Member Article

Harrowells support scores with Woodhouse Grange Cricket Club

Batsmen at one of Yorkshire’s most successful village cricket clubs will be able to see their scores more clearly, thanks to a donation from East and North Yorkshire law firm, Harrowells.

A brand new digital computerised scoreboard, controlled by lap top computer, has been installed at Woodhouse Grange Cricket Club, Sutton-on-Derwent, near York, at a cost of £4,200 funded by Harrowells.

The new scoreboard has been attached to the score box, a 30-year-old brick building with a wooden front, which was falling off, where scores were displayed by pulling manual levers but were often hard to see in the fading light of early autumn. Harrowells help has also included repairs to the building.

Woodhouse Grange Cricket Club, an amateur club with 204 players, members and vice presidents, was founded in 1942 to provide recreation for local farmers in its catchment area within the York, Pocklington and Selby triangle.

Now the club’s 1st XI is thought to be the most successful side in the history of the York and District Senior League. Between 2006 and 2015 it was Premier League champion six times and runners-up in the other four years. The 1st XI has also appeared in the National Village Knockout Trophy seven times at Lord’s, winning four times.

Grounds and maintenance chairman, Nick Hobson, says: “The new scoreboard is a huge improvement. As well as being more attractive to look at, it brings us into the computerised digital age and is much easier for the scorers to operate.

“The new scoreboard also helps spectators because the score can now easily be seen from all around our ground and the numbers can be dimmed if it is getting dark, as is often the case at this time of year, so as not to dazzle the players.

“We know Harrowells from the firm’s expertise in supporting farms, local businesses and individuals in our area and I’m sure that the whole club appreciates the firm’s generosity in funding the new scoreboard which we are all very pleased with.”

With the restructuring of cricket in Yorkshire in 2016 the Woodhouse Grange 1st XI became inaugural members of the new ECB Premier League Yorkshire North which means that its 1st XI competes at the highest standard of club cricket, often against cricketers who have played at Yorkshire 2nd XI, minor counties level, and even Yorkshire 1st XI cricket in the County Championship.

The club has four senior teams and a thriving junior section with teams for school age children aged from under 11 upwards.

Harrowells partner, Simon Black, says: “I have watched Woodhouse Grange Cricket Club’s 1st XI team play many times. I thought that the quality of the cricket and the high scores they achieve was not matched by the quality of their scoring system so we are very pleased to have funded a new digital one for them.”

Harrowells Solicitors offers a wide range of legal services to commercial, farming and private clients. The firm has three offices in York and others in Thirsk, Easingwold and Pocklington.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mike Clarke Communications .