On my only previous visit to the Halifax League, in 2010, I visited four clubs all with Bradford postcodes. Seven years on I picked out four grounds with HX prefixes and on a glorious September Saturday began my watching at Mytholmroyd, previously only known to me as somewhere the train occasionally stopped en route to Todmorden. The match at Moderna Way was a Premier Division fixture with Queensbury the visitors. Arriving five minutes before the scheduled 1: 30 start I was only just in time to see the first ball bowled on this attractive ground.
Runs were slow to come at first but taking advantage of some slackness in the field and the relatively short boundaries the Queensbury openers built up a head of steam to reach 49 without loss off nine overs, including a six which was only prevented from entering the adjacent Rochdale Canal by the density of Himalayan Balsam growing on its banks. Time for me to move on but the website shows that Queensbury were bowled out for 241, something of a collapse after an opening partnership of 63 and this was fairly easy meat for Mytholmroyd who won by 8 wickets with Thomas Conway unbeaten on 107.
For match two I climbed away from the Calder Valley to Booth, a ground recommended to me a long time ago by Brian Sanderson, and one of the most attractive grounds I have visited, set off perfectly by its hanging baskets, beautifully mown outfield and seen at its best in the sunshine. Booth, top of the league were batting against fifth place Triangle, who won the prize for noisiest team of the day, and I was impressed by the quality of the cricket .Booth were batting and while I watched most of the runs came from Robert Worsnop but after he was out another Robert, Laycock this time, took over and top scored with 92 in a total of 265/7. Not enough for Triangle won with five wickets to spare. Despite this defeat Booth stay top. Whilst wandering round the ground I saw a bench in memory of one Reg Parker, not, I am reliably informed and glad to say,the sage of Adle.
Drinks being taken at Booth.
The front cover of Bloggers on The Boundary, Cricket Diary 2010, written by Tony Hutton, Brian Sanderson and Peter Davies shows a picture of Copley CC with the iconic Copley Viaduct built in 1852 overshadowing the cricket. This was my next stop on Saturday and while I was there several trains passed by travelling between Manchester and Leeds but a remarkable change has occurred at this Halifax League Premier Division ground since Peter visited it seven years ago and enjoyed four different kinds of sandwiches and pasta. 'The cheesy egg mayo delicacy was absolutely gorgeous'. The change has come in the form of a new pavilion, shown on this photo and opened in 2012.
Not surprisingly a good sized crowd had decided to soak up a few rays and some alcohol watching Sowerby St Peters batting and stepping up the pace as the innings neared its close. One six resulted in a lost ball underneath the arches, we dream our dreams away, and SSP finished on 264/8. It is on occasions like this that one is tempted to tear up the programme of visits and had I stayed to the end I would have seen a thrilling finish with Copley falling just two short.
For what I expected to be my fourth and last ground of the day I passed through Halifax town centre to Northowram and another Premier match between Northowram Hedge Top and Warley. Tea was being taken here with the visitors having hit 332 for 5. To my surprise, and separated only by a low wall, a game was in progress this time between Northowram Fields II and Hopton Mills II with the home team defending 345, an effort far too much for Hopton who fell 181 short. This match was in the Bradford League Championship 2 Second Teams. So two for the price of one here and a nice round up to as good an afternoon out as one could wish for.
Before leaving I watched a little of Hedge Top's reply which did not begin well and the website shows they were all out for 85, 247 short.
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