Lightcliffe Cricket Club: A new home for a new era

Lightcliffe Cricket Club has changed quite a bit since I last came to this scenic Calderdale village. They’ve driven a digger through the red and white wooden pavilion and flattened it for a start.

In its place is a handsome, modern pavilion that is the equal of anything I’ve seen in Yorkshire. But we’ll come to that…

A fraught drive through Queensbury involving narrow roads you could barely squeeze a tube of toothpaste through, let alone a car, was a credit to Mrs Cricket Yorkshire’s powers of concentration and patience.

Our reward was arriving on the quiet, tree-lined Till Carr Lane that takes cricketers and spectators alike to Lightcliffe Cricket Club, in our case, for the home game against Crossflatts in Division 2 of the Bradford Premier League.

Crossflatts were top and Lightcliffe nestled in at third so there was something to play for but if I’m being entirely honest, it was chiefly about the landscape, the beauty of the ground and curiosity about their new home.

There is understandable pride in our cricket history and heritage but clubs are moving with the times to build thoughtful, inclusive facilities for future generations.

Further down the lane is a left turn onto the gravel track that takes visitors to the cricket club. Conditioned to fret about the travel minutiae, I was fretting about that final approach and meeting oncoming traffic.

We didn’t but the path is broader than Google Maps makes out with signage and passing points.

I used to see the picture-postcard view of the Lightcliffe single-storey pavilion, encased in greenery, on my way along the Bradford to Halifax rail route. The approach by car to its replacement is more impressive.

It is surrounded on several sides by fields of long, wild grasses gently dancing in the breeze. Birdlife too, if you care for such things as I do, was in good voice. Magpies, robins, song thrushes and wrens all warbling and flitting.

There is plenty of parking and we came to rest under a low-hanging tree branch, hopefully protected from any sixes launched out of the ground towards the adjoining golf course.

Lightcliffe’s Chair Richard Leach was on hand to kindly give me the tour and it blew me away really. The glass doors were opened out where scorers and spectators sat in the shade. The batting side make their way from the balcony and down the central steps to walk out to the middle.

There is now space for a proper kitchen with a serving counter and a separate bar, alongside with wood fashioned from the old pavilion; a nod to the past. It’s light, airy and stylish inside.

Perhaps the aspect that struck me most was the signage. I do like Lightcliffe’s logo (they rebranded with the decision to build a new pavilion) and the signage everywhere is crisp and on point.

It wouldn’t look out of place in a Premier League football club or an NFL ground in the US (he says, having watched many Netflix and Amazon sports documentaries).

Up the stairs, there are framed photos of the internationals who have played for the club, most recently Alex Lees and Ollie Robinson to Mohammad Kaif and then way back in the First World War, even George Hirst.

The view from the balcony is arresting.

Down below, Crossflatts were peppy in the field with the opening bowler (Nadeem Sardar I think), all fire, brimstone and curly hair. A pocket rocket with white headband and green wristbands.

The ground, a clear source of pride for Rod Heyhoe and Chris Drake, looked immaculate with the eye drawn to the electronic scoreboard with its cherry red painted ends, raised up on bricks.

A shoutout, before I forget, to Jordan Pickles who looks after Lightcliffe CC’s Facebook account and was hugely helpful in answering questions in quick-time in the lead-up to the game.

I never take such things for granted with volunteers having their own commitments to juggle and yet, a fast response and useful background definitely makes my life easier.

Lightcliffe built steadily, batters making useful starts but Crossflatts never let them dominate, snatching wickets at regular intervals.

Batting at three, Yusuf Malik’s patient 45 off 90 balls was the anchor and his dismissal at 154-5 left things evenly poised.

By then, I had photographed and nattered my way round several laps. I bumped into Parveen, Yusuf’s mum who is heavily involved at Bradford Park Avenue, and talked to Claire (above), who has helped do the teas for 54 years at Lightcliffe.

Seriously, imagine that.

She is revelling in the new surroundings having begun serving teas in the seventies when there was no electricity and a teacake and a brew were rustled up, courtesy of a gas fire.

Out in the middle, Lightcliffe used their full allocation of 50 overs to conclude on 219-9. More than a typical par score at home this season for the firsts – not including a freak Jack Hampshire Cup win over Wrenthorpe where they racked up 336-3 off 40 overs.

Here, it felt like it should be competitive, although the sense on the benches from the home support was that Crossflatts had done well to restrict things towards the end.

Flatts used five bowlers with Muhammad Ali Rasa (3-59) and Sanjula Bandara (3-41) putting in a notable shift, backed by the spin of Dom Bennett (2-56).

After the players and umpires had eaten, we bought a brew and slab of Bakewell tart, as you do, before hearing about the popularity of another sport on-site in pétanque.

It seems the locals cannot get enough of les boules, with forty or so members and Lightcliffe has its own gravel-topped playing area next to the outdoor cricket nets.

In fact, to cast your eye around the ground at Lightcliffe is to enjoy its many points of interest. There is a wooden, bunting-decorated hut (the old tea hut I believe) which dates from when there used to be a tennis club at Lightcliffe.

Another gem is the umpires’ hut, painted dark red where they used to change I guess (or get locked in after a controversial decision). The size of a garden shed, it now seems to house cricket kit and has a defibrillator.

Meanwhile, Lightcliffe plucked out two early wickets (41-2) before the visitors settled into their work. Jacob Stephens (55 off 47 balls) and Azhar Mehmood (52 off 72 balls) before Ben Speak’s stumping off the latter shifted the balance.

Jordan Pickles (4-56) capped a strong all-round display but it was Crossflatts’ Tinashe Gomwe who kept his composure to get the 19 points for the visitors in a tight finish.

The two-wicket win keeps Crossflatts top (137), a point off Gomersal in second, while Lightcliffe drop to fifth (115).

With only nine rounds played, there is plenty to come in this division and on a day like this, there can be few finer places to enjoy league cricket than Lightcliffe.

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Founder of Cricket Yorkshire, Author of Dales, Bails and Cricket Club Tales, All Wickets Great & Small and Last of the Summer Wickets.

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