Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2020

38 twitter: @scloverssociety Treeton Cricket Club was among my spectating destinations early in the 2019 season. I visited for a Heavy Woollen Cup tie. Neither Treeton, nor that day’s opponents, South Kirkby Colliery, are what I’d call Heavy Woollen area clubs. Treeton, certainly, are well beyond what I take to be the competition’s geographical entry criterion: 18 miles (as the crow flies) of Batley Town Hall. Despite having a fair distance to travel for away ties, Treeton are in their third season as Heavy Woollen Cup combatants. What, I wondered, is its attraction to a Yorkshire South Premier League club? “We get a bit bored of playing the same teams, year after year,” an official explained, pre-match, in the clubhouse bar. There are only 12 clubs in the Yorkshire South Premier League. That I can understand. Cricketers seem to enjoy testing themselves against players from other leagues, and playing on unfamiliar grounds. It’s probably why the 1883 vintage Heavy Woollen Cup, which attracts applicants from a variety of leagues, never appears to have any difficulty getting 32 clubs to take part. Fairly often, I drive across the M62’s Windy Hill summit to watch league cricket in Lancashire. The locals are often bemused, even though the nearest clubs are only 75 minutes away. At Littleborough, a baffled home supporter asked: “You’ve come from York? Today? And are you going back tonight?” One of my favourite competitions ‘over the border’ is the Lancashire Cricket Foundation Knockout Cup, which in 2019 – its 48 th season – was contested, on Sundays, by 54 clubs from 10 leagues. Matches were 45 overs. Sponsored by Heineken (an instantly recognizable brand), the cup featured six rounds. The first, on May 19, had 44 clubs. The 22 winners were joined in round two, on June 2, by 10 seeded clubs. Seeding allows the busier bigger clubs (which for the season just completed were Blackpool, Farnworth, Lowerhouse, Netherfield, Northern, Ormskirk, Prestwich, Walkden, Walsden and Woodbank) to sidestep a potential first round thrashing of a relative minnow. I guess that sort of blowout doesn’t do anybody any good. The other rounds were on June 23, July 14 and August 4. On September 8, in an all-Lancashire League final at Heywood Cricket Club, Norden (146-7) hammered holders Darwen (55). Qualification is through the previous season’s league positions. The allocation for 2019 saw seven clubs from each of the Bolton, Greater pinching? York journalist, ANDREW GALLON, has done his research on both sides of the Pennines and suggests the Yorkies can benefit from copying a competition from over the ‘big hill’... An idea worth