Founded in 1960 by David Drabble and his father, George. The society held its meetings at Bramall Lane, the Friends Meeting House or Victoria Hall in Sheffield City Centre, but moved to its permanent home at Abbeydale Park, Dore, Sheffield, in 1980.

OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY

Chairman: Bev Stokes, 9 Causeway Glade, Dore, Sheffield S17 3EZ. Tel. 0114-2369584
Vice-Chairman: Peter Mason, 112 Retford Road, Sheffield S13 9LF. Tel. 0114-2692377
Secretary: David Drabble, Owzat, 1 Ravensdale Road, Dronfield Woodhouse, Sheffield S18 4QP. Tel. 01246-416145. DDsportsOwzat@aol.com
Treasurer: Anne Drabble - as above.
Assistant Secretary: David Tunbridge, 32 Westbrook Drive, Brookside, Chesterfield S40 3PQ. Tel. 01246-568820. tunbridge9@aol.com or dtunbridge@mansfield.gov.uk
Committee: Dorothy Betts, Dr Audrey Brook, Robin McDuell, Rosemary Moseley, Malcolm Patterson, Bryan Turner and Brian Whitehead.

NEW YEAR PROGRAMME 2013

All meetings start at 7.45pm at Abbeydale Park, Sheffield, except where stated:

Monday, January 14: Charles Hartwell – Finance Director, Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Thursday, January 31: Press Night with Kevin Howells, Alan Biggs and Richard Fidler
Monday, February 11: Pea and Pie Supper Night with Jason Gillespie – YCCC Senior Coach. Tickets £12
Monday, February 25: 7.30pm. Annual General Meeting
                                          7.45pm. Peter Willey – First Class Umpire
Wednesday, March 13: Society Quiz Evening
Monday, March 25: Harry Pearson – award-winning cricket author
Thursday, April 4: Paul Shaw - ECB Women’s and Girls’ High Performance Manager
Monday, April 15: Matthew Wood – Former Yorkshire CCC batsman
Monday, April 22: 53rd Annual Dinner at Baldwins Omega Restaurant
                                  Tickets £35. Guest Speaker – Alec Stewart OBE,
                                  followed by comedy from David Kendall

Tickets for the Supper Evening and/or Annual Dinner can be obtained from Secretary David Drabble,1 Ravensdale Road, Dronfield Woodhouse, Sheffield S18 5QP. Tel. 01246-416145 or e-mail: gdrabble1@sky.com

International Honour for founder Secretary Drabble

When ICC President David Morgan visited the Society to speak members in November 2009 it was brought to his attention that David had been the Society’s Secretary since it was founded by David and his father in 1960 as well as giving stalwart service as a Sheffield representative on the Yorkshire Committee for 22 years.

The Society was delighted to learn that David was to be presented with the medal by David Collier during his visit on Monday, April 19. The ICC Centenary Medal recognises a group of people who are instrumental to the running of the game - the volunteers. They give their time for the benefit of others, and are crucial to preserving cricket’s special values as well as sustaining and developing the game at the grassroots and nurturing the future. Ihe ICC are awarding Centenary Medals to 1,000 volunteers worldwide who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to the game and have gone beyond the call of duty in the name of cricket.

Charity cricketers run up £12,000 in a day at Sheffield

PCA Masters' XI beat Yorkshire by six wickets and helped to raise £12,000 at the Society's 2009 Charity Match.

Players and helpers batted out of sight the threatening weather and the economic recession to mark the Society's 10th Annual Charity Match by raising £12,000 to be divided equally between Neurocare, Sheffield, and the Professional Cricketers' Association Benevolent Fund. Abbeydale Park, Sheffield, was incredibly lucky to have a fine and dry day on July 9, 2009, after the poor weather of previous days and the forecast for rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Supporters had to endure one short shower before play began - but then the sun came out in time for the start.

PCA players Peter Such and Simon Kellett did a sterling job with students from Westbourne School in the morning, and were joined by Stuart Law, Ian Harvey and Darren Cousins among others for fielding practice and team photographs.
 
The PCA Masters' team won the 40-over contest by six wickets - but Yorkshire Second XI put on an excellent display of competitive cricket for the spectators, who were able to bask around the boundary edge. Inside the pavilion both luncheon and dinner went extremely well with everyone enjoying the good food and entertainment provided by comedian Mike Farrell and former Australian paceman Rodney Hogg.

An auction of sporting memorabilia helped to boost the day's coffers to £12,000 - a fantastic effort, and Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society would like to thank all the players, supporters and patrons, without whose help this would not have been possible. The Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society has staged a charity match every year since the death from leukaemia of former Yorkshire captain and left-arm spinning all-rounder Phil Carrick.

In 2008 £10,000 was split equally between Yorkshire Air Ambulance Charity and the PCA Benevolent Fund. The matches had raised £64,000 prior to that - starting with Leukaemia Research in memory of Phil, and also including Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Weston Park Hospital Cancer Appeal, and St John Ambulance.

The side that launched Yorkshire's modern Golden Age - Champions of 1959

Members of the Yorkshire squad who 50 years ago this summer began the county's modern Golden Age gather for the Society's 2009 Spring Dinner. Left to right: Harold 'Dickie' Bird, Bryan Stott, Ray Illingworth, Ken Taylor, Philip Sharpe, Don Wilson, Jackie Birkenshaw, Bob Platt, Doug Padgett, Brian Close and Mel Ryan. (Picture: Dale Riley). The toast was proposed by Richard Barber - nephew of Alan Barber, who captained Yorkshire in 1929 and 1930 - and the full text of his speech is presented below.

Curious magic that transported them from team to Superteam
I’m sure I’m not the only person here this evening who was given the chance to play for Yorkshire by being carried across the border a day before my birth in order to qualify for the county - from Baslow to Sheffield, in fact, in 1942. My uncle, Alan Barber, had captained Yorkshire in 1929 and 1930; my father, Bertie, captained Sheffield Collegiate for a decade in the 1930s, and my brother and I have Yorkshire cricket flowing in our veins. As a teenager I was called to the Headingley nets in the 1950s under the watchful eye of old Maurice Leyland - but alas no further!

In those days Bramall Lane was like a second home for me - unforgettable days cheering for the Blades in winter and the White Rose in the summer. At one Blades match in the 1950s someone in the crowd shouted out: "Don’t pass it to Pace, pass it to me - I’m not playing either!”

And as the match ended a man near me said to his neighbour: "Well, band played well!” You can’t fool 'em down at the Lane!

As for the old ground’s cricket atmosphere, John Warr, the captain of Middlesex in 1959, recalled fielding on the boundary to the right of the pavilion in front of where the flat caps used to watch: a steepling catch went up...he teetered for a long time underneath it...down it came, and straight through his hands to the floor - and a voice behind him called out: "Eh, lad! Whatever’s tha coom oop ‘ere foor? Has tha coom to buy penknife?”

I was 17 in 1959 when those great deeds were done by our guests this evening - and those southerners from Surrey unseated for a decade. These guys with us this evening were Titans: Derbyshire setting us 304 in 170 minutes at Chesterfield, and Ken Taylor got them with 144; Essex at Colchester, where the two Brians and Freddie scored 86 off eight overs to win; Hampshire at Hull, where Bryan Stott carried his bat for 130 and the last 105 came in 10 overs.

And then one of the most heroic days in the county’s history: the last match of the season on September 1, when Bryan Stott and Doug Padgett put Sussex to the sword at Hove by scoring 218 in 95 minutes to win with seven minutes to spare and five wickets in hand to take the Championship in a style that is sometimes shown in dreams.

1959 also confirmed the impression many of us have of the days of our youth - that the rain never rained, and that every summer's day was a day of endless sun...because in 1959 it was so, and scarcely a single day's play was interrupted by rain in that marvellous year. Every generation believes that things today are never quite as sunny as they used to be, and never quite measure up as they did when we were young.

I'm reminded of a rhyme about an old man sitting on a bench watching cricket:

And like a corncrake calling to an owl
Grim-faced and glowering, he began to curse,
Remarking with an unattractive scowl:

"The state of cricket goes from bad to worse!
"Where are the bowlers of my boyhood's prime?
"Where are the batsmen of my pristine years?
"Where are the fielders of the former time?"

At which I raised my head and pricked my ears
And smiled; for there was Trueman’s bounding run
And Close’s rapier flashing in the sun.
 
The actual names in that old rhyme were Larwood and Woolley. But ours this evening are still Freddie and Brian - and Ray and Doug and Don and Phil and Ken...and all the great players assembled here tonight who gave us such pride and pleasure, and heroes and victory, in those sun-drenched days of 1959. What is there that really matters more than Yorkshire cricket? In the 19th Century it was said that Lord Hawke occupied the position in the British Empire second only to Queen Victoria, as captain of Yorkshire. In the 20th some thought that Wilfred Rhodes was descended directly from the Almighty!

From such company has the Yorkshire team of 1959 come down.

They were a Superteam. A Superteam isn't just a bunch of very good players. A Superteam is what happens when the curious magic of shared purpose brings from every player something beyond himself, when exceptional players extract brilliance from less gifted colleagues, and when those colleagues push exceptional players into greatness. Team spirit is one thing. Superteam spirit is quite another! We witnessed that in 1959 - and most of that Superteam are with us here tonight!

How then to sum up the Yorkshire team of 1959, and how best to toast the place they have in our hearts and memories?

1959 saw another event of note in Yorkshire cricket: the passing of Abe Waddington, who played for Yorkshire between 1919 and 1929, took 100 wickets six times, and saw Yorkshire to four successive County Championships. It was of him that Neville Cardus wrote: "Waddington was the very essence of Yorkshire cricket. He was as if, one day, the Lord had taken up a lump of Yorkshire clay, and breathed life into it; and then said to it 'Abe Waddington - go thou on to bowl at Pavilion End at Bramall Lane.'"

Gentlemen, you, too, are the very essence of Yorkshire cricket and of our county’s pride; and in pleasure given and enjoyed by all of us here this evening and by so many of the people of Yorkshire down the years, you have no rivals! Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my privilege to ask you all to be upstanding and drink the toast of the evening: To the Yorkshire team of 1959!

by Richard Barber, April 2009