BILTON CRICKET CLUB

Bilton Lane

Harrogate

N Yorks

HG1 3DQ

BILTON CRICKET CLUB

History:          Bilton Cricket Club was formed in the 1890’s and played cricket near Knox Lane in Harrogate before moving to a field near St John’s Church in Bilton in the early 1920’s. In 1952, after several years of enthusiastic fund raising, the club purchased its present ground on Bilton Lane. Up to the late 1970’s the club premises consisted of a wooden pavillion and a prefabricated building which was used as the clubhouse. The original pavillion is still in use today serving to store junior cricket equipment. 

In 1979 the club built its new brick built clubhouse, which included new changing facilities, three further refurbishments and extensions have since taken place to provide what is now the finest clubhouse in the Harrogate District. The club kitchen has just been refurbished which will enable the club to continue to provide catering up to the notable award winning high  standard of previous seasons. All these improvements were paid for by funds generated by the club and its members. The club is looking for further extensions and improvements with a view to building a traditional cricket veranda and the instalation of a three bay non turf practise area when funds and/or grant aid become available.

Ground and Facilities:            The cricket ground on Bilton Lane is one of the best kept and truest in the area, it is maintained to a very high standard by the full time groundsman Mr Russell Hutchinson. Russell holds the ECB  level groundsman qualification IOG level 1,2,3, obtained at Cranfield University.

 Just recently the club purchased new machinery for the square and outfield, in addition, 4 new wickets have been laid to continue the improvements on the field as well as off. The ground is so well thought of by other organisations, that the club has lately hosted the Airedale and Wharfedale Senior League premier cup final known as the Waddilove Cup, a Yorkshire Schools Under 15 county match, the Arthur Barratt cup final, the Harrogate and District Ladies evening League final and  Lords Taverners Yorkshire festival representative games. It was noted by the Airedale and Wharfedale Senior League management committee, that the final at Bilton, had been the most successful ever held. The club has full disabled facilities which have been in place for many years in advance of the recent legislation that made this a legal requirement.

Members:       The club has over 750 members of various categories including over 100 Junior Cricket Members and 100 senior citizens, who come along, not only for the cricket, but for the bingo, dominoes, numerous quizzes and other activities that the club organises for all its members. The club has an ever increasing level of membership with new members joining all the time.

Activities:       The club provides its facilities at no cost to the local community for such things as:-

The local Allotment Society, the Youth Music Festival Committee, Neighbourhood Watch, Harrogate and District sports council, Harrogate and District Community Midwifes, a meeting place for other smaller local cricket clubs, Race Nights for charitable organisations and many other diverse activities. The club runs ladies and men’s darts teams as well as having 3 pool teams, these teams play in the local leagues and in the main compete with the best in the area, with the ladies recently winning their darts league.

Cricket:          The club runs six Junior cricket teams from Under 9 through to Under 17, four Saturday senior teams, one Sunday team, one evening league team and a Ladies team. In the summer there are not many nights when the ground is not echoing to the sound of leather on willow.. The Club has ECB qualified coaches who coach and manage the junior section not only in the summer but throughout the winter by entering the junior teams into indoor cricket leagues and running net sessions at local facilities.

Community and School News 

To meet the commitments of its development plan 2007, the club has been actively engaged in coaching at two local primary schools within its catchment area durin June and July. Richard Taylor County Primary had six one hour sessions after school hours at which 14 pupils in Year 6 were coached cricketing skills by Nigel Thompson with assistance from Rod Ford. A total of 84 pupil hours of coaching were received by the Year 6 pupils. Woodfield County Primary School received 6 weekly sessions of 2 and a half hours duration in which 26 Year 6 pupils and 27 Year 4 pupils were coached to attain the Asda Kwik Cricket Skills Awards. Year 4 pupils were awarded 27 bronze and 1 silver award, Year 6 pupils were awarded 26 bronze and 3 silver awards. This ammounted 795 pupil hours of coaching. Club coaches at Woodfield were Rod Ford, Darren Simpson, Chris Morley and Rebecca Ford. The club has plans to increase its coaching commitment within local schools for summer 2008. Head coach Rod Ford says, "The club fully realises the importance of taking the game of cricket into the local community via primary schools in our catchment area. We hope to achieve a continuation of young talent that we can attract to the club and fully demonstrate our commitment to youngsters within the Bilton area by being able to offer them the chance to learn and play cricket and become an integral part of Bilton CC. This is where the club's future lies."

In addition the club is formulating plans for an annual area primary school cup competition to be held at Bilton CC commencing in the summer of 2008, and a week long summer cricket school during school holidays for primary school pupils of all local schools within the Bilton catchment area in early August 2008.

Summary:       Bilton Cricket Club is a forward looking organisation that seeks to provide high quality facilities for all its members whether on the social side or on the cricket field. The club has achieved Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) status. The club is fully incorporated into the local community providing a much needed location for groups to meet for the good and benefit of all in the community. The club achieves all that is does through self funded efforts paid for by finance raised from the hard work of the members and committee. Bilton CC has been awarded Sport England /ECB/ "Clubmark" accreditation in March 2007,and working in conjunction with the Yorkshire Cricket Boards development officer for the north of the county(Mr.Ian Powell) will seek to gain "Focus" Club Status in 2007/2008.