DEVELOPMENT OF THE CLUB

Our centenary year celebrates 100 years on this ground at Bankfield. However the club itself has been established for more than 100 years although the precise date of formation is not known (1871 has been suggested). Some of the older members of the club have recollections of  hearing tales between persons long since dead of the great times they had when Kirkheaton Beaumont’s  played Captain Stansfield’s team from Flockton on the horse field at Whitley hall.

The first records available, show that the club ground was at Kirkheaton Moor, just above Stafford Caravans, until the late 1870’s. The club then moved to a field at Hole Bottom, now covered by houses known as the Paddock. On November 6^th the clubs Tea and Annual General Meeting was held at the Brown Cow Inn, at which W.H.Brierley, Vice President, presided and a resolution changing the name of the club from Kirkheaton Beaumont’s  to Kirkheaton Cricket Club was carried. In 1883 the newly named club moved to the present ground, which was then called Fletchers croft. The Tenant’s Agreement stated that “The rent was seven pounds yearly, free and clear of Land tax and all taxes and deductions whatsoever”

The club records available from this era provide interesting reading. The rules of the club revised -on November 17th, 1880, and confirmed on February 14th, 1881, were as follows:

11. That the Club be called KIRKHEATON CRICKET CLUB.
12. That the Government of the Club be entrusted to President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, two Secretaries and a Committee of Thirteen.
13. That the Committee have power to divide into Sub-Committees as they think fit for the management of the Club.
14. The President, or in his absence a Vice-President, shall preside at all meetings, and have the casting vote in addition to his own vote.
15. That the Committee have power to expel any member whose conduct may be detrimental to the interest of the Club. Such a member however to have the right to appeal to the next Special or General Meeting.
16. That the Committee meeting be held in the Church school every Monday evening at 8-30 p.m., and that if any member does not appear for three meetings in succession without a satisfactory reason the Committee shall have power to elect another in his place.
17. That the Committee have power to call the Annual Meeting at their own discretion.
18. the entrance fee be 2/6 and the Contributions of members be 2d. per week in the playing season, and Id. per week in winter, the Entrance Fee to be paid before playing.
19. That if any member’s arrears exceed one shilling he shall cease playing in matches, or practicing, or voting at any meetings, until arrears be paid.
20. Any member paying one guinea per year shall be entitled to play in matches, and in practice to follow (on his entering the field) the 1st retiring batsman every evening.
21. Any member paying 10/6 per year shall be entitled to play in matches, and in practice to follow as above on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
22. Any member paying 7/6 per year shall be entitled to play the same as any other ordinary member.
23. All Subscribers of 2/6 and upwards shall be entitled to a Card.
24. All Subscriptions to be paid before June 1st.
25. That members have an inning of 30 balls each in practice and that no more than 3 balls be used in practicing.

In the early days of the club there were never more than about 80 members except in 1886 when there were 94 (one of whom was G. H. Hirst). From 1880 to 1896 the club averaged about 66 members per year.

In 1898 or 1899 the club must have decided to have the playing area extended. There is a detailed account available, dated between May 13th, 1899, and October 26th, 1900, of action taken by Learoyd and Co., acting on behalf of the club to defend a claim for payment for this work; the club refusing to pay because of the work ” been badly done.” Much of the time spent on this action was in finding a person suitable to arbitrate on the claim. Despite several suggestions of local men, the person (unnamed) who had extended the ground said ” he could not rely upon the honesty of any Yorkshire cricket groundsman ” and that the opinion of a Lancashire man should be sought. It is not surprising that the claimant is unnamed after such an utterance. In the end a Mr. Reynolds from Lancashire arbitrated on the matter for a fee of £5 (the club refusing to pay his demand for 5 guineas) and awarded for the club. The bill from Learoyd and Co., for all this work was £14 5s. 5d. their last entry on the account being ” Writing your Secretary to know whether defendants had any goods upon which execution could be .levied.” Whether it was worth all this trouble in the end we shall never know.

Around 1900, some of the older members of the Cricket Club raised the question of a Bowling Green. After apparently much agitation the Committee in 1902 decided.to undertake such a scheme and in September of that year an advertisement asking for tenders for digging a green was inserted in the local paper by the Secretary, Mr. Lewis Stead. Amongst other tenders he received the following:

Dear Sir,

I see issued in Saturday’s paper a request for applications for the removal of about 1200 yards of digging and having had a fair experience of all kinds of this class of work at once decided to tender for the job.

I will undertake to remove the above mentioned for eight pence per yard

Hoping you will favour me with a fair consideration.

I remain,

Yours respectfully, Isaac Timmins.

This tender got the job and an interesting Agreement was drawn up between the Club and Isaac Timmins in good and proper legal language and signed on behalf of the Club by Lewis Stead and David Wilson, stating that the digging operations had to be completed by October 31st, 1902. The Club in its turn had to pay all dues and demands before November 14th, 1902. On November 18th, however, Mr. Stead received another letter from Mr.Timmins which is very interesting. But before I quote it I may say that the job of digging out was a much more difficult task than Mr. Timmins at least anticipated, for I am given to understand that after a few feet of digging Mr. Timmins met solid rock and this letter was the result:

November 18th, 1902.

Mr. Stead,

I have complied with your request per postcard to-day the 18th inst., and up to that time for anything I knew I was dealing with a class of gentlemen, men who liked their money’s worth when they paid. But when it comes to a question of paying £41 13s. 4d. for what has cost me in hard cash £63 5s. 0d., where does the comparison come in or the principle of do unto me as you would that I should do unto you, I have removed the rock like a man. But I never dreamt that the Committee would stand by and suffer me to lose £15 by doing it. I thought and have said up to now that the Committee was composed of men made of different material. But — you will do me a favour if you would kindly bring this note of expression before your committee — had it turned up for what your quantities specified digging I should like a man have submitted to the loss.

But having struggled for the last five weeks as you all know full well and to lose £20, is beyond my power of reason to do so and say nothing.

I cannot force, neither should I try if I could but I shall leave the matter with you, to see whether it depends upon conscience or not.

Believe me,

Yours respectfully,

Isaac Timmins.

Whether the letter was justified or not I am not in a position to judge. Suffice it to say that the Committee refused the request. The Bowling Green was duly completed at an approximate cost of £250 and was opened on Saturday, May 30th, 1903, with a match against Dalton Liberal Bowling Club in which Dalton proved victorious.

Comprehensive records are not available of the development of the club in the early part of this century although there is evidence that they held a bazaar in 1906 in Fields Chapel in order to raise funds. However, records do show that in January, 1918, the club offered the sum of £200 as payment to buy the field. This was obviously not accepted as a committee minute of February 15th, 1921, resolved “that the President, Mr. G. H. Hirst, be authorised to purchase the ground for £375.” This perhaps is a little surprising as the Secretary’s report to the Annual General Meeting on November 26th, 1920, stated ” The club is not as good financially as the Balance Sheet shows because we have a few accounts still owing and also 20 £ (sic) out yet in subscriptions.” A Subscription list was drawn up (and is still available in excellent condition) in which, among many, G. H. Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes promised and did subscribe £10 0s. Od. each. A total of £151 19s. 6d. was collected despite promises of £163 19s. 6d. This sum was augmented by weekly sweeps held throughout the year which raised £10 4s. (Forecast Pools are not new!) and a Stop Watch Competition which raised £16 0s.The remaining £200 was borrowed from a Mr. David Stringer of the Grove Inn, Long Lane, Dalton, at the interest rate of 4% per annum. So on the 24th May, 1921, a Conveyance of the ground was made from Henry Ralph Beaumont of Whitley Beaumont, James Worsley Perryman of Ormesby Hall, Ormesby and George Hector Grant of Melton Grange, Woodbridge, Suffolk to George Herbert Hirst, Prof­essional Cricketer, Albert Stancliffe, Co-op Manager, Squire Pexton, Blacksmith and Thomas Blackburn Sykes, Merchant. It is interesting to note that Albert Stancliffe and Squire Pexton were still intimately concerned with the club 38 years after being signatories to the 1883 Sod and Turf Agreement.

Apparently, cricket and bowling were not the only sporting activities in the village at this time. Minutes of a meeting held in the cricket Pavilion on June 16th, 1922, between representatives of the club, Messrs. Godfrey Berry and Tom Hargreaves, and a deputation from the Kirkheaton Tennis Club drew up an agreement as to the terms of subletting tennis courts. The rental for 1922 was agreed at £9 10s. 0d., and for subsequent years at £8 0s. 0d., plus 4/- for each resident Kirkheaton member. Tennis activities remained at the club for around 10 years.

Throughout the 1920s the Secretary, G. Berry, in his report to the Annual General Meetings refers to the financial position of the club being far from rosy, consistently referring to subscriptions being overdue. Each year it appears an Annual Tea Party and Social was held and a Gala day in August, at which the Ladies of the club ” have again given us every assistance to make the above two events successful.” In one report (1922), reference is made to the Ladies making teas in the field and ” these have made a nice profit and it would be very nice if we had a Pavilion where teas could be provided.”

The next milestone in the club’s history was in 1929 when, presumably as a result of the death of Albert Stancliffe and Squire Pexton, Thomas Hill and Howarth Broadhead became owners of the ground with G. H. Hirst and T. B. Sykes. £200 was involved in this transaction.

It was during 1937 that the idea of a new clubhouse to replace the existing wooden one was first started. It had served many functions during its lifetime — bar, tearoom and changing room, as indeed had the stone built changing rooms still standing today, into which during the 1920s and 1930’s bar facilities were moved each winter because of the great warmth there.

A bazaar was organised, a booklet (a useful source of information for the present writer) recording the achievements of both Hirst and Rhodes, edited by the Rev. W. H. Humphrey and sold for the price of 1 /-, was published and other events organised resulting in £500 being raised. The war clearly upset the plans of the club, for in 1942 a Special General Meeting was held at the Conservative Club to discuss the financial position of the Cricket Club.

.It is in 1950 when we are able to pick up the story again. Certain legal niceties needed to be ironed out in that the ground, although bought in 1921 from money raised by members of the club, was in fact owned by those named in the 1921 and 1929 conveyances. This conveyance of the 1st May, 1950, transferred the ownership (for ten shillings) to the members of the club to be held in trust by four Trustees — Christopher Bedford, Jack Laycock, Wilson Cowgill and Norman Hallas, the latter of whom still remains as one of the club’s present Trustees.

It was also in 1950 that a start was made on the construction of the present stone built clubhouse. August 26th was a great day for the club and village in that both George Herbert Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes laid the foundation stones on either side of the main entrance. Widely reported in all the local newspapers it is well worth quoting from accounts of the events of that historic day.

” Villagers of Yetton, as Kirkheaton is called, are not usually given to hero worship. In this typical Yorkshire village they call a spade a spade, yet they realise that to Hirst and Rhodes tribute is due.

And no One is more proud of their achievements than those in the village where they first saw the light of day.

The new pavilion will be a fitting memorial to two men who brought real fame to their native village, their county and their country — perhaps the two greatest of all Yorkshire’s great cricketers.”” If Kirkheaton never gives cricket another thing, they will be honoured for giving us the immortal Hirst and Rhodes. That the Hirst and Rhodes spirit remains is an acknowledged fact. As I looked at the work the members of the club are doing I was thrilled. Who else but real enthusiasts would have thought of buying a building, demolishing it, carting it to the ground and re-building. Yorkshire Evening News

The club is rich in tradition. May it continue to thrive, to produce players of ability, and may the pavilion be the means of welding together the members. May the foundation stones laid by Hirst and Rhodes be the inspiration of those of the future, and may they be shown with pride to new generations of cricket-loving villagers.”- Huddersfield Daily Examiner.

Recorded in the Kirkheaton Cricket Club Centenary Brochure 1983.

Reproduced with kind permission of Kirkheaton Cricket Club.

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