Summer Sports - Cricket
“For five years now, we’ve organised an inter-faith day in June or July and run a tournament as a celebration of our multi-cultural community”
enjoyed national sponsorship by the likes of Victoria Mutual and, before them, Western Union, that could support a league structure.
That’s now gone. Although Harwood is determined to attract backing once more, tough times may not bode well for that vision to be realised anytime soon, he admits. ”Currently, clubs play each other in friendlies. One year, Leeds will travel to London, the next year they’ll visit us for a game. It’s a casual structure, but allows us to keep in touch with each other,” he explains.
That’s not to say that Caribbean cricket is languishing in the doldrums. Quite the contrary in fact, Harwood tells me. Regularly fielding a first and second senior eleven, Leeds is also attracting a strong junior element. “We began with two junior teams and now run five,” he reports, “9s, 11s, 13s, 15s and 17s.” Does he rely on ‘through the window’
enrolment, or is Leeds CCC proactively seeking young blood? “The club visits local schools to promote the game and we also stage open days, when the local community can play in friendlies. That’s working well for us,” he says.
LCCC serves a valuable social function by acting as a key focal point for those who come to live in Britain from the West Indies, Harwood explains. “We try to offer a kind of home from home for them - somewhere they can enjoy traditional Caribbean food and speak the local lingo. In time, we can move them to areas we think are most suitable for them. People come from most of the islands and may
wish to settle in a community of their own kind.”
Membership is open to anyone,
Harwood stresses. “English, Chinese, Afghanistani and Asian players populate the senior and junior sides. “For five years now, we’ve organised an inter-faith day in June or July and run a tournament as a celebration of our multi-cultural community.”
Sited in Scott Hall in Chapeltown, one of the less prosperous areas of Leeds, the club cannot charge the level of membership fee that others of the Caribbean cricket network in more affluent regions are able to. Senior playing members pay £25 annually, those aged between 12 and 17, £10, and under 12s, just £5.
Operational budgets may be lowly, but Leeds has enjoyed its share of good fortune in the sixty-four years of its life. From its origins in a “hut”, the club approached Leeds council in a bid to move from, what was, an unsuitable site. “Through a partnership with them, we
were able to set up on council land,” explains Harwood. “There was nothing there, just a field. The council built the clubhouse and created the cricket square for us.”
That was in 1988, and the council continues to help out, mowing the outfield weekly during the season, whilst LCCC’s volunteer team of three groundsmen and Harwood focus on the square. “Funds don’t stretch to affording gang mowers,” he states, “but we have three walk-behinds, spikers and brushers and
the two-tonne heavy roller, purchased five years ago with a £4,500 grant, to keep the square up to scratch.”
The clubhouse’s bar and dining area is the main revenue stream, and Harwood is conscious of the potential to increase it still further. “A fundraising effort began last year to raise the money for a clubhouse extension that will include more dining and a social area,” he says. Although he lives in Leeds, Harwood, 42, who began his playing career in St Kitts some twenty years ago, travels to Dunnington - between York and Hull - to compete at semi-professional level. “I play mostly 60, 50 and 20-over cricket but, unfortunately, LCCC cannot afford to pay me.”
Britain’s Caribbean cricket has spawned some notable players. Batsman Stuart Williams and fast bowler Corey Collymore both served the West Indies national side in recent decades. I wondered who might emerge from the 100-strong ranks of the Leeds juniors.
Spectator capacity may be modest, but Leeds increasingly seeks to attract the crowds by staging special events. This July, it hopes to repeat last year’s triumphant Twenty20 tournament, when 2,500 fans came to see Birmingham, Huddersfield, Sheffield and Manchester battle it out with the home side in a celebration of the Caribbean game. Top club, Northampton, may be tempted to participate this time too, Harwood hopes. However, revenue levels are yet to rise to the point where they can pay for new facilities, and Harwood is set on attracting whatever funding he can on his watch. A
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