Gaelic Press

Yorkshire v Lancashire

Mytholmroyd v Rastrick

Sowerby Bridge v Bridgeholme

A heatwave in West Yorkshire so the opportunity was taking for some mixed sporting action in the region.

Original plan was for Gaelic football in Leeds, followed by rugby league, so it was a mid morning train under the clear blue skies of Sowerby Bridge station.

Yorkshire GAA has a few locations around Leeds.  Information on the game wasn't too specific about which one it was being played at, but did agree on the time and city.  The County games are usually played at Beeston, just to the south of the centre, so I made my way there, giving myself an hour to spare in case it was at one of the other pitches.

Arriving at the ground, I was pleased to see the nets in place as a bloke with a wheel barrow put the finishing touches to one of them.  However, closer examination revealed that he was actually taking the nets down.  Fearful that the game had either been postponed or had kicked off early, I went over to find what was happening.  It turned out that this was actually the ladies game that had just finished.  The men's game was instead taking place at the YMCA.  As to which YMCA, further cross-examination revealed only that it was either the one on Huddersfield Road in Leeds, or was actually the one in Huddersfield.  With a thirty mile margin of error to work with, I consulted the internet again, who suggested it was the one in Leeds.

However, from bitter experience of internet based information on Irish sports, is to completely ignore it, so instead it was back to Leeds station...

..for a train onto Huddersfield...

..and a bus out to Salendine Nook, which until then, I'd only known as a brewery, not realising it was actually a suburb in Kirklees.

A short walk took me to my hoped for destination.

Wandering into the complex, and things didn't appear too hopeful, with no signs of any game in progress, and little or no vehicles present.

However, a bit more detective work revealed non other than a GAA team mini bus.

And the clubhouse entrance revealed this.  Game on, and vindicated in my approach of doing the complete opposite of what match info is shown on any wensite.

Yorkshire 1.07 v Lancashire 5.23, All-Britain Inter-County Junior Football Championship - Quarter Final

GAA in England varies greatly between the counties.  Yorkshire is an area where it originally grew up on the strength of Irish ex-pats.  However, the size of the county means that it has supported its own league, and hence is popular amongst second and third generation migrants.  The county has also seen a downturn in the number of young Irish moving to it, so the county team has a much greater level of homegrown players than is found in other counties.

The influx of the Irish into the north west in the late 19th and early 20th century brought with it the popularity of GAA sports.  Centred on Liverpool, Lancashire are the strongest in England, and have competed against the IRish counties in its own right.  It still has enough youngsters coming over, that the county team is still mostly comprised of ex-pats, and after a lull in the 1980s, are now competing at a high level again.

As a bonus, the game was being played on the main pitch, which is home to Huddersfield YMCA rugby union club, which is considerably more developed than the open playing fields of the GAA venues in Leeds.

The main stand is a rather unassuming cantilever offering and dates from the mid 1990s.

Opposite, are string of bus shelters give limited cover, like a faithful recreation of the smoking area of a council office car park.

This has always been my favourite structure of the ground, a very elaborate elevated scoreboard, located in the corner.

My last minute rush to get to the game meant it was already under way when I arrived.  

Excitement from the off with a penalty having been awarded.  Ninety percent of the game seems to be mindless violence, so I'm not wholly sure what levels of misdemeanour have to be achieved to actually give away a penalty.

It was duly dispatched.  My next task was to confirm which team it was that had just scored.

It turns out it was Lancashire in the yellow, who were now winning 3.1 to 0.2 

Yorkshire replied with a single point.

For the unacquainted, you get three points for scoring a conventional goal, or one point for a drop goal.

With the heat now approaching 30 degrees, it was time to take refuge in the cover.

The stand itself is an odd construction, as the framework continues some way back from where the rear wall is, either as it was intended as a cover for the pitch at the rear, or else to form a covered store.  Either way, it remains exposed.

There were fifty or so spectators, who were also grouped in the solace of the shade.

The very basics of play are that the ball can carried in the hand for a distance of four steps, then can be passed be kicking or "hand-passed", a striking motion with the hand or fist, or else the ball must be either bounced or "solo-ed", where the ball is kicked to yourself. You may not bounce the ball twice in a row.

There is no offside, so play consists of continual goalhanging, followed by shots from anywhere, usually resulting in the ball flying over the cross bar.  Having watched Reading a lot in the 1990s, I can confirm that Nicky Forster would have been exceptional at this form of the game.

Into the second half and Lancashire continued their demolition.

Biggest cheer of the day was for the home side managing to score a goal. 

The visitors being packed with young native Irish, also meant that they were also excelling at another mainstay of the game; continuous unintelligible swearing.

The game finished Yorkshire 1.07 Lancashire 5.23, ie 10 points to 38 points, with the visitors progressing to a tie against Warwickshire in the next round.

An unexpected benefit of the late venue change was that it is located ans conveniently timed for one of the three buses a day on the Huddersfield - Hebden Bridge route.  

Promptly my steed rolled in.

The route links Huddersfield with Hebden Bridge, winding through the hill top communities of upper Kirklees, then heading across the wilds of the moors towards Littleborough, then dropping down to the Calder Valley at Mytholroyd.  The driver informed me that due to road works, we'd have an even more staggered route down to Elland.  The actual route is the yellow line below, the red line being the earlier bus from the station to the ground, and the blue line being my later walk along the canal.

So myself and my two fellow travellers headed off through Calderdale, which was a steady procession of idylic...

...county pubs...

...cricket clubs...

...and views over the South Pennines.

After 40 minutes or so, I was off at Mytholmroyd.  Yes, that is how it is spelt.  

Look, Yorkshire's largely progressed from wife beating and casual racism, but there are some of its traditions it isn't giving up.

Mytholmroyd lies in the Calder Valley, and the last stretch of the day was a walk back down the Rochdale canal to Sowerby.  This is again, littered with pubs, cricket clubs and views, but this time I had the opportunity to stop off at them. 

First off Mytholmroyd cricket club, who were entertaining Rastrick in the Halifax Sunday league.  Rastrick is a suburb of Brighouse, most notable for the two locations brass band.

The ground is located adjacent to the river, but the pitch climbs quite ferociously off the square.  The away side had scored 196 off their forty overs, aided by a suspect eighth wicket partnership of 150.  The ten men of Mytholmroyd could only muster 136 in response, and their innings ended inside 18 overs.

The Calder valley was devastated by flooding in christmas 2015.  Due to it being the flattest land, a lot of sports grounds are situated next to the river, and were therefore severely affected by the flooding.  Adjacent to the cricket ground are abandoned football pitches. 

These particular pitches are sandwiched between the river and the canal that is slightly higher, so were flooding from both sides.  The reason they have been abandoned is that the valley also hosts a number of sewage works, and these overflowed, contaminating the low lying land, and have been declared unsafe for use.

The other reason for the lack of use is that changing rooms were damaged, or the utility supply to them was cut off.  Here, the very solid stone structure lies abandoned.

These pitches were most famously immortalised in Hans van der Meer's European Fields exhibition and had the starring role as front cover of the accompanying book.  It is unclear if they will ever be brought back into use, but the posts remain in situ.

It was back along the Rochdale canal.  This was built in the late 1700s to connect the heavy woollen areas of West Yorkshire, with the trade and export areas of Manchester and Liverpool.  It opened in 1800 but was superceded by the railway by the 1830s.  It fell into disuse but was reopened for leisure use as a millennium project.

The canal mostly hugs the valley side, and on the outskirts of Sowerby Bridge, I left the tow path to head down the river itself.

Crossing the Calder and an intrepid fly fisher was out in his waders.  The river goes right past my flat and there is an ample supply of brown trout, but doesn't seem to interest many anglers.

Immediately across the river and the next legacy of the valley's sports history.

This was the Cycle Speedway circuit, at one time hosting Sowerby Bridge and Sowerby Tiger's teams.  However, its demise cannot be attributed to the flooding, as there has been a general decline in the sport, and Sowerby having given up by 2011, along with the Halifax and Bradford teams, meaning only Heckmondwike competing in West Yorkshire.

In the adjacent wooded glade is what appears to be an unassuming field. 

However, this was the ground of Sowerby Bridge FC.  Its main virtue was its picturesque location, as facility wise, it was a nightmare, as the changing rooms and all the facilities were actually on the other side of the river, and had to be accessed across the footbridge.  It was swamped by the flooding, as was the changing rooms, and the opportunity was taken to abandon the ground and relocate at an upgraded 3G facility in the centre of town. 

A few steps on and another sports venue, this time the cricket club.  Sowerby Bridge has three cricket clubs in the town itself, and within a three mile radius of the centre, no fewer than seven can be found.

This ground belongs to Sowerby Bridge CC.  A lot of the grounds in the area are situated in idyllic settings.  This one is squashed between the river and a housing estate, and over time, an industrial estate has expanded out to abut one end.  This makes it quite an awkward location, with a mixture of picturesque and scruffy views. 

The ground was significantly flooded.  However, because they occurred at christmas, it gave the cricket clubs time to get the facilities in some sort of order before the season started.  Sowerby were the most severly affected, and had to get the pitch de-contaminated and the pavillion was condemned.  This meant the ground was largely unused last season, and only now is the clubhouse being re-built.

Though the well did survive.

There are signs of the cleared debris at various points around the ground.  The clubs in the area don't scrimp on equipment, with full wicket covers being the norm, as seen here.

Sowerby were entertaining Bridgeholme, who are another club affected by the flooding, as they are situated adjacent to the river between Hebden and Todmorden.  The visitors had batted first and put on 215.  Sowerby then batted and looked to be struggling, at 174 for 7 with five overs remaining.  However, in came some 14 year old kid, who promptly scored 32 off 14 balls, including a six off the penultimate ball which secured the win.  If George Crabtree becomes a star in the future, remember where you read about him first.