Outdoor Nets .

Will commence on Thursday 1st May at 6pm at the ground (weather dependant) and throughout the coming season. This will also give us a chance to do any pitch preparation ahead of home games on the saturday.

Thanks

Pig Night - Friday 9th May

Please be advised the we are holding our first fundraiser of the year and your support is vital. The annual pig night is to be held at Fulneck golf club, Pudsey on the above date. Tickets are £5.00 and include pie & peas. It should be a good night, even better the more people that attend. Please see Nick S, Dave D or Paul (behind bar of the greyhound) for tickets.

Thanks.

Final ground preparations.

On this coming Thursday night (24th April), it would be very useful if as many Tong players as possible would be able to spare at least 1 hour of their time to help Dave Darbyshire & Gareth Kitchen with the final touches to the ground and pavillion in order to get our season off to the start we deserve. Nick S & Karl will be attending the final league meeting before the start of the season to finalise league fixtures and player registration.

The Farnley Hill players have done a tremendous amount of work already in the off season, to which we are greatful, but it would be nice to see as many Tong lads in attendance.

Thanks.

Work Day update

After conversation with Bob & Martin, the work party that was scheduled for today, the 12th April, iss now cancelled. It is to wet to cut and roll the strip which was going to be the main task for today. It look like we may need to hold a further work party one evening before the first game of the season, however i will keep you all informed as to what we can do and when.

Thank You Nick

Work Day.

Due to the cancellation of the proposed firendly with Farnley Hill on the 12th April we have decided to hold another work party. These days have been poorly attended by Tong CC players in the past. In order to get our season off to the start that we wish, these work days are important to us. It would be fantastic to see as many of us there as we possibly could to help prepare is for this new season. If you can get to the ground on the 12th April that would be great. Any further information anyone may need in relation to this day please contact either Bob or Nick

Thank You

Ground Sharing with Farnley Hill CC.

As a result of the meeting held with the Committee of Tong CC and a representative of Farnley Hill CC, it was agreed that as Tong would only be running one team in the Leeds West Riding League in 2008, the ground would be shared with Farnley Hill CC of the Dales Council League. In other words, each club would play their home fixtures at Tong but with all Tong CC fixtures in cup matches or Taverners, having priority over Dales Council fixtures. Farnley Hill CC is adequately insured but we are looking at a joint arrangement with the ECB Insurers, Marshall Wooldridge. This arrangement means that there will be cricket played in Tong on each weekend throughout the summer and it would be good to see people supporting Farnley Hill when playing at home as well as Tong CC. Hopefully, this arrangement will also lead to an improvement in the ground at Tong with more willing hands available to repair the pavilion, clear weeds and generally maintain the environment for both players and other members.

Merger of the Leeds West Riding Cricket League and the Central Yorkshire League in 2009.

After a rather hesitant beginning, it now seems highly likely that the above two leagues will merge in time for the 2009 season. This had been viewed by many as a most unlikely union, but has received the blessing of the YCB as well as the two League Committees. Final ratification of this should take place at a meeting in the next week or so. There is a great deal of work to do prior to the merger and one of the issues facing Tong CC is whether or not to revert to a two team structure in time for the 2009 season. Perhaps those players who have suggested moves to higher leagues in the past will now see this as their opportunity to prove their support for both the club and the new league, whatever that might be named! We are all aware of the standard of the CYL, having highly paid county and even test players in the Premier Division. However, the proposed structure would enable all clubs and teams to reach their own level which will not only be dictated by playing strength but also ground dimensions and club facilities. This move should kick-start a desire amongst members to raise the standards of players, the facilities, off field support within the club and the enjoyment factor for more players in either first, second or Taverners teams. The CYL have even more rigorous requirements for playing surfaces than the LWRCL, so the maintenance of the square and field will become a priority task in the future.

From the Yorkshire Post Country Week section 5th August 2006 (and Bob's letter to the editor)

Village oasis between the boundaries
Squeezed between two encroaching cities, Tong still captures the essence of rural cricket. Chris Berry reports.
The opening ball of our destined-to-be-majestic innings bounced off what had been a pristine white Mercedes. It had been parked by a member of the opposing team who obviously knew little about the hazards of the relatively tiny cricket ground of historic Tong village.
The direct hit was marked (as was the vehicle) by gasps from one side and roars from the other.
Seconds later, the gathering throng at tables and benches behind the Greyhound Inn dispersed mighty quickly as the ball hurtled towards them. Watching this, Stewart Duxbury, headmaster, all-rounder and soon-to-be part of the match's finest moment, said: "It's a nice little postage stamp of a ground – and it was even smaller at one time."
White boarding around three sides, and fields rising up beyond, along with a traditional wooden cricket pavilion, give the ground that quintessentially English pastoral feel. It's almost as if you were within a painting, except that the cricketing attire on display tended to be less than picturesque. Either some washing-machines had not coped over the weekend or the heatwave had forced a change from traditional flannels to an abbreviated kit of shorts and T-shirts.
Tong, in marked contrast to my earlier Have Bat Will Travel exploits, is not situated miles from anywhere. It's a cricket ball throw away from Bradford and a golf course length from Leeds, but it is firmly rural, and the string of horses and riders that amble leisurely into the village, along with a tractor trundling through, serve to emphasise just that. The village pre-dates even the Norman Conquest and was the seat of Tong Manor between the 13th and mid-20th centuries. The manor remained in the hands of the Tempest family, who resisted the expansion and industrialisation of the village for some 400 years before selling the hall and estate in 1941. That resistance of industry remains today.
"We're very much still a farming village even now," said David Darbyshire, captain and chief organiser of The Taverners, the team for whom I was turning out and who play friendlies throughout the season representing both Tong and their local hostelry. This is situated, as every good pub should be, to the corner of the ground.
"We still have three farms in the village, but we don't have any farmers playing in the team at present."
David lives opposite the ground in this community of just a few hundred that some of the villagers refer to as an oasis between the two burgeoning metropolises on either side. It still manages to put out a first and second team at weekends, as well as The Taverners during the week and on occasional Sundays. Stalwart, elder statesman and smiler of the side is Mick Spargo – affectionately nicknamed both Shaky and Silver Fox by his team-mates – who has lived here since 1981.
"I actually came here because of the cricket. I played here before I lived here, starting in 1976. We're a pub team more than a village team (hence the name) and the idea, when it was first formed in the mid-'60s, was to give everyone a game, no matter how good they were."
Richard Darbyshire, David's brother, pointed out that the cricket is nonetheless extremely competitive and that this season The Taverners have won every game bar one.
Openers Phil Anderson and Andrew Daisy start off in sprightly fashion but perish early, bringing international all-star batsman Eamonn Burke to the crease. Eamonn once played for Zimbabwe 'B' against Young Australia. He sets the tone for the rest of the innings and I join him following the fall of Jason, son of Mick.
Together the man who has played against Steve Waugh (Eamonn bowled a maiden over at him) and the man who was twice stumped in the same match by Ken Houghton (ex-Hull City midfielder) "because he gave me a second chance" put on a partnership that sets us up for another Taverners victory. It's yet another interesting batting strip. The ball scoots through as though it needs a periscope at one end, and flies up at the other – all quite reassuring. Eamonn retires at 30 and captain for the evening Mark Moorby (David was caught up in traffic at the time) joins me, although not for long. Inside two overs he's gone – 26 runs in 12 balls and I don't face one.
Ten overs into my innings, I incur the wrath of the headteacher. "You've got to get on with it!"
I wonder whether I should be doing lines and finally make what I feel is a highly creditable 28. Brothers Richard and David Darbyshire are apparently famed for their running between the wickets, but more by way of notoriety than excellence. They have allegedly contributed more to each other's dismissals than any bowler has ever done.
Tonight, Richard is on his own but, in honour of his brother missing out for the evening and no doubt wanting to keep up his average, he dutifully runs out two of his team including the Silver Fox who shows how much performing still means to him by drilling his bat into the pavilion steps as he returns. We finish on 163 and polish off the opposition – The Halifax (Bank) led by regular Tong player Tony Heslop – in customary style thanks to some redeeming bowling from Richard, a brilliant night of fielding from Jason Spargo and a sensational run out involving myself and the headteacher, sending back the man who must have been their leading batsman. Special commendation award must go to the Fax's white-vested Gary Wells (at least he was wearing something white) who belied his 25 years away from the game with some terrific shots.
Everyone adjourns to the Greyhound where landlord Paul Stafford lays on a spread that is every bit as sumptuous as our batting and David tells me of the Tong Pot. "It takes 11 pints and the losing side had to fill it at the end of each game. We stopped doing it when half the team wanted lager and the other half bitter. It didn't work after that."
The club's history goes back to Tong Manor Cricket Club, first recorded in a journal in 1871 and 135 years on the people of this village are still playing and smiling. None more so than the Taverners who all play their matches at home, as they confess to being hopeless travellers.
"We only play one away game every season. We go to the same ground and we still lose half the team before we get there." Looking at their lovely little ground and the surroundings, you can easily understand why they don't see the need to go anywhere else.

And from Bob:

The Editor
Yorkshire Post
Wellington Street
Leeds LS1 1RF

Dear Sir

Re: The article in the Country Week section of the Yorkshire Post Saturday 5th August 2006.

It is a pity that Chris Berry did not speak to more people at Tong Cricket Club who have an in depth knowledge of the club and its history. The article gave only brief mention to the Saturday league teams who over the years have played in several leagues not the least being the Bradford League! In fact, Tong CC (or Tong Manor CC as it was originally called) was one of the founder members of the Bradford League, a fact recognised on the recent Centenary Tie produced by this league.

The records of Tong CC in the National Village Cup (with various sponsored titles), the Bradford Evening League, the Dales Council League, the Leeds League and now the Leeds-West Riding League are all testimony to the history of a club that has been in existence in one form or another far longer than many of the present Yorkshire clubs.

The Taverners team was originally formed by the regular customers of the Greyhound Inn who did not play cricket but who, nevertheless enjoyed the sport. Not many of the Taverners today are "regulars" although they may be described as frequent visitors!

To say "the ground was even smaller in the past" is inaccurate as it has always been exactly the same size since the Tempest family made it into a cricket ground in 1871. It has been altered by the extended car park being built in the late 1970's, but an equivalent amount of ground was provided for the club by the brewery.

The club is supported purely by member's efforts, and the contribution of the present Taverners cannot be underestimated. The generosity of sponsors has also helped to maintain what is still a village cricket club but with a tradition that I am afraid was not made evident in the article by Chris Berry. A journalist is only as good as his or her sources of information and I feel that Mr. Berry could have produced a better illustration of Tong Cricket Club, although he did at least capture the essence of what is still a rural village club despite being surrounded by two great cities.

Yours faithfully

W.R.McCutcheon (Hon. Secretary Tong CC)