Festival of cricket at a club near you
By Andrew Hunt
THIS summer will see a festival of cricket celebrated across Kirklees and Calderdale with over 100 exhibitions taking place at clubs in the districts.
The exhibitions were the brainchild of Dr Peter Davies, a Lancastrian cricket fan, who is a senior history lecturer at Huddersfield University.
While searching through various libraries, he found there was plenty of history books for local communities but very little sports literature and more specifically books on local sport and sport clubs.
As a cricket lover, Dr Davies took the route to start researching cricket clubs within Kirklees and Calderdale, he applied for a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and to his surprise was given over 43,000 to help fund his research. Huddersfield University topped up the grants with 7,000 and Dr Davies began his project.
Along with research assistant Rob Light and 13 second-year history students they are producing exhibitions for over 100 cricket clubs within Kirklees and Calderdale.
Most of the exhibitions are already up and running in local libraries, public buildings, pubs and clubs, while Hartshead Moor and Gomersal will launch their exhibitions in August.
Once the exhibitions finish Dr Davies is hoping to write a book on the subject, while he is also looking to interview well-known cricketers from around the district and preserve various audio tapes.
“Many clubs from this area have had very little written about their history. Cricket clubs are an important part of the community and we thought it would be good for every club to have their own exhibition,” Dr Davies said.
“It is unique for this body to give a grant for a sports project and this is the first of its kind to be financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund.”
Each of the 13 students has been assigned three clubs, which they must research and produce an exhibition for as part of their university course.
Rebecca Kelly was assigned Heckmondwike and Carlinghow United, Cleckheaton and Gomersal. She said: “People from the clubs have given me some information, while I have been to the library and looked in old copies of The Reporter to help research their history.
“I have found some fascinating things out, like Heckmondwike and Carlinghow have always been linked to the local church. They used to end every committee meeting with a prayer and the local vicar is still their club president.”
Clubs have donated old photographs and memorabilia, a geography student helped create 3D and aerial views of various grounds, while artists were commissioned to produce paintings and drawings of some grounds and these can also be viewed at the exhibitions.
As well as producing an exhibition for each club, Rob and Peter hope to hold talks with school children telling them the history of their local club.
The exhibitions will continue at various venues throughout the summer and next year Peter and Rob are planning to continue the project and hope to extend it to clubs which folded - including the likes of Dewsbury & Savile and Soothill.
The organisers would still like to hear from anyone who has local cricket memorabilia or stories to tell.
Dr Davies can be contacted on 01924-473032 or write to him at Department of History, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH.
Where to view the exhibitions throughout the summer:
Mirfield Parish Cavaliers, Mirfield, Harry Lime and Moorlands at Mirfield Library; Batley at Batley Library; Cross Bank Methodists at The Barfield Arms pub; Hopton Mills at The Flowerpot pub, Calder Road Mirfield; Liversedge at The New Inn, Roberttown Lane; Birstall at Birstall Library; Spen Victoria at Old Saw Inn, Spen Lane; Heckmondwike and Heckmondwike and Carlinghow at the Cricketers Arms, Cemetery Road, also showing at Heckmondwike Library; Upper Hopton at the Travellers Rest, Hopton Lane; Hanging Heaton hosts its own exhibition; Cleckheaton at Cleckheaton Library; Mount at The Al-Hikmar Centre, Track Road, Batley and will also be shown at Batley Carr WMC and Batley Post Office; Thornhill at Savile Arms, Church Lane; Scholes at the Rising Sun, Scholes Lane; Westborough at The Swan, Huddersfield Road Mirfield; Staincliffe at Staincliffe WMC, Halifax Road.
Hartshead Moor's exhibition launches at the Moorside Inn on Tuesday August 23 (7pm) and will run until Monday October 31, while The Red House Museum will host Gomersal's exhibition, will be launched on Wednesday August 10 (6.30pm) and runs until Sunday October 16.
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Weather for Batley
Sunday 05 February 2012
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