The first cricket I ever saw was during the Second World War when my grandfather used to take me regularly to Roundhay Park, Leeds for Sunday afternoon charity games arranged by a well known Leeds business man - Jack Appleyard. He somehow managed to produce amazingly talented sides of not only local league players, but County and Test players too. Jack Appleyard's XI ran from 1941 to 1958 playing games for local charities not only on Sundays at Roundhay, but mid-week games as well at a variety of local club grounds in the Leeds area.
The Roundhay Oval is still regularly used for local league cricket and is situated in a natural bowl with huge grassy banks which were known to have accommodated crowds of over 100,000 for the famous Leeds Children's Days and military tattoos. Much earlier in it's existence, before World War One in fact, it had been suggested as the venue for F.A. Cup finals, but lost out to Crystal Palace some time before the building of Wembley Stadium.
One of the earliest games I can actually remember was the 1943 Leeds League's Hepworth Cup Final between Kirkstall Educational and Lofthouse. This was reported to have attracted a crowd of 22,000 which was believed to be the highest crowd for a league cricket match in this country beating the previous figure of 14,179 at the Bradford League's Priestley Cup Final of 1921 at Park Avenue, Bradford.
The reason I can still remember this game is that my uncle Geoff Stones, plus three of his brothers and a brother in law, was a member of the winning Kirkstall team. My proudest moment (as a six year old) came when he was fielding on the third man boundary and actually spoke to me as I followed him round the boundary edge.
The following year, 3rd September, 1944, saw probably the greatest assembly of cricketing talent to ever appear at Roundhay. This was the Hedley Verity memorial match following the wartime death of the great Yorkshire and England left arm spin bowler in Italy. Among the England greats were Wally Hammond, still captain of England after the war, Len Hutton, Herbert Sutcliffe, Maurice Leyland, Arthur Wood, Eddie Paynter and George Duckworth. The umpires were two Yorkshire legends, Wilfred Rhodes and Emmott Robinson. Sadly the game was abandoned when rain interrupted proceedings but not before Len Hutton had scored 82.
On the 21st July, 1946 a match was played in aid of Yorkshire veteran Wilf Barber's testimonial. Press reports suggest that there were 60,000 people present and a collection for Barber amounted to £400, a substantial amount in those days. Appleyard's XI captained by Wally Hammond took on Brian Sellars' XI in this match. 'Tiddly Push' as Barber was affectionately known was honoured to be part of a wonderful squad which read. Sellars, Barber, Hutton, Leyland, Wood, Smailes, Turner, Robinson, Beaumont, Watson, Coxon, Wardle and Halliday.
However, Appleyard's XI won the game with a brilliant display of hitting from Lancashire's Eddie Paynter, who scored 82, including six sixes and seven fours. This may have been the innings which perpetuated an urban myth that Paynter once hit a ball into the lake at Roundhay, which would have been a prodigious distance. I cannot remember who first told me this story, but it has never been verified. I have several times walked the route the ball must have taken and all I can surmise was that Paynter, a left hander, was batting at the Lake end and hooked the ball over fine leg. It must have then gone onto the wide footpath at the top right of the picture at the top of this article and rolled down the hill, alongside the then boathouse and slowly dropped into the very corner of the lake. That's my version for what it's worth.
The period after the end of the war often saw visiting county sides appearing during their Sundays off during three day Championship games, long before the advent of the Sunday League. One little known fact is that Brian Close actually played one match for Nottinghamshire at Rounday, when they were one man short, and Close who had just started playing for Yeadon in the Bradford League was quick to volunteer.
That same season, 1948, Mr Appleyard tried very hard to get the all conquering Australians to appear at Roundhay on the Sunday of the Headingley Test. For once he failed, but he might have drawn an even bigger crowd than the record ever attendance at Headingley. The Roundhay regulars had to make do with with a relatively low scoring game with Hammond's XI, when the great man made only five runs.
The last game I attended was in 1949, shortly before my family moved to the Midlands, when Jack Appleyard's XI played Dick Howarth's Worcestershire XI, which was the full Worcester county side plus another young Yorkshire Colt in Eric Fisk. Amazingly I still have the match programme, printed on very thin paper. Although rather fragile now, I can reproduce it below.
The star-studded home side was typical of the players who appeared regularly, with such well known county men as Eddie Paynter, Arthur Wood and Horace Fisher. The three great West Indians, Weekes, Worrell and Holt and the Australian Cec Pepper were the icing on the cake, performing as they did in those days in the Lancashire League. Weekes and Worrell would dominate proceedings at Test level the following season when the West Indies toured England, along with those two little pals of mine, Ramadhin and Valentine.
Years later I managed to find the scores of this match, plus many others from the Yorkshire Post archive in Leeds Central Library. Worcester batted first and I remember the fair haired Yorkshireman George Dews, top scoring with 52. I later saw him playing league football for both Plymouth Argyle and Walsall. Worcester scored 232-8 declared, but Appleyard's XI with some assistance from the great Frank Worrell, who made a century in just over an hour, coasted to victory with 233-8. Not a bad afternoon's entertainment.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s things came full circle for me as my office side played home matches on the Roundhay Oval in the Bradford Business evening league against some very strong Building Society, Insurance Company and Banks sides, often reinforced by several 'ringers'. I was delighted to play on the sacred turf when most of my team mates had no idea of the history of the place.
In recent years the pavilion has been rebuilt with appropriate security screens to repel the threat of vandalism and it is good to see cricket continuing at this historic venue which brings back so many great memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment