West Bretton Cricket Club

West Bretton currently playing Pontefract & District, Division 1

Initially disappointing that this promising website was 4 years out of date and that the play-cricket website had little, except an almost hidden link to this series of pages

Club History

FIDE SED CUI VIDE………’trust, but be careful of whom you trust’.

Article by Steve Knowles, April 2007

Formed in 1907, Bretton this year reaches its one hundredth anniversary and to celebrate this milestone it plans to push the boat out in fine style. A number of excellent events have been planned to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity – the highlight being a visit by ex-England star Jack Russell to the ground to paint a view of the pavilion. Situated a few miles south of Wakefield in West Yorkshire and just up the M1 from Barnsley in South Yorkshire, this pleasant village has played cricket host to many generations over the years.

Pre 1950 the local Allendale Estates helped develop the ground and over the years encouraged the playing of sports – in particular cricket – which became ever more popular with the masses immediately after the Second World War. Unfortunately, not too many player’s names can be remembered pre-war, nor indeed the circumstances surrounding the original formation of the Club in 1907. However, a (fairly) recent and fascinating interview given to then Club Chairman Ron George by an old warhorse of the Club, Billy Lund, gave us an idea of life in pre-war Bretton. Held in the nineties, Billy (b1914, d1998 – aged 84), reminisced in a very distinct way about his life and knowledge of West Bretton and its cricket club.

The Club had been formed in 1907 as part of the Allendale / Beaumont family Estates and they created a new cricket ground in Brick Row (1920). Billy’s dad Harry played in the noughties when the Club first started – then Billy and his elder brother first played in the twenties, when they were about 14 years of age. Billy worked for Allendale Estate as a youngster and then for Job Earnshaws as a forester. In later years he worked as a porter and handyman at the Bretton College. Apart from cricket Billy also enjoyed ferreting and shooting (when he wasn’t watching horse racing, point to point or racing greyhounds)! In 1923 the Club moved to its present site on Park Lane. Billy and his brother, however, went to play for Midgley CC (Billy getting a penny a run in payment). Bretton were appearing in the Denby Grange Cricket League at this time – playing the likes of Midgley, Netherton, Middlestown, Horbury and Kexbrough. Billy returned to play for WBCC in the thirties and he remembered a number of Bretton players – including the Oddie’s, the captain (who was a chap called Borthway from Haigh), Fred the Gatekeeper and an Alwen Mitchell. None of the Allendale family played the game – although all Estate employees did.

In 1933 a new Agent acting on behalf of the Allendale Estate was employed to run their affairs and so Bretton withdrew from the League and commenced playing friendly matches only. He also requested Billy become groundsman at the Cricket ground. A new 10 acre field close by also saw tennis and other sports being played during the thirties. A new Pavilion was built and a football team formed – who played on the ground during the winter months. A new Tea Room appeared – arriving via Rowley Hill CC. The Agent was sacked in 1937 and so the Club was handed back to ‘the Village’ to administer themselves – who then joined the Wakefield Cricket League with two teams. The grounds were ‘poor’ according to Billy and runs hard to get. He married Marion in 1939 (a union which was to last almost 60 years – until they both died within hours of each other in 1998). Billy then didn’t play for about ten years (including the war) but post war there was fresh interest in cricket shown by a number of Bretton villagers – culminating in the official ‘reformation’ of WBCC in 1946. Lord Allendale died in 1956 and the Club at this time in effect bought the ground from the Allendale Estate and so could shape it’s own destiny.

From the fifties onwards, we can glimpse a few further snapshots of the characters that made up West Bretton Village Cricket Club and the meetings and cricket matches they were involved in. The study of certain important historical documents – in particular scorebooks and club minute books – have unearthed a treasure trove of names, teams, matches, events, decisions, finances, fall outs, ground improvements, records and scores – all contributing to the fabric of village sporting life.

A meeting held at 7 pm on Friday the 22nd March 1946, in the Scout Room belonging Bretton Lodge, heralded the return of cricket to WBCC after the Second World War. Eighteen members were present and Chairman Mr FW Middleton presided. It was agreed that enough support existed to enable the club to be officially ‘reformed’. All existing equipment was to be checked for worthiness, the ‘Petroleum Board’ was to be approached regarding the requisite supply of petrol needed for the mower, Mr F Smith was authorised to mow the outfield (for a fee of 5 shillings) and Mr WT Lund was re-instated as Groundsman. Subscription was set at 5 shillings per player for the coming season and to help raise further income for the club it was agreed to hold a dance in the nearby Village Institute (if the Military Authorities would grant permission). An advert was also to be placed in the ‘Wakefield Express’ to attract fixtures for the coming 1946 season.

The following appointments were made (or made very shortly afterwards):
Club President…. Lord Allendale
Club Chairman…. Mr FW Middleton
Club General Secretary…. Mr J Smith Club
Treasurer…. Mr C Wilkinson
Club Committee…. Mr WT Lund.. Mr F Smith.. Mr L Lund.. Mr A Lee.. Mr J Rowe.. Mr J Bowes
Club Captain was Mr FW Middleton – whilst Vice Captain was Mr WT Lund.

The fifties saw greater numbers playing cricket nationwide and as various leagues started again post war so Bretton enjoyed success at their homely Park Lane ground. Their long membership of the Huddersfield Central Cricket League started in 1952 and continued successfully for over fifty years. Bretton started with two teams in the HCCL and continued likewise for a number of seasons. Various characters and officials made their mark on the club through their efforts and performances at this time; the Lund’s continued their pre-war association at Bretton, along with various members of the Earnshaw family. These two names dominated Bretton cricket in the fifties and beyond. Chris Earnshaw once took 9-51 against Rowley Hill – then had to open the batting – chasing 103. Bretton finished one run short in 45 overs and Chris finished 13 not out. What a performance – on the losing side! The highlight of the fifties, though, was the winning of the Cup competition – repeated just the once since then. The general poor standard of wickets meant that a virtual bowler’s paradise was the order of the day. Team scores were low and wickets tumbled as belligerent bowlers such as Trevor Roberts, the Earnshaws, the Whiteheads, the Hibbins’s, the Greens, the Oddies, the Lunds, the Cockings and Keith Smith delivered fine bowling performances. One batter, dismayed at some away teams wicket, said to one of the umpires how it was the worst wicket he’d ever seen; whereupon said umpire retorted that he’d been tending said square for the last twenty years! Oops! Needless to say the batter was unfortunately given out lbw soon after. Indeed, the fifties seemed to belong to bowlers. Mightily, Alan Whitehead took 10 for 29 in a match against Lepton in 1952 – and Keith Smith also took 10 wickets in an innings that decade (the only two ‘full house’ occurrences recorded by Bretton players). On the batting and bowling front Billy Lund became well known locally – like his son Ian would two decades later.
Life was harsher during those times and money scarcer – but the efforts of the few ensured that Bretton survived and continued into the sixties. Yearly subs had to go up to 10 shillings for the 1956 season – whilst the club had just £46 in the bank at the end of 1955! Player’s wives were also able to attend the club’s Annual Dinner. In the mid-fifties the Club at last succeeded in purchasing the ground and buildings from the Allendale Estates (via Messrs Oddie and Middleton) for the princely sum of £313. See also under ‘Meetings and Minutes’ for further details of the club’s ‘everyday’ running – including decisions/expenses/officials/finances etc made since 1946.

The sixties saw close, keenly fought matches. The likes of Chris Sharp, Norman Senior, Vic Hirst, Don Hayes, Don Miller and Bev York performed well whilst Billy Lund, Chris Earnshaw and Trevor Roberts continued their good service for the club. A young lad called Ian Lund first started playing in 1966 – a player who has virtually dominated the clubs’ cricket records for 40 seasons since. Sadly Ian packed up playing after the 2006 season – hardly an old man at 51 – and still, the club felt, with a lot to give. Finance stabilised in the sixties – £200 on account in 1965 – whilst players were asked to contribute 1 shilling per match that same year. Subsidence on the ground’s outfield was a problem throughout the sixties. At first the NCB wanted nothing to do with it – but eventually admitted liability. The mess was sorted out in the early seventies with the help of compensation from the NCB – and help from local contractors.

During the seventies Ken Hewson reinforced his potential and put in some great bowling stats; his dogged, productive partnerships with both Trevor Roberts and Chris Sharp would do very well for the club. Trevor would, on occasion – whenever the opposition needed just one run for victory – quite deliberately ball a wide. Well we laughed anyway – even if the batsman didn’t find it funny! Younger players turned up at the club in the seventies – all long hair and music with refreshing attitudes. A junior team was paraded and had some success. A few of these lads would play for many years – others would go elsewhere. Richard & Mark Senior plus David Richardson followed their dads into the team. Another long serving player – Steve Knowles – first started in 1978. The ground all this time remained consistently in poor shape – no new buildings and low funds. The generosity of some though, plus frugal housekeeping, helped keep the club going. Subs were raised to £2 per player and the club had ‘grown’ to £411 on account in 1975. The presence of the nearby well known Bretton College of Education meant that more young people were encouraged to participate at the ground. During summer the sight of female students passing the ground had put many a young lad off his stroke whilst batting! Alas…the ladies no longer walk by – as it closed its doors recently.

Various captains had been tried over the years – and in the early eighties new guy Barry Hanson seemed to give the team a bit of steel. His direct approach worked and results improved. He was a stickler, though. One young fast bowler literally disgraced himself while in his run up to bowl in a match (he’d apparently had a dodgy curry the night before). He was packed straight off the ground (after he’d been to the toilet) ! But abrasiveness can lead to a downfall. A Bretton player once barracked a visiting bowler for being ‘rather plump’ shall we say. The bowler just stopped in his run up and marched over to the heckler on the boundary – now red faced and sheepish. What a gob full he gave him! A few good players arrived and gave consistent performances – David Essex (no, not the pop star !) seemed to be very adept at pulling sixes to mid-wicket boundaries and won the batting averages four years running. David still turns out nowadays (for the opposition) in friendlies against WBCC. The combination of these two plus Lund jnr, Hewson, Roberts and the Barnes brothers ensured memorable wins and one or two promotions through the leagues. Cricket’s a funny old game, though, and one week in 1984 the team, fresh from hammering Woolley MW away from home the week before, got skittled for 14 at home to Lepton – one of the lowest recorded scores by a Bretton team. (That dubious record falls to the 2nd team – who reached the magnificent total of 6 during an innings in 1957). The week after that, a Bretton player’s wife stormed on to the wicket during his innings to demand he went home – pronto – and he did. Now that’s cricket!

Old Billy Lund – in his seventies – was still occasionally turning out for the club during this time whilst Keith Booth (now Surrey CC, ex England scorer and author) played a season or two. The late eighties, though, saw a continued struggle to get 11 players out onto the field and, coupled with poor facilities and batting surface, the interest at the club seemed to be waning. At times a motley collection of lads helped out by making up the numbers – one lad always played in bright red socks to annoy all and sundry. Another time, whilst batting together, two of them ended up at the same end attempting a second run – but survived due to a wild throw by a fielder. Hysterics all round. That, for me, was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on a cricket field. On the money front subscriptions were at £7 per year plus a £1 match fee (1987). Matters improved from the early nineties with the elevation of the Vice Principal of Bretton College, Professor Ron George, to club Secretary and then Chairman. He willingly took on these roles with the proviso that the club must change – and it certainly did. It evolved from being a run-down paddock having just one struggling side to a thriving four team set up boasting one of the best wickets in the region and upgraded facilities to match. The transformation came about with lots of hard work and effort; ranging from completely relaying the wicket, extending the pavilion and opening a members bar to securing sponsorship plus sports grants and new players. The Bramley Trust and Sports Aid Foundation all helped the club immensely. The ground area itself was also enlarged, due to the kind donation of a portion of his own land by the then Club President Bill Oddie; whilst Martin Day undertook the wicket transformation with help from the then Headingley groundsman.

So the nineties saw much change – with now 1st & 2nd teams turning out in the Huddersfield Central League and a Sunday side in either the Wakefield Union League or the Barnsley & District Sunday League – plus the novelty of midweek friendly games. These friendly games involved ‘The Heathens’, a team from Heath near Wakefield, and would mean that Bretton would become a more sociable club, enabling more people to frequent its surroundings. The coming together of lads from ‘The Heathens’ plus a number of ex ‘Lyons Bakery’ players from nearby Barnsley all meant that the playing staff at Bretton was enlarged enough to create a Second team and Sunday team. The club started to accrue ‘a few more bob’ and so could begin to enhance playing facilities.

Inevitably the club became a little more competitive and tempers on occasion boiled over. A Bretton batter was given out to a ‘dubious lbw decision’ (his words) and fairly stormed off back to the pavilion. Ten yards from the boundary edge he let loose his bat – which smashed straight through a window. A bit of a Dennis Lillee moment – you might say. Stunned silence, followed then by guffaws all round, as the guy muttered his way to the showers. A number of disciplinary matters inevitably came up during the mid-nineties with the advent of having four, more competitive teams and, as a consequence, there being more people associated with the club. One guy, frustrated at a close away defeat, kicked in the brand new door of the brand new pavilion at some ground or other. Needless to say, the club and player more than made up for this incident in recompense. But these isolated events soon became a thing of the past and there has been a great Bretton spirit in matches played ever since and socialising with opponents, particular on Sundays, has been really good. Team scores got more substantial as the newly laid Bretton wicket bore batting fruits – for example whereas the average score in the nineteen fifties might have been about 90, now scores of 200 and more became commonplace. Generally, batters seemed to dominate and Bretton had success at times during the decade under the leadership of Martin Day. Runs a plenty then; but at the end of the day Brettoners are practical enough to know when they are beaten. In 1993 they played Hoylandswaine in the cup, who had hammered 306 runs in their innings. With rain threatening and few players willing to come back to play on subsequent evenings Bretton promptly declared at 0-0 in their first over – that’s a heck of a defeat for a one day match !

Humour always seems to be at the heart of the game. One match saw a Bretton opener hitting 4 or 5 fours in the first over of the match, which also included lots of no balls, and after asking the umpire how many balls were left was met by the answer ‘‘Eee dunt ask me lad – av no idea’’. Who’d be an umpire eh ? Batters such as Richard Cooper, Dave Hoyle, Denny Flynn, Jonny & Martin Day, Matt Stones, Matt Nuttall, Des Thackray and, of course, Ian Lund turned in pleasing knocks…plus there were one or two from shall we say ‘guest’ stars. Alex Morris turned out a time or two in 1993 – before he went on to gain employment with both Yorkshire and Hampshire. A guy called John Dennis played 2 or 3 matches for us in 1991 and ended up averaging over a 100! Some bowlers, though, hit back. The late Fred Gibson, Shama Raja, Richard Smith, Ian Hewson, Malcolm Dodd, Adie Miller, John Hanks and Danny Earnshaw all steamed through the nineties wheeling down over after over. And they all had their moments. Billy Lund died in 1998 and so ended a long association with Bretton CC. It had seen him devote much hard work, time, effort, good cricket (and loud comments) for Bretton over 65 years – along with other members of the Lund family.

Into the millennium and the club is still striving to provide quality facilities for its membership. Bowling seems a bit quicker nowadays and a Bretton player the other year was fielding at slip when a screamer flew to him and he missed it – the ball slamming in to his chest and he went down like a sack of spuds. Everyone was in stitches as the guy looked half dead. He soon came round and was a fine source of amusement during the rest of the day. There were eccentrics around – one member would send unusual Christmas cards each year (to everyone at the club). Another occasional player (nicknamed ‘Boomer’) would make loud comments – and other noises - at inappropriate times during matches. He even gave himself out once to an appeal whilst batting out in the middle! His forte, though, seemed to be getting out trying to hook ‘yorkers’. Different. But batting on the Bretton wicket was to be enjoyed and the highest score on record for the club occurred in 2000 – being 353 for one wicket in 40 overs. In the process Richard Cooper scored the highest individual knock for the club (172 not out). Running a club does not get any easier – the costs seem to be ever spiralling – but our teams continue; both the Saturday sides’ now having joined the Pontefract & District Cricket League in 2006. Players such as Danny Wood, Denny Flynn, Matt Rushforth, the Crossfield’s, John Sanderson, Greg Walton, Day jnr and Richard Armeson continue to excel. Some players, though, just seem to visit the club to play a few times – and then disappear. Young Morris was mentioned earlier. Another character was Jandre Erasmus, a South African, who turned out just three times for the Sunday side in 2005 – but will be remembered by all and sundry. Lightning fast bowler, aggressive bat and brilliant fielder. As soon as he bowled his very first delivery (against Adwick CC) their opening batters fair flew to that changing room for their helmets! If only he had played a full season – we would have cakewalked that league! But Bretton CC is not all about the main players – the men who might on occasion catch the eye with good performances. It’s about ordinary lads (and lasses) striving to take the club forward – lads prepared to do building work in all weathers, paint the pavilion, run the members bar at the drop of a hat, get that roof right, make the teas, attend functions, cut that outfield for hours on end, get that extra bit of income in for the club, donate timber at times of need, dig in their pocket to help the club out, spend hours in the field to try to perfect that wicket, get that website up & running, write those club minutes organising that event – get people to turn up – to make things happen ! People like Steve Goulding, Nij Armitage, Paul Cooper, Denny Flynn, Martin Day, Malcolm Dodd, David Jackson, Steve Knowles, Danny Wood, Anne & Ian Blakeley, Richard Smith , Terry & Faye Brown, Craig Pember, John & Judith Brearton, Glynn & Jane Robinson, Ian Naylor and in bygone years the Lund’s, Rob Lever, Neil Hudson, Steve Hoyle, Phil Sharp, Bob Smalley, John Cooke, Jack Beanland , the Hewson’s, the Swift’s, the Oddie’s, the Matthew’s, Bob Hoyland , Hector Ellis , Frank Middleton , Graham Hidderley/Burgess, Ron George and the Richardson’s. All the above named and many more have all helped to make Bretton Cricket what it is. The wicket continues to be good – despite over the years it being flooded, invaded by cows and having (allegedly) ‘magic mushrooms,’ courtesy of the local students, growing on it in winter from time to time !

Current projects include a substantial new roof for the pavilion, better mobile net facilities (including a bowling machine) plus in 2008/09 the formation of a few youth teams – whilst from August 2008 a WBCC match & record Archive is to become available on its website (featuring statistics covering over 1500 matches) – www.westbrettoncc.com Please contact Steve Knowles (match archivist) if anyone has anything of interest involving WBCC on 07517 490149 or email to steveknowles56@hotmail.co.uk. Generous sponsorship and donations by Job Earnshaw & Bros Ltd of Midgley, Taylor Maxwell Timber Ltd of Leeds, Yorkshire Water, West Bretton Parish Council, Woolley Golf Club and others (including Denny Flynn and Terry Brown) have helped over the years and have been much appreciated. Bretton intends to properly celebrate 2007 and have a number of main events at the club, of which the highlight will be a visit by Jack Russell to do a painting of the clubhouse.

Oh…P.S.

What about these ordinary blokes (having cricketer’s names)– all of whom have played for Bretton over the years…. Brian Adams (music) / John Barnes (football) / Gerry Booth (Coronation Street) / Dougie Brown (cricket and entertainment) / Jim Clark (motor racing) / David Essex (music) / Duncan Fletcher (cricket) / Mike Harrison (rugby) / Michael Holding (cricket) / Peter Jackson (film director) / Joe Lyons (cakes) / James Mason (actor) / Don Miller (catering !) / Keith Miller (cricket Australia) / Alex Morris (cricket) / Bill Nicholson (football manager) / Bill Oddie (ornithology) / Steve Ryder (tv) / Chris Schofield (cricket) / Martin Shaw (actor) / Peter Sutcliffe (not the Peter Sutcliffe, we trust) / James Taylor (music) / John Williams (music).

HERE’S TO THE NEXT 100 YEARS!