The Bradford League produced some great cricketers and employed others like Sir Leary Constantine. The top star on many peoples list would be Jim Laker 1922-86 who was born in Frizinghall and attended Salt’s school. Jim played at Roberts Park for Saltaire Cricket Club from the age of 16.
Like many Yorkshire lads Jim Laker nursed ambitions to play for ‘Gods Own County’ but after an invitation to perform in the nets at Headingley Jim slipped through Yorkshires fingers when they turned him down. Obviously disappointed but recognising his need to improve Jim focused on developing his spin bowling.
In 1946 Jim Laker signed on special registration for Surrey where he was to enjoy a successful career. Even though on occasion Yorkshire would have like to tempt him back Jim remained loyal to his second county.
Jim Laker Playing for England and MCC
During a test trial for England against the Rest of the World in 1950 Jim recorded the most remarkable bowling figures of 8 wickets for 2 runs in 14 overs. Fittingly this was at a Yorkshire ground, Park Avenue back in Jim’s own home town.
1956 was Jim Lakers year and ‘Lakers Match’ was the test match that made Jim a national hero. Selected to plat against Australia at Old Trafford Jim bowled his socks off and the Aussie out. Over the two innings Jim took 19 wickets for just 90 runs!
Jim played 46 times for England or the MCC side between 1946-1959. He took 193 wickets at an average of 21.24 and scored 676 runs in 63 innings.
It’s Kennington Oval on Saturday 15 August 1953. Hassett (left) won the toss and decided to bat first. The series was in the balance and, for that reason, six days had been allotted to this, the final test. But they were not needed. The match was finished in mid-afternoon on the fourth day with an easy victory for England. The Ashes had been won.’
The England team including three Yorkshiremen was Len Hutton, Bill Edrich, Peter May, Denis Compton, Tom Graveney, Trevor Bailey, Godfrey Evans, Jim Laker, Tony Lock, Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser.
So Jim Laker gave Yorkshire ‘the slip’ or more accurately Yorkshire slipped when they allowed Jim to develop his talent at Surrey. After retiring Jim made a short comeback playing for Essex. Jim Laker then developed ‘new spin’ as a journalist and commentator for radio and television.
Slipless in Settle
Slipless In Settle: A Slow Turn Around Northern Cricket by Harry Pearson is a book on Yorkshire village and League cricket that will give you a wry smile or three. At times tender then bawdy, Pearson’s prose is none the less as steady and measured as a glob of gravy running down the side of a Yorkshire pudding. For anyone wishing to sample ‘cricket with the crusts on’.
‘Slipless in Settle is well worth the detour’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Packed with comic tales to delight the cricket aficionado and non-fan alike’ Daily Mirror
We would recommend this to every sports lover if we were still in business’ Yorkshire Sports 1900 – 1981 (t’pink un.)
Photo Credits
Saltaire Cricket by dmx_leeds CC BY-NC 2.0
Lindsay Hassett and Len Hutton by pandrcutts CC BY 2.0
Global warming in a year when the overall world temperature has again gone down continues to excite the many pressure groups with and without vested interests.
‘Crystal balls’ is the Sunday Telegraph quote of the week.If you use one be prepared to eat ground glass.
“A good forecaster is not smarter than everyone else, he merely has his ignorance better organised.”
‘It is said there are two types of forecasts … lucky or wrong!’
The weather forecasters have been getting crossed wires this summer but that isn’t news, I guess. The day I took this photograph of these power cables crossing the moor near Bolton Abbey it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy. Well those sort of clouds I can put up with!
If you are interested in Local weather stations there are 3 in Yorkshire at Ribblehead, Upper Wharfedale and Lower Wharfedale under the brand ‘my local weather’. Their interesting little web site complements the data gathering and shows real time wind direction and strength together with barometric pressure and a host of other features. This is the link for Lower Wharefdale
There are other weather monitoring web sites with data from Yorkshire and elsewhere. Try weather monitoring for Melton East Yorkshire, Hatfield South Yorkshire and Sowerby Bridge West Yorkshire amongst others plus sites in the larger cities. Select your locality and compare how you are doing against other areas North Featherstone for example has gone 5 days without rain and the temperature as I write is 15.2°C. (Sorry they don’t do temperature in Fahrenheit and I don’t know how the rest of Featherstone are getting on for weather)
Posted inOur Yorkshire|Comments Off on Weather Forecast – Forecasters will get it Wrong
Celebrate all that was great about British All in Wrestling. ‘Nine and a Half Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and early ’80s’ by Luke Haines is an affectionate homage to the old wrestlers profiled below.
The free 1978 calender includes pictures of Klondyke Kate, Adrian Street, Marc ‘Rollerball’ Rocco and Catweazle as well as all your star favourites. (Sorry it included Dickie Davis instead of Kent Walton.)
Top Yorkshire attractions, Big Daddy and ‘orrible Bradfordian Les Kellett feature in ‘Big Daddy Got a Casio VL Tone’ but musically I go for ‘I am Catweazle’ and ‘Haystacks’ in Heaven’.
Still you already know my ‘dubious’ tastes in music.
Credits
Thanks for the photograph and Walton like commentary repeated below ‘TV Shows We Used To Watch – 1970s – Wrestling by brizzle born and bred’ CC BY-NC 2.0
“Turn back the clock to the 1970’s when Saturday afternoon meant one thing and that was Wrestling.
Wrestling – a mainstay of the World of Sport schedule from 1955 until it ended. Many of the wrestlers featured became household names in the UK and the greatest rivalry was between Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks
Tag team action was from the man in the big black pants (and hair to match) Mick McManus and Steve Logan versus Kendo and Gorgeous George and the late Pat Roach who went onto star in 4 series of TV’s Auf Weidersehen Pet and Leon Arris (the great late actor Brian Glover) plus Jackie Pallo the pony tailed hero the girls loved to hate.
Kent Walton, the former wrestling commentator on World of Sport who died aged 86, was instantly recognisable from his husky welcome at 4 o’clock each Saturday afternoon: “Greetings, grapple fans.”
A smoker who cultivated a mid-Atlantic drawl, Walton hosted the wrestling for all of the 33 years that it appeared, sandwiched between the half-time and full-time football scores; at the end of the allotted time, he would sign off: “Have a good week. . .till next week.” When the ITV schedulers finally dropped the sport in 1988, he announced that his lips had been dented by so much time at the microphone.
Walton’s understated, factual commentary described wrestlers from George Kidd (his favourite), Jackie Pallo and Mick McManus to the less athletic Big Daddy (“Ea-sy, ea-sy”) and Giant Haystacks. Walton hotly refuted allegations that the bouts were fixed, and would put into practice on saloon-bar doubters some of the wrestling moves he had learned. In its televised heyday, wrestling attracted as many as 12 million viewers. They included the Queen, whose interest in the sport was mentioned in Richard Crossman’s diaries; and Margaret Thatcher, who asked Big Daddy for six signed photographs, and found him useful for conversation in Africa, where he was a household name. The Duke of Edinburgh was said to be captivated by Johnny Kwango’s head-butting technique, and Frank Sinatra told Giant Haystacks that British wrestlers were the best entertainers in the world.
Shirley Crabtree, Jr, better known as Big Daddy (14 November 1930 – 2 December 1997) was a British professional wrestler famous for his record-breaking 64 inch chest. Known for wearing his various Big Daddy leotards, Crabtree’s original one was emblazoned with just a large “D” and was fashioned by his wife Eunice from their chintz sofa.
Shirley Crabtree’s brother Brian was a wrestling referee and his nephew Eorl Crabtree is an England international rugby league footballer.
Crabtree died of a stroke in December 1997 in Halifax General Hospital. He was survived by his second wife of 31 years, Eunice and six children.
Giant Haystacks
Martin Ruane (October 10, 1946 – November 29, 1998) was an English professional wrestler of Irish descent. Best known by his ring name, Giant Haystacks, he wrestled in such places as England, the United States, Canada, India, and Zimbabwe. Ruane was known for his massive physical size, standing 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) tall and weighing 48 stone (670 lb; 300 kg) at his heaviest.
Martin Ruane was born in London, England to parents originally from County Mayo in Ireland. When he was 3, in 1949, Ruane and his family moved north from London to Salford, which remained his home. He worked as a labourer and as a nightclub bouncer before a friend suggested he take up professional wrestling as a career. He died of cancer on Sunday, November 29, 1998 at the age of 52.
Kendo Nagasaki
Kendo Nagasaki is a professional wrestling stage name, used as a gimmick of that of a Japanese Samurai warrior with a mysterious past and even supernatural powers of hypnosis. The name derives from the modern martial art of Japanese fencing (Kendo), and Nagasaki is the name of a city on the south-western coast of Kyūshū, site of the second use of the atomic bomb.
The original and most well known use of the gimmick is by the legendary British wrestler Kendo Nagasaki who made his name in ITV’s World of Sport. This version of the Nagasaki character dates back to November 1964.[
A true enigma of the British wrestling scene, the man known as Kendo Nagasaki was a part of the industry for nearly 40 years and, in that time, cultivated a legend that endures to this day. Hidden behind a red mask lined with white stripes to simulate the imposing visage of the headgear worn in a formal kendo match and maintaining a stony silence, Kendo Nagasaki was an intimidating sight to behold both in and out of the ring. This combined with a genuine understanding of the theatrical aspect of professional wrestling and a certain degree of athleticism made him an effective performer and a superb villain.
Mick McManus
Mick McManus (born Michael Matthews on 11 January 1928 in New Cross, London England), is a former English professional wrestler. He is credited as being one of the most famous heel European wrestlers of all time and often went by the nicknames “The Man You Love to Hate”, and “Rugged South London Tough Guy”.
McManus very much set the standard for wrestlers such as Mark Rocco and Kendo Nagasaki who chose to bend the rules as far as they could go without being disqualified, much to the fury of the crowd. He was also well known for using short range forearm jabs in matches. He became famous for his trademark black trunks and cropped black hair and for his catchphrase “Not the ears, not the ears”.
McManus had many appearances on ITV’s World of Sport. During his televised matches, which spanned more than 20 years, McManus would lose only twice in a Championship match: once by disqualification against Peter Preston, and then again in his final years when he lost his title to youngster Mal Sanders (at which time McManus was well over 50-years-old).
One infamous televised match he lost was to the controversial parody wrestler “Catweazle” (Gary Cooper), due to two submissions caused by the latter tickling him whilst pinned. Such was McManus’s fury at the manner he lost that he refused to wrestle Cooper again, but agreed to relent for his final televised bout.
Les Kellet
Yorkshireman Les Kellet was born in Bradford in 1915. After completing an engineering apprenticeship and travelling the world as a merchant seaman Les returned to Bradford following the Second World war and established himself as one of the most successful and popular British wrestlers of all time. His wrestling trainer, Len Pickard, and promoter George de Relwyskow Snr., are the two men credited with cajoling the reluctant Kellet to follow a professional career
“Bomber” Pat Roach
Pat Roach was born in Birmingham in 1937 and by the age of 22 had gained a black belt in Judo. From this impressive achievement the 6’5 tall near 20 stone giant went into the rings of Great Britain becoming an instant hit due to his size and skill. Even though Pat was one of the largest athletes in the ring he was able to match holds with some of the smaller and more technical men of the era, this combined with his immense size made him a devastating opponent for anyone.
Mike Marino
Mike Marino was one of the most beloved Professional Wrestlers to ever to put on a pair of wrestling boots, he was loved in equal measure by both the fans and the wrestlers alike.”
See World Of Sport – Big Daddy V Giant Haystacks ( 1981 )
Where else in Yorkshire should cricket be played if not under the Cow and Calf rocks and Ilkley Moor. Well in the Airedale -Wharfedale senior league you can be traveling to any number of grounds in West and North Yorkshire including North Leeds, Beckwithshaw, Otley, Collingham, Silsden, Guiseley, Steeton, Harden, Colton, Illingworth, Tong Park Esholt , Knaresborough,Upper Wharfedale, Addingham, Menston or Skipton. There are three divisions in the senior league with Ilkley languishing in the third at the moment. Still as the County team are proving it is ‘not the winning that counts but the taking part’. more info
The Nidderdale and District Amateur league has a catchment area from Wensley, through Coverdale to Kettlewell, from there following the course of the River Wharfe to Bolton Abbey continuing with the course of the River Wharfe (including Arthington) to the point where it meets the A64 at Tadcaster. From Tadcaster, the route of the A64 to the point where it meets the A1237. The route of the A 1237 to the point where it meets the A19. The route of the A19 to a point level with Thornton le Beans. An imaginary line drawn East to West from the point level with Thornton le Beans to a point immediately North of Wensley. Here is a name check on some of the teams you could meet on this tour of Nidderdale districtAlne. Arthington, Birstwith, Bishop Monkton, Bishop Thornton, Blubberhouses, Bolton Abbey, Boroughbridge, Burnt Yates, Burton Leonard, Dacre Banks, Darley, Dishforth, Galphay and Winksley, Glasshouses, Goldsborough, Hampsthwaite, Killinghall, Kirkby Malzeard, Knaresborough Forest, Lofthouse, Markington, Marton-cum-Grafton, Masham, Newby Hall, North Stainley, Ouseburn, Pannal, Pateley Bridge, Ripley, Ripon, South Kilvington,Studley Royal, Thornton Watlass and West Tanfield
What used to be the big daddy of league cricket has been taken over by sponsorship and is now called ‘Solly Sports YORKSHIRE ECB COUNTY PREMIER LEAGUE‘ named after the ball used and sold by Kippax sport. Mmm money aint everything particularly in sport. Teams include; Barnsley, Castleford, Doncaster Town, Driffield Town, Harrogate , Hull & YPI, Rotherham Town, Scarborough, Sheffield Collegiate and United, York and Yorkshire CCC Academy.
An apology to all the other leagues and village teams that haven’t got a mention in this edited gazetteer of Yorkshire cricket; may be next time if there is sufficient interest.
Read Slipless In Settle: A Slow Turn Around Northern Cricket by Harry Pearson is a book on Yorkshire village and League cricket that will give you a wry smile or three.
See a report on Jim Laker the Bradford League cricketer made international star!
Photo Credit
Cricket in Ilkley by reinholdbehringer CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Rag rugs remains have been found in old Celtic and Viking homes and the making of rugs from rags is still practiced in Yorkshire. As the pictures imply there have been style changes as the availability of rag material has changed (some might argue improved). This is a new world of Proddies, Poggies, Clippies or Latch Hooks some of the tools of the trade to push the rags through the hessian. The process is now a little more complex as the rugs have become art objects often used as wall hangings or decorations.
Rag rugs are sometimes called Tab Rugs, Peg Rugs and Clootie Basses. Here in West Yorkshire the popularity of groups where people to get together to mat ‘n’ chat is growing. “It’s a nice communal thing to do, to sit with your rug.’ According to Jenny Salton, Museums Officer at Tolson museum Huddersfield.
Louisa Creed and her husband from York are also exponents of the revived craft though Louisa has been making rugs for over 20 years. Louisa Creed’s work is highly valued and respected on both sides of the Atlantic, rugs can sell for upwards of £1200, better than your average Rag and Boneman prices. She has her own web site and has a selling exhibitions at
Cemetery Chapel, York
Mainly Rag Rugs Friday 14 to Sunday 16 October 2016
The Ebor Ruggers,including rugs by Louisa and Lewis Creed.
If you have a ‘slack bottom’ worry not. Slack is a hamlet approximately 2 miles from the centre of Hebden Bridge. From the Halifax direction there is no right turn up the hill at the Slack traffic lights so you need to use the Heptonstall turning circle.
History
Romans established a small military fort and named it Camulodunum after the ancient Celtic War-God, Camulos at the top of the hill we now call Slack Top. There didn’t seem to be much evidence of the old fort and it was probably abandoned in by the middle of the second century. (British Kingdoms)
Slack Bottom stone ‘itself is very nicely eroded and seems of good age, as well as being a good near-six-foot tall specimen of a standing stone, just above the tree-line south of Hebden Dale. The stone gets its name from the fact that it’s at the bottom end of Slack village (which is actually called ‘Slack Bottom’ – with a house-sign there above the door to prove it!). It may be part of what was originally some original Iron Age walling instead of an authentic standing stone.’ Megalithix
From 1902, a railway ran from Slack to the construction site of the Walshaw Dean reservoirs, carrying men and materials. A shanty town, nicknamed Dawson City, sprang up at Slack.
Slack Top
Situated at a height of 900ft in the Pennines Slack boasts a plant nursery where tough plants flourish “If it’ll grow up here, it’ll grow anywhere”. It is a small nursery, but one of the UK’s top ten suppliers of Alpines. They offer and gave me expert advice on plants for my rockery and claim to have plants for ‘all garden situations – from damp shade to full sun and all things inbetween!’ Attached to the nursery is a naturalistic garden, begun in 1980 and spanning approximately a quarter acre. It is in a beautiful setting overlooking moors and woodland and a deep valley. Slack Top Nursery. The Persicaria plant picture was taken in the garden by the pond.
Slack is good walking country on the opposite side of the valley over Hebden Water to Hardcastle Crags. The National Trust has Four circular walks, ranging from three to seven miles. Gibson Mill is a national trust property and visitors centre using sustainable energy.
Slack Top Christian hostel was rebuilt in 1878, and is situated in the hamlet of Slack, surrounded by beautiful, wild, unspoilt countryside. ‘ Slack Top is for everyone; it is for the whole family, your church group, fellowship, friends to share; but mainly for you.’
Slack Bottom! by le chanoine, on Flickr under creative commons license
We are rightly proud of our Yorkshire traditions when it comes to money. So it was heartening that Yorkshire Building Society were set to grow with the acquisition of Egg Banking. The society will take on Egg’s mortgage and savings operations and will also acquire the Egg name and its less well known Pi brand.
Egg was an internet and phone bank launched in 1998 by life assurance company Prudential. It was floated on the stock market as an independent company but recently sold its credit card business to Barclays. The Egg was ‘good in parts’ and Yorkshire think they got the right assets with the yolk on others.
Egg’s 550,000 customers will become members of the Yorkshire where they will be coddled and looked after just like their savings. Let us hope there is no scramble to exit from the new members but this is one mutual society that declined to shell out privatisation lumps to customers.
Other Deals Pending in 2011
Barnsley building society was merged with Yorkshire in 2011 I like to think the chelsea building society was taken over at about the same time.
A deal is currently awaiting approval for a merger with similar-sized Norwich & Peterborough.
These ventures will see Yorkshire more than double to around £60 billion of assets
The Bradford based mutual society has 2.6 million members and 178 branches. They have been mentioned as a possible buyers of some or all of Northern Rock.
Comment
Yorkshire Building Society will now become ‘cock of the mutual walk’.
Hen parties can save up for the time of their lives with a Yorkshire Egg account.
Hard boiled Yorkshiremen will not be scrambling for the new internet accounts but will retain their free range saving approach.
This has been an easy over type of acquisition and now everything is sunnyside up said Rhode Island Red the scared spokesman from Omelet Factory PR.
The former Hammonds Sauce Works Band was renamed as the Yorkshire Building Society Brass Band in 1993.
Aldborough is a pretty village 15 miles northwest of York and just to the south-east of Boroughbridge. It has a village green and Maypole but is famous for having being built on the site of a major Roman town, Isurium Brigantum, which marked the crossing of Dere Street over the River Ure.
What did the Romans Ever do for Aldborough
Aldborough was originally called Isurium Brigantum and was probably the base of the Ninth Legion.
It was the ‘capital’ for the Romanised Brigantes, the largest tribe in Britain.
Romans left enough remains to create a museum now run by English Heritage. It contains a number of relics of the Roman town, including some colourful and special mosaic pavements.
One corner of the defences is laid out amid a Victorian arboretum where two mosaic pavements can be viewed in their original positions.
The site museum has an outstanding collection of Roman finds and objects, pottery, ornaments, coins, etc and other ‘hands-on’ aids for children and families.
More Modern Facts
A plaque near the village green commemorates the RAF crew who lost their lives but avoided crashing into the village.
The stocks in front of this plaque were removed from the square in Boroughbridge, when the medieval church in the square was demolished in 1851.
The local hostelry is called The Ship Inn, Aldborough
In the 18th century Aldborough was a pocket borough returning 2 MP’s when big cities had no representation at the houses of parliament. Pitt the Elder was one such Aldborough MP. (perhaps the Romans taught us this form of government)
There are so many days for this, that and the other. So I am starting a ‘Not Day’ collection. Not Good Friday will be on a Saturday and Not Christmas Day will be on every day but 25th December each year. Not Condom day will be a day celebrated by lots of little kids and Not School Day will not be celebrated by parents.
August 1st 2011 was Muslim Not Eating Day as it was the first day of Ramadan. In Scotland it is not Not Fried Mars Bar Day ‘cos everyday is fried Mars bar day even on this sorry excuse for a bank holiday.
Overseas there will be a French Not Bastille Day n’est pas, or as the book shows Not tonight Josephine day. America was never discovered on Not Columbus Day, Not Buddha Slimming Days will be frequent and Chinese New Year is Not Yuan Tan or a way of counting sheep.
Not Today T shirts will be available to wear instead of Not Sex and Drugs and Sausage Roll shirts.
USA is Not Independent today! (Boston tea party will take place in Boston Spa)
Not A Word in Yorkshire
‘Yorkshire people worry that Yorkshire Day has become a media and marketing jamboree, perpetuating stereotypes of whippets, black puddings and flat caps.’ Others have called it a ‘Masonic Jamboree’ because of its impressive list of council leaders and officials.’ Well it is Not in code says the Grand Master Da Vinci.
‘It is almost as artificial as Father’s Day, which, as all thrifty northerners know, was created to sell more greetings cards.’ On terminal one baht ‘at, but wi’ gradely fish and chips; Yorkshire Day The Times, 1 August 1991
Look North will be hosting a special programme Not Harry Gration Again Day whilst the Murdochs have to give up ideas of publishing Not the Sun on Sunday.
Not Boxing Day celebrates the female side of the sport which is flourishing, and West Yorkshire has one of the top female boxers in the world in Nicola Adams of Hard & Fast ABC.
Bob a Job is to be reinstated by the Scout movement as Not Knot? whose were day.
Not Day-O wont be sung by Harry ‘banana boat’ Belafonte
