Be sure to check out Steve Draper's second installment in his "Historic Yorkshire Cricket Grounds" series. Your memories, reminiscences and comments are welcome. Link
This message has been edited by AlexRoberts on May 25, 2009 11:56 PM
If anyone has a recent picture of Leyland's Gates or the ground in general, please feel free to send them along to the WRF. We'll include one or two in the article on a "first-come-first-served" basis.
I miss Harrogate (but not the bind of getting there & parking) ... especially as it was easy to walk down to the chippy & then buy some fruit in the lunch break. I'm always sure that the outgrounds were discontinued because of the ground though. I was at the last game staged there & have always had the following theory
At Headingley certain members of the committee could just sit in their ivory tower with the odd walk round to show willing. At Harrogate the committee had their own tent ... but anyone could walk round the ground & 'have their pennysworth' without problem.
I used to love going to cricket at Harrogate. It always felt like a bit of a secret - the ground was hidden away inside a sububan middle class housing estate and you didn't know it was there until you were virtually inside. I remember going to the Harrogate Festival a couple of times - i seem to remember a weekend with a young lady and a very smart hotel. She spent the day in the spa/health club and I went to the cricket - meeting up for a lovely dinner at night. Can't remember anything about the cricket i'm afraid. I remember there was very little seating around the ground, and there always used to be a row of wheelchair users near the front gate for some reason - connected to the groundsman's house i think..
I think I once saw Boycott score a hundred there - but might be mistaken.
It was my first trip to see Yorkshire play and I saw the first two days of the match. Very nice sunny days just after the end of my A Level exams.
I remember Joel Garner's slog at the end of the first Somerset innings and I remember being amazed how big he seemed when bowling.
Richard Lumb scored more quickly than Boycott but GB was very precise and hit everything on the ground and through the gaps I don't remember him being particularly keen on running.
That's the one - i remember Brian Rose batting for Somerset. I wonder why Boycott didn't bat in the second innings? Injured perhaps? Seems strange that we declared our first innings - perhaps we'd gained maximum batting points at that stage?
Doesn't look as if we made any serious attaempt on the run chase.
"The first innings of the match was limited to 100 overs; the total overs for both teams first innings was limited to 200 overs"
which explains why we did not bat on in the first innings and then try and bowl them out and try and win by an innings.
It must have been a batsmens paradise except on the first morning when Chilly seemed to get amongst them but as we do now we then let them recover from a rocky situation with 6 wickets down.
If Botham and Garner could not get any wickets then it must have been a cold day or a shirt front but even the spinners struggled.
I went to Bluescreen's match against Somerset and had the misfortune to be present on day one when 'Dasher' Denning scored the most tortuous and grotesque hundred I had ever seen until that point. Any child going to cricket for the first time that day will not have gone again.
I enjoyed Harrogate because the sun always seemed to shine on me there. I remember a game against Gloucestershire in the mid-seventies. I'd seen John Hampshire score a terrific hundred on day one and was desperately keen to see the denouement of the game. I lived and worked in York then and took a sickie (it was easier to do that in the 70's) so I could see the final day. The spinners, Carrick and Cope I think, finished the job just after lunch. (Only Ron Nicholls put up much of a fight) Rather than go home immediately ,I wandered down to the Stray and nodded off, face up to the sun. My claim that I had been suffering in bed with a migraine, looked the dreadful lie that it was, when I turned up to work the next morning with a scarlet face. Did I care? Not as much as I would do now. How things change!
The wicket was always good - probably too good. A small, fast outfield guaranteed high first innings scores and 3 day games were seldom completed. I regret that I'm just too young to have travelled from Bradford to Harrogate for the Championship winning games in the 60's.
The crowds always seemed good and the viewing was fine from most points. The characters in the old pavilion were terrific and often outrageously rude to incoming batsmen after feeble dismissals.
Another interesting article on past out-grounds - when's the one on the Lane?
I was pleased to fit one Yorkshire game in at Harrogate before the county stopped playing there. By the sounds of it, it was the very last one against Hampshire. I went on the Saturday and my overlasting memory of the day was getting burnt in the glaring sun. I had t-shirt and shorts on and there was no respite from the sun. Seem to remember my legs in particular copping for it as I made the mistake of not putting on any sun-cream.
If I remember correctly, Yorkshire bowled Hampshire out on the way to victory, which kept them in with a shout of the Championship. The Saturday as I recall was very busy with spectators and still can't believe the players would rather play in an empty Headingley, than a packed out-ground!
I agree with Steel-City and his final point about how strange it is that the players would prefer to play in an almost empty Headingley rather than a well populated St Georges Rd.
I went most years from the mid 80's until the final game in '96. One of my most bizarre memories is watching a test on TV in the pavilion whilest waiting for a delayed start. We were playing Surrey and I sat watching with a young Surrey player who seemed to have, at best, the most rudimentary understanding of the game. He turned out to be Waqer Younis, in his 1st year with Surrey, and he promptly had us at about 30 - 6. From memory we recovered, innings were declared in a manufactured game and the scores ended level. Think White got 5 wickets with his off-spin.
I agree with others that of the 'lost' grounds Harrogate is the greatest. But, hey ho, on with developing the brand that is Headingley Carniege.
Apologies for overstating Waqars bowling figures, but I did underestimate how close the game was. Scores level and 9 wickets down when stumps were pulled.
Don't think Bairstow played many, if any, more games - think his keeping was questioned in the close finish and a run out or two was fumbled.
As I've mentioned before Acklam Park did have the best chippie on the circuit (just over 1/2 a mile away) ... now the Circle in Hull or Fartown in Huddersfield .... they will be interesting
Can I ask one question about these feature articles? On the link at the top of the main board, it's stating that Harrogate is No 3 in the series. I thought Bradford was the first, so have I missed number 2 in the series somewhere along the line?
This message has been edited by Steel-City on May 20, 2009 11:34 AM
Sorry but I take offence at anyone slating Acklam park as it was the nearest first class ground to my home when I was a kid and also the ground where I made my club debut against Middlesbrough for my junior team.
As an 11 year old walking out on to a first class ground it holds happy personal memories for me although i am struggling to recollect too much about watching Yorkshire there. I did get out John Glendennen there who went on to score Durhams first first class century. Don't suppose he will recall this as easily as me however!
I'm not slagging off Acklam Park at all! I saw Gough take five wickets against Surrey on a misty morning.
But even it's biggest fan would be hard pressed to describe it as picturesque...
is the ground still there or is it now a Chemical works..
pretty sure the ground is still there and the home of Middlesbrough CC who have produced several players who went on to play for Yorkshire (Athey perhaps the best and also Chris Old I believe).
Currently, they have Liam Botham on their books - suspect he is 'pot-hunting' as Middlesbrough have been pretty strong in recent seasons.
Now if you were to talk about the ground at Billingham Synthonia just across the river Tees, I would fully understand what you mean about chemical plants - there is usually a constant flow of ammonia smoke from various pipes and chimneys around the ground.
i don't think a ground has to be picturesque to hold happy memories -
According to my North East mates Acklam Park is still there .. but not as we know it. They sold of part of the ground (jointly owned with the Rugby club) & have used the cash to build a new club house. The 'other cricket ground' one used to pass on the the way inafter truning right at the lights (& on the way to the chip shop) has gone though.
I was born in York and it always amazes me that so many town's and cities in Yorkshire have staged first class cricket over the years and yet never one in God's own capital city.
I guess it will never happen now and there has certainly never been in my lifetime a ground worthy of first class cricket status but it does surprise me that at sometime in history thought wasn't given to having a game in York.
My mate always used to say that they're only interested in horse racing and bingo in York, perhaps he was right?
Yorkshire IIs have played quite a bit on the Clifton Park ground in recent years. Yorkshire once played a championship match against Kent at Wigginton Road (though admittedly in the nineteenth century) and they played a match against York at Bootham Crescent in 1920.
The hospital now stands on the ground that was the cricket pitch at Wiggington Road. Clarence Street/Wiggington Road rugby ground was on the other side of the road. Now long gone of course. Just behind the hospital over the railway track stands the football ground formerly known as Bootham Crescent, now known as Kit Kat Crescent, but for not much longer I fear. And some call it progress.
Learnt something tonight, never knew there was even one first class match ever played in York. Should have put the county ground there, we'd have made sure the bluddie drains worked!