This week received a report from one of our regular readers Bob Longward. While out walking recently he came across the old cricket ground at Norwood Green, which is an attractive village to the south of Bradford, close to the borders of Brighouse and Halifax.
Bob confirms that on it's day this was one of the most picturesque grounds in the area, with a stone pavilion and fantastic views of the south Pennines. It was used by the Craven Gentlemen's team, which played friendlies at weekends. When their side folded, nearby Lightcliffe showed an interest in the ground, but it was not considered large enough for Bradford League cricket. The Norwood Green side, who I have since established were founder members of the Halifax League in 1914 had originally been founded way back in 1867. I understand they originally played on the old village green.
As Bob continues, the club in more recent times were members of the now defunct Bradford Central League and were eventually taken over, like many others in the Bradford area, as a wholly Asian side.
Obviously things have not worked out in recent seasons and Bob reports that the field is now very much overgrown and the pavilion is in a poor state of repair. He assumes the land will eventually be used for housing.
I was able to send Bob the above picture of the ground when I visited way back in May 2002. It took a while to research who was actually playing, but I have now discovered it was Norwood Green against neighbours Low Moor in the Bradford Central League.
This if of course far from the first cricket ground to fall by the wayside and it is sad to remember so many clubs that no longer exist, particularly in the urban areas of both Bradford and Leeds. Brian Sanderson has recently mentioned some of the long forgotten clubs in the Leeds area, which reminded me that the late Mick Bourne had planned to write a book about the lost cricket grounds of Leeds. Sadly I feel that there are too few records of all these old clubs for this ever to happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment