A century of the Bradford League

A century of the Bradford League

By Andrew Collomosse
04 Feb 2003

It is hard to imagine that the good men and true who convened at the Queen's Hotel, Bradford, in September, 1902, had any inkling of the influence their gathering would have on cricket in Yorkshire. They represented seven clubs from the West Bradford League: Allerton, Clayton, Great Horton, Lidget Green, Manningham Mills, Queensbury and Thornton. And unsurprisingly, perhaps, given their Yorkshire cricketing birthright, they had a grievance about poor crowds and the shortage of local derby games.
The outcome of their deliberations was the formation of a new league of 12 clubs, with Bankfoot, Dudley Hill, Eccleshill, Shelf and Undercliffe added to their number.
The Bradford League was born and, in the summer of 1903, Shelf became its first champions.
A hundred years on, the league boasts 29 clubs, playing in two divisions. It is indisputably one of the most famous cricket leagues in the world and, arguably, the most competitive.
Yet only three of those founder clubs, Bankfoot, Great Horton and Undercliffe, can boast an unbeaten century as members of a league whose fascinating story is told in A Century of Bradford League Cricket, the league's official history.
The tale of 100 years of unflinching combat is lovingly recounted in the 400 pages of an illustrated history that features profiles of two of the league's most famous sons, Sydney Barnes, of Saltaire and Keighley, and Sir Leonard Hutton, of Pudsey St Lawrence.
It also includes individual histories of each club, countless trips down Memory Lane, rich anecdotes and more than enough facts and figures to satisfy the most ardent statistical anorak.
Some of the greatest names in the history of the English game, including 87 Test cricketers, have plied their trade in this most combative arena, with Hobbs and Sutcliffe, Hutton and Washbrook, Woolley, Leyland and Paynter pre-eminent among the batsmen.
Bowlers? Try Barnes, Laker, Appleyard, Wardle, Underwood, Gough and Hoggard - and if you're looking for an all-rounder, how about Wilfred Rhodes, Brian Close or Ray Illingworth?
The league has also featured Test wicketkeepers like Dolphin, Duckworth, Wood, Ames, Gibb, Brennan, Bairstow and Stephen Rhodes while Constantine, Qadir, Crowe and Laxman head a roll call of 43 overseas Test players.
Generations of young players from home and abroad have learned what the game is all about in this unforgiving environment and gone on to play first-class cricket, many for Yorkshire.
But above all, the Bradford League has provided the opportunity for countless bread and butter cricketers to sample the best the recreational game has to offer, on and off the field. Long may it continue.

A Century of Bradford League Cricket is available, price £17 (overseas £20) from Bob Shackleton, Avalon, 628, Bradford Road, Oakenshaw, Bradford BD12 7EN. Cheques payable to Bradford League Centenary Account.