Calder Grove Cricket Club

Welcome to Calder Grove Cricket Club

Thank you for visiting our site!

Interested in playing local cricket?

Calder Grove Cricket Club plays in the Pontefract and District Cricket League.
Do you want to join us?
Everyone is welcome, no matter what their experience or ability.

Want to know a little more about our club?

Calder Grove Cricket Club has, for many years, been an club which is accessible to all generations and to the whole community. The club’s members are currently aged between 13 and 73.

Our ground is located off Denby Dale Road in Calder Grove, Wakefield.

We are a friendly and welcoming club which plays good-spirited village cricket. Our cricket revolves around equal opportunities and our local community. Whether you are a skilled batsmen or have never taken to the field before, we want to hear from you!

From the Wakefield Express, unfortunately the pictures weren't there.

Do I remember this?
Too damn right.
I remember the Hazell's, I think that it was Malcolm who was the demon spinner.
Mind you given the state of the wicket, it's not a surprise.
(Hat's off to Calder Grove through, they've kept going.)
I remember Collis King,West Indian TEST player.

Crossbank Methodists would have been the next team to play against Collis King before he was banned.

Grove's West Indies line-up
08 November 2007

SPORTING stars from the 70s are pictured here. These photographs show the Calder Grove cricket teams and top West Indian players who came to play with them.


The pictures were supplied by former councillor Norman Hazell. He and his brothers Stephen and Malcolm played for the club.

Stephen would bring the West Indian players over to play for league clubs before they became famous. They remembered him when they started playing test cricket and returned to play in a variety of matches for Calder Grove, which made the club famous in 
its own right across the North.


Looking up Collis's record I found this story about him.

One of the 1979 World Cup heroes for West Indies, Collis King, has been deported from England – where he stays with his British wife – because of a technicality regarding his visa application, The Telegraph reported.
King, in the 1979 World Cup final, had rescued West Indies with a 138-run stand with Vivian Richards, helping his team win the trophy for the second time in a row. King’s international career – comprising nine Tests and 18 ODIs – came to a premature end after he left to South Africa as part of the rebel tours.
He then played for several cricket clubs in England across various leagues. At 67, he still plays for Dunnington in Yorkshire and coaches the local players there. Now But King is stuck in Barbados because of Britain’s strict immigration laws. His Barbadian passport, according to the report, was confiscated by the Heathrow airport staff before boarding his flight back to the Caribbean – because he was deemed to be at risk of absconding.
“I felt like I was treated like a criminal,” he told The Telegraph from Barbados. “It has really shaken me that after all that time that I can’t stay. It really hit me for six.”
“I have been playing cricket in the UK for many years but I have always come back when my visa stated. I have never stayed longer than I was due to stay. If I had six months to play in the leagues, I would always come back on time. Never once in 44 years have I overstayed my time.
King had applied for a spousal visa last year, which would have given him the right to remain in the United Kingdom. But it was rejected and he was told that for a spousal visa he had to apply from his country of origin and was given 14 days to leave the UK.
He’d restarted the process after he returned to Barbados but after three months of waiting, he still doesn’t have a date for hearing.
“I was not born a British citizen but I have been going to Britain long enough to feel part of the English set-up. You cannot come to a country for so many years without loving the place. I have been coming and going, loving the country and that is the sad thing, really,” he said.