COMPLETION OF VISITING ALL LEAGUE GROUNDS IN A LEAGUE

By Brian Sanderson,

I went out with Ron Deaton on another visits to cricket grounds in the Durham area.Looking at the weather map this area was promised to be rain free.The first ground visited was Blackhall were their seconds were playing Northallerton second team in the North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League.Blackhall Colliery village is on the North Sea coast between Horden and Hartlepool. The village was built round the colliery which was closed in 1981.

In the park is a memorial of 19 members of the local bowls club died when the brakes of the bus failed on Crawleyside Bank.

Moving on to Castle Eden ground were their seconds were playing Tudhoe in the Durham Cricket League.The village is famous for the former Castle Eden Brewery which was run by the Nimmo family from 1826. The cricket club was effectively a private club for family until they started playing league .

When you are visiting the cricket clubs ,you are learning facts about the area. As you will see from the photograph  the pavilion is one of the best in the area.

Moving on we went to Horden were their first were playing Bolden also in the Durham Cricket League.The village is on the North Sea coast and was a mining area until the colliery closed in 1987.The ground is situated in Welfare Park which was established in 1929.

Like most grounds in the area a football club is adjacent to the cricket ground and in this case acts as a sightscreen.The home side had bowled Bolden for 87 and heading for a easy victory.

Moving on to another exmining village of Easington were their seconds were playing Burnmoor seconds were the home side were batting. Again is situated in a park but this time it overlooks the sea which gives a better  vista.

The final ground visited today was Newton Aycliffe were their seconds were playing Barnard Castle seconds who were batting as we arrived. This is the final ground in The North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire League which I required to complete seeing all the grounds in this league.There are as at 31 November 2013 the league has 30 full member clubs ,ranging from Whitby in the south

of the region,to Barnard Castle in the west   and Blackhall in the north.