Harrogate return likely for Tykes

The likely return of championship cricket to St George's Road, Harrogate, and Abbeydale Park, Sheffield, was high was high on the agenda of Yorkshire's general committee during their meeting at Headingley today.

Members had voted in favour of the venues being re-instated next year at the club's annual meeting in Huddersfield on Saturday.

The narrow majority in support of the resolution - 1,220 for and 1,147 against - came in the face of strong opposition from cricket chairman Bob Platt and treasurer Peter Townend with skipper David Byas already having expressed similar views on behalf of the team.

The resolution urged a return to the two grounds rather than demanded it, but Yorkshire would seem honour bound to heed the members' wishes.

The voting in the hall was 131 for and 183 against but of the proxy votes 1089 were in support and 964 against.

The result was a triumph for the proposer of the resolution, Robert Jackson, of Sheffield, and its seconder, Sid Fielden, who also won back his place on the committee as a South district representative.

It was also received with great delight by Harrogate Cricket Club president Brian Haines who told the meeting before the vote that in the last 20 years of championship cricket at Harrogate before they stopped playing there in 1996 Yorkshire had lost only one match. "Are not those the sort of results you would like?" he asked.

Haines also pointed out that gate receipts for the final match had been £7,600 and he said that a vote in favour of the resolution would serve the wants and needs of members and the paying customers throughout the whole of Yorkshire.

Fielden said it was also a fact that county games at Harrogate and Sheffield attracted more support from the public than games at Headingley during the period from 1993-96 when there had been steady growth at Harrogate and a decline at Headingley.

The proposers of the resolution were not against Headingley and they accepted it was the home of Yorkshire cricket and believed the club should play the bulk of their matches there. They also felt that from a business and cricket perspective the increased income from games at Harrogate and Sheffield would help redevelop Headingley.

But Platt said he thought a vote in favour of the resolution would be ill advised in the extreme. He understood the emotive reasoning for a return to Harrogate and Sheffield but it would be a backward step because the cricket argument for playing all championship matches at Headingley and Scarborough could not be put too strongly.

David Byas was an excellent and dedicated captain totally focussed on bringing success to the club and he should not be handicapped by not being allowed to express his views and those of his players.

Facilities at Headingley where the team benefited from practice pitches, a cricket school and gymnasium were far superior to the two outgrounds. Headingley also suited Yorkshire's style of play and this was an advantage which should not be given up lightly.

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