Disclaimer. This is a not-for-profit unaffiliated project which aims to collate information for general public interest.
I apologise if there has been any inadvertent breach of copyright. If any oversights have been made, I would be happy to rectify them.
I apologise if there has been any inadvertent breach of copyright. If any oversights have been made, I would be happy to rectify them.
Barry Gill 2013
ABOUT THIS SITE
The content of this site is based on the research I started in the early 1990’s when I was volunteered to put together a history of the Nidderdale Amateur Cricket League in what became a failed attempt to produce a booklet in 1994 to celebrate the centenary of the formation of the league.
With clubs having little to offer in the way of records, sources of information were largely confined to looking at old newspapers in both the Harrogate Library and at the Ackrill Newspaper Group offices, also in Harrogate and I am grateful to Ackrills for allowing me to do so. More recently it has been possible to look at copies of old regional newspapers such as the York Herald and the Leeds Mercury along with Bell's Life in London, and Sporting Chronicle, which was contained scores and reports of games involving clubs from the Nidderdale, Ripon & Harrogate area, who now form the League as well as those who have gone on to play in more senior leagues. Links to the websites of these other leagues can be found in the links menu tab above, along with the Nidderdale League website.
The information contained in this website inevitably leans towards those clubs that remain within the
Nidderdale Amateur Cricket League. It consists mainly of “cuttings” and copied reports of cricket matches and related cricket matters, within th
e catchment area of the League and is set out in chronological order. I have tried wherever possible to give the source of the information. Where none is given the source will be from an edition of the Pateley Bridge & Nidderdale Herald or another of the Ackrill Newspaper group publications. In some circumstances it may be no more than a note of a match or of a photograph and the date of the newspaper in which it appeared.
e catchment area of the League and is set out in chronological order. I have tried wherever possible to give the source of the information. Where none is given the source will be from an edition of the Pateley Bridge & Nidderdale Herald or another of the Ackrill Newspaper group publications. In some circumstances it may be no more than a note of a match or of a photograph and the date of the newspaper in which it appeared.
In addition I have also tried to establish from the same sources when clubs played their first fixture or were first known of. This can be found here.
In terms of the Nidderdale League, the fact is that since 1894 even accounting for the two wars it has not run continuously and there have, for one reason or another, been several breaks in the competition. It has however now run unbroken since 1949 and is one of the largest, if not the largest, village cricket league in the United Kingdom with an establishment of over 50 clubs, most with 2nd XI’s and a number with 3 teams.
A word about the photograph above, which I have used as the heading for all pages. It shows a match in progress at Pateley Bridge with the home team (who were to win the league that season) entertaining Greetland from the Halifax area. The date of the match is thought to be 5 June 1922 which was Whit Monday. It is I think quite unique as it is probably the earliest photographic record of cricket in Nidderdale. Other photographs of the trip, which included a visit to Brimham Rocks, can be seen in the extras section. The photographs are being used by kind permission of Greetland CC (JJ Fielden family) (les.forester@o2.co.uk) They were unearthed when research was being carried out as part of The Cricket History of Calderdale and Kirklees project.
Finally, this work is not error free nor is it the finished product and I would welcome further contributions. So if you have anything that could be added to the site, that can be scanned or copied, particularly photographs, please contact me by e-mail at barry@niddprint.co.uk or by telephone on 01423 780078 (H) or 07704478773 (M)
HOME