Cleckheaton Cricket Club

‘Dream Team’ statistics will be updated on our website as normal but the Home Page will be stagnant until May 31st.

We apologise for any inconvenience but due to family and holiday commitments the latest news from within the Editorial Cleck’ camp will be on hold until the end of the month. But this will be the only time this season when the Club’s website is not refreshed on a daily basis and there will be an overview of what has happened at Moorend during this unprecedented lull on May 31^st.

It is also worth mentioning that we run in conjunction with Bob Speight’s original Cleck’ website and while there is lots of info’ on www.cleckheatoncricketclub.org.uk there is also a tremendous amount of statistics and information on Bob’s www.cleckheatoncricketclub.com website.

However, despite the quiet interim spell there remains a great deal to look forward to, especially with the Club’s ‘Dream Team’ competition gathering momentum and thanks to Cleck’s Second Team Skipper, Chris Dobson, all the latest statistics and teams positions towards our eventual winners prize of £250 in cash, will be updated for every participant to see as well as ‘Dobby’ providing a separate link to view the results from the Bradford League, while we’re away.

Apart from ‘Dobby’ making sure that Richard Whitehurst’s original idea has been professionally and skilfully administered, Chris has also made it his business to ensure that any Cricket fans who follows Twitter and otherwise have a facility to pre-book tickets for Cleck’s prestigious Twenty/20 friendly at Moorend against Yorkshire CCC on Wednesday June 13^th commencing at 6.00pm. Adults will be admitted for £5 but youngsters under the age of 17 will be allowed in to the ground for free. Tickets for the match can be purchased on our website by going to the Yorkshire banner at the top of our Home Page.

The Club has made giant strides to ensure that the evening runs smoothly and it will be good to see our favourite son, Andrew Gale, return to his old stomping ground as the Captain of his native County side. The event is sponsored by Thompson, Davis & Co. Ltd and their MD John Wildman will be presenting a cheque to ‘Galey’ at the interval with the donation going to the Yorkshire Academy. There is a great deal planned for the night with a barbecue, possibly a hog roast plus plenty of other food on sale and Liz Graham will be snapping away all night taking photographs.

The Function room will be packed on Wednesday June 13th! 

The commentator is Graham Hardcastle, who is a freelance journalist and broadcaster that writes on a full-time basis regarding Yorkshire’s fortunes and he will explain everything that’s happening on the field. Graham will be assisted by DJ Disco Joe, who is a man well known to our covers band guests The Psychoslinkys who will be playing in the function room once the game has finished. The DJ and the band, apparently, make a good combination, according to rumours. DJ Disco Joe will also have a few ‘people’ alongside him such as the ‘Water Mellon Man’ – and the mind boggles but it will put smiles on a few faces!

In addition, we will have over 30 volunteers on the night making sure that the evening runs smoothly, including help from members of our Executive committee, which highlights the togetherness of the Sports Club as a whole.

Hopefully the Cleck' boys will give 'Galey' something to think about when Yorkshire visit Moorend

It has been a hectic few months leading up to the 2012 season with lots of fund-raising events and a great deal of off-the-field work, which is sometimes forgotten and apart from our strong First and Second Team squads, dedicated Captains and a hard working Cricket Committee we have also an extremely strong Juniors Section headed by Ian Gatenby.

Traditionally, when you’re involved with Cricket or Football Clubs at the kind of level in which Cleck’ participates, there is a tendency to focus mainly on what’s happening at First Team level and those in the background very often take a back seat. At Cleck’ we owe a great deal to the likes of ‘Gats’ who has been associated with both the Rugby and Cricket sections for over two decades and he in return has received the backing of good people like Liz and Mark Bailey and a host of coaches that give up their time to teach the kids the rudiments of the game.

From an overall Cricket Section point of view, we have seen several regulars of the Club but newcomers to the Cricket Committee, join us in recent months, such as Liz, Mark, Lloyd Campbell, and there has been further support from outright newcomers to the Club like Jeremy Bleazard and Steve Midgley and even better all of these people has a wealth of experience and knowledge from within their working environments that is passed on to Cleck’.

Mark Robinson, for example, is probably one of the most involved but unofficially not involved, if that makes sense, types of guys you could ever have on board! Mark does not want the Title of being a Committee member but he still makes sure that our programme is probably the best in the League as well as overseeing many other fund-raising matters.

The names are endless of individuals that give up their time purely for the love of the Club and while we are hell bent on keeping ‘old stagers’ such as Keith Johnstone and Bob Speight on board we must also emphasise the need for fresh blood and right now the average age of our willing helpers is reducing!

Groundsman and Treasurer Keith Johnstone is one of the Club's most loyal servants

Finally, just to make it clear that normal service will be resumed on May 31^st and thank you for your understanding during the next couple of weeks.

There are stories from recent weeks in the News Items Section under the Archive heading

*Cleckheaton Cricket Club has signed up with All Rounder Teamwear to wear Adidas for the 2012 season. Anyone wishing to purchase top-noth Cricket gear can contact; http://allroundercricket.com/brands/13/TeamWear/.*