's back was turned AGMs were held on licensed premises, notably the Cross Keys in Thirsk. A sad note is at the AGM in the year following the announcement of the vicar's retirement a minute's silence was held in his memory. His retirement had been a short one.

At a meeting held  in February 1963 it was agreed that no fixtures could be drawn up for the forthcoming season and that the league should be placed in 'cold storage', an apt metaphor given the cold winter of that year. Mr Sadler, by now both treasurer and secretary, was given custody of the club's documents but it was not until 1975 that he accepted the league had frozen to death. In a final letter  he made arrangements for the disposal of the final balance of £7-81p. Thornton le Moor, the last winners of the competition delivered the cup to Thirlby CC, considered the owners of the cup having been the first club to win it outright before the war. The minute book, the bank book, a copy of the fixture list for 1961 and Mr Sadler's final letter were given to the county archive for safe keeping.  The picture below shows the Thirlby team that achieved a hat trick of victories in 1927,28 and 29.