Summer Sports - Cricket
not in the habit of mollycoddling his lads. “I didn’t mess about and led from the
front. I wouldn’t tolerate lateness as that was unfair on the rest of them, and had to let one lad go after a habit of turning up late for work.” Any culture of ‘throwing a sickie’ was soon
sorted. “I’d tell them: ‘If you are unwell, you are unwell at 7.00am, not 9.00am’, so I stopped all that. It’s about being fair to everyone, setting standards and maintaining discipline - no messing about.” With Headingley memories still burning
bright, sprightly octogenarian Keith manages to make room in his life for keeping close to his roots. “I love to help club and village groundsmen when I can,” he reveals, “those who give their time freely and have no money to spend on machinery and materials.” He was preparing to host a group one
Keith in the shed
Saturday afternoon this March. “Young and old come here for tips,” he says. “They are so interested to hear how they can improve what they do.” It's a fitting venue to stage such
gatherings. Adel is built on heavy clay. “The New Rover Cricket Club
Mel Reuben, New Rover’s vice-president and vice-chairman, added a historical note on the eve of his youngest son Danny’s departure for the Caribbean as head of team communications for England’s West Indies tour.
“In 1934, whilst at a Scout camp, a group of Rover Scouts decided to form a cricket team. Lost for a name, they decided to call themselves New Rover Cricket Club after the Scout camp.
For the next fifty years or so, only interrupted by WWII, when numerous members were called up for King and Country, the club continued almost unchanged, playing friendly cricket on the same pitch at Soldiers Field, Roundhay, using a little second-hand garden shed they called a pavilion which, when erected, cost the princely sum of £20.
In 1988, after years of playing friendly cricket, the club took a monumental decision to apply to join The Dale Council Cricket League. With a flourishing club and a steadily progressing league side, the cramped, overworked surroundings and rapidly deteriorating facilities at Soldiers Field were stifling the club’s ambitious plans to become a force in the local cricket scene.
A sub-committee was formed to find a suitable site for a new cricket ground. Those dreams became a reality in May 1993 when a 7.5-acre sloping cornfield in Adel was transformed into a cricket ground after it purchased the land with financial input of the Richmond family.
In 1998, it was decided that the time had come to play in a higher standard of cricket. The club applied and were accepted as members of The Leeds Cricket League and, in that same year, the club’s new pavilion, which was partly funded by a generous Sport England Lottery grant, was opened.
52 I PC APRIL/MAY 2017
The land for New Rover’s ground was purchased with financial input from the Richmond family, hence its name
In 1999, a unique partnership with Yorkshire CCC was set up, with the county’s Academy squad using the club facilities for mid-week and the odd Sunday game.
Keith was appointed full-time groundsman and a bungalow was built on site for him, funded by the club.
The Yorkshire first and second team squads often used the club’s superb facilities and the England team netted at the ground to prepare for the 2004 test match against New Zealand at Headingley.
With the imminent sad decline of The Leeds Cricket League, the club succeeded in their application to join The Wetherby Cricket League for the 2000 season.
After five years of a steady rise to the top division of The Wetherby League, and having players selected for the league representative squad, an opportunity for the club to further advance its playing standards arose when a vacancy occurred in The Airedale & Wharfedale Senior Cricket League. The club applied and were elected for the 2005 season.
Who would have thought that, back in 1934, a group of Rover Scouts playing an impromptu game of cricket would be the forerunners of the modern day New Rover Cricket Club and would be not only the partners of the greatest cricket club of them all, Yorkshire CCC, but also have cricket groundsman legend Keith Boyce to prepare superb cricket pitches.
During their formative years, Joe Root and other England past and present cricketers Johnnie Bairstow, Tim Bresnan, Adam Lyth, Garry Balance and most of the current Yorkshire first team including new coach Andrew Gale have all graced the Richmond Oval.
The likes of Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan, Darren Gough, Matthew Hoggard too have used Keith’s terrific pitches to regain form and fitness.
Three years ago, New Rover hosted the first ever over-60s Ashes Test match, which England won. The Aussies raved about the pitch, which they said matched up to any Test and first-class ground they had ever played on. A fitting tribute to Keith’s enduring mastery.”
locals moan about it, but it’s a gift to a groundsman,” says Keith. “I love to get out on the square with the hosepipe, flash it off, then do an early morning roll. You can bowl more than 600 overs before you need to take a pitch out.” There is another key to that longevity though: “In fairness, the quality of cricket played here means the bowlers don’t hit the seam hard enough to really hurt the pitch.” Keith Boyce has met many cricket legends in his time - Sir Len Hutton, Herbert Sutcliffe et al - and advised a host of England captains on how to play Headingley. On 27 June, old rivalries are rekindled when over-60s Yorkshire and Lancashire meet at New Rover. Whether age will lend a more gentlemanly air to the proceedings remains to be seen. What is beyond doubt though is the quality of the wicket they’ll battle it out on, prepared by a true master of the art of cricket groundsmanship and man management.
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