Alan Kippax 1930 bat finds its way home from Kippax
Words: DAVID WARNER. Picture: CHRIS WHITEOAK
A coup for Yorkshire County Cricket Club Archives Committee as a bat given to Kippax schools in 1930 by Australian Test cricketer Alan Kippax is presented to chairman David Hall by Coun. Keith Parker, left, who represents Kippax on Leeds City Council. (September 2005.)
The bat is autographed by the England and Australia teams who battled for the Ashes that summer - names including Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Jack Hobbs, Herbert Sutcliffe and Harold Larwood.
The New Zealand tourists of 1937 added their names to the bat, which David received on behalf of the county club in the East Stand Long Room at Headingley on the first day of the Championship match with Worcestershire on September 7, 2005. Coun. Parker said a similar bat which had been presented to Lord's and which was now in the museum there had been insured for £30,000.
It was while touring in 1930 that Kippax learned of a village of the same name - and he went over to present the bat, which was competed for annually by school teams in the Kippax area. It was lost for a while before being found in Great Preston School, but it was then displayed in the local working men's club. It continued to move around, and eventually Coun. Parker took it home for safekeeping.
"With a similar bat on display at Lord's, I thought that Yorkshire was a suitable place for this one," Coun. Parker said, "and I have great pleasure in handing it over."
The original plaque on the bat reads: "Presented to Schools in the Kippax neighbourhood by Alan Kippax, the great Australian batsman."
