CRICKET


Blink, and you will miss the entrance to Scarborough Cricket Club’s North Marine Road Ground, which is tucked away behind a line of old Victorian terraced houses. Once through the gate though, you are taken aback by the 11,500-capacity ground. Lee Williams met with Head Groundsman John Dodds, who has been at the club since 2011


F


irst established in 1863, Scarborough Cricket Club’s North Marine Road Ground has held a record 22,946 people who watched Yorkshire play


Derbyshire in 1947, back in the days when it was known as The Queen’s Cricket Ground. The North Yorkshire seaside setting also


hosts Yorkshire County Cricket Club, who play a series of games in the second half of the season each year, and the club annually hosts the Scarborough Festival.


John Dodds first got into groundsmanship whilst playing cricket at Stamford Bridge in York. “They were looking for a part-time groundsman and, ironically, brought in the then Scarborough head groundsman, Mike


Corley, to advise them and I started to learn the profession from him.” “I worked at Stamford Bridge for around fifteen years, whilst still doing my full-time job in the building trade. I started getting asked by a lot of clubs around the York area if I could help them with their autumn and winter work, so I decided to set up my own little business.”


“I was then contacted by Geoff Cook, who used to be the director of cricket for Durham. Stamford Bridge hosted many of Yorkshire second XI games and, at that time, Durham used to visit a lot. Geoff liked the work I was doing there and asked me if I would move to South Northumberland CC, and that was the first full-time role I had as a


PC October/November 2019


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