About four years ago I bought a paperback entitled 'Cricket The Game of Life' by that excellent cricket writer Scyld Berry. I really enjoyed the book, particularly a long section of eleven pages on the history of the famous Yorkshire club Lascelles Hall, near Huddersfield which became known as the cradle of Yorkshire cricket. I lived in the village for three years as a boy and was therefore very sad to see a picture in the book said to be of Lascelles Hall, which all too clearly certainly was not.
This is the picture that appeared in Scyld Berry's book. The first points to make are the buildings on the left and the chimney in the centre of the picture which have never been seen at Lascelles Hall. The second point is the distant view of Castle Hill, a well known local landmark, Next to the tower can be seen another building which was a public house (now long demolished). The view in the picture must have been taken from the north west of Huddersfield, rather than the east where Lascelles Hall is.
As far as I remember Castle Hill cannot be seen from the Lascelles Hall ground, as it is obscured by trees, although it can be seen, looking much nearer, from the end of Highfield Lane adjacent to the ground. So all in all something of a mystery. This month's edition of the Cricketer Magazine compounds the mystery by re-publishing the self same picture, but with a different caption. This states that the game is a Sykes Cup semi-final between Lascelles Hall and Rastrick on July 9 1951.
Part of the picture as it appears in the Cricketer.
Having looked at my constant tool for finding cricket grounds (Google Earth) I came to the conclusion that this could well have been the now disused ground of Britannia Works, who played in the Huddersfield Association many years ago. This old ground is situated just beyond Salendine Nook school on New Hey Road, which leads towards the M62 motorway.
The next question is why should a Huddersfield league cup semi-final be played on a ground outside the league? In addition July 9th 1951 was a Monday, which reminds me that cup games were often played on mid-week evenings until a decision was made in those days. It also seems highly unlikely that a cup semi-final would only attract two visible spectators.
So more questions than answers and it may be that until someone can search the archives of the Huddersfield Examiner in the local library we may never know for certain where the ground really is and why the game was played there.
The real Lascelles Hall.
Ironically on the very day the magazine arrived, the funeral was taking place of possibly the only man who may well have known the answer. Peter Dibb, the legendary Huddersfield league cricketer, had his service from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire streamed online, so that his many friends from the cricketing community could see it due to the current restrictions. The vicar conducting the service made the point that Peter's ashes are to be buried in the churchyard which overlooks the local cricket ground.
1 comment:
Hello Tony. I confess that I have only recently discovered your blog and am working through some past articles. Have you solved the mystery referred to here? If not through the British Newspaper Archive I think I can enlighten you. In the Halifax Courier dated 23 June 1951 the Sykes Cup Semi Final draw is announced. The ties were:
Elland v Kirkheaton at Fartown on July 2nd
Rastrick v Lascelles Hall at Paddock on July 9th.
It's a long time since I was at Paddock but would you recognise the view as being from that ground?
Best wishes
Richard Hutson
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