HARROGATE Cricket Club have been delivered a massive lift for the coming season.

Bradford-Leeds Universities' Centre of Excellence team have pulled out of Bradford's historic Park Avenue ground after using it as their playing headquarters since their inception in 2001.

They will take up permanent residence in 2006 at Leeds University's ground at Weetwood where they will share facilities with Yorkshire Seconds but this coming season they will play all of their home matches at Harrogate in a move which has delighted the St George's Road club.

Nine days of cricket are scheduled for the ground and they include matches against Oxford, Cambridge and Exeter University Centres of Excellence.

Like the five other University Centres of Excellence around the country, Bradford-Leeds are now under the control of the MCC who have taken over funding from the England and Wales Cricket Board and they will chip in slightly more than the ECB's £50,000 a year to each of the centres.

Bradford-Leeds coach, Richard Horner, who moves into new offices at Weetwood in a few weeks' time, said that players and officials all deeply regretted having to leave Park Avenue.

"In our hearts we all love the ground and its cricket pitches are still up to first class standard but it is just not financially feasible to stay there," he said.

"The costs of maintaining the ground are too high for the amount of cricket we play."

New pitches have been laid at Weetwood but these will not be ready for use by the Centre this coming season which is why agreement has been reached with Harrogate to play home games at St George's Road.

Harrogate CC chairman Miles Rawlings, said: "We are delighted to give a home to the Centre and it is a very exciting prospect to be hosting games involving such teams as Oxford and Cambridge.

"It will give the club a considerable boost and really put us on the map again after the disappointments of losing Yorkshire county cricket.

"The ground is in great shape and we can confidently cater for crowds of around 1,000, so I hope that the weather is fine and that the matches are extremely well supported."

Oxford will play Bradford-Leeds in a one-day match at Harrogate on May 4 with a two-day match on the following two days. Cambridge will have a total of three days' cricket there from May 16-18 and Exeter will visit on May 30. MCC Young Cricketers will play Bradford-Leeds in a friendly on the ground on June 16.

The Centre's departure from Bradford means that county sides will no longer visit Park Avenue which became one of the country's most famous venues following its formation in 1881 with the world's greatest cricketers going on to play on the ground.

Yorkshire played championship cricket there regularly until 1986 when mounting costs and urgent repairs to the crumbling Victorian pavilion forced them to quit the venue.

But the Friends of Park Avenue ploughed countless hours into getting Yorkshire to return in 1991, aided by grants from Bradford Council.

They continued to play at Park Avenue until 1996 but left again the following year because of rising costs, vandalism and the fact that there were fewer Championship matches to take around the county.

Updated: 10:34 Tuesday, January 11, 2005