Greatest Moment

Winning the Bradford League Division 1 title in 1960.

Local Hero

Geoff Hirst – post-war trophy-winning captain.

Bizarre Fact

Brighouse was a hotbed of women’s cricket in the 1930s, with pin-up girl Mona Greenwood a regular in the Brighouse and England women’s side.

Brighouse's Former Ground

During their last season at the old ground, the players changed and took tea in a set of portakabins that were erected in March 2001. (The umpires had separate facilities nearby).

The pavilion was an authentic cricket pavilion, complete with Union Jack flying from the roof, a plethora of flowerpots, and an atmospheric beer garden. (Norman Ellis states that for a town of its size, Brighouse not only boasts an above-average number of pubs, but has gained a reputation for drunkenness - so visitors were sure to have a good time in the pavilion and beer garden!). Inside there were two full-size snooker tables, lots of notices about forthcoming events and a superb oil painting of the ground.

For first-team fixtures, Brighouse attracted a decent crowd at their former ground, with VIPs and the more vocal elements sat in front of the dressing rooms, smooching couples lying on the grassy verge to the left as one looks out from the pavilion, and elderly spectators sitting in their deckchairs or in their vehicles in the shade to the right.

In their last season opposite the Ritz, there were definite signs of enterprise: the official programme (cost: £2), the ticket-sellers wandering the boundary's edge trying to promote the Saturday-afternoon raffle, the four advertising hoardings near the bowling greens and the two large ads on the green-and-white scoreboard front (for Tesco and Shabab, a local Indian restaurant).

Origins and Early Years

Although it is generally recognised that the current Brighouse Cricket Club came into being in 1873, this date actually marks the year in which the club was re-formed and moved to the ground at Clifton Road.

In fact, cricket had been played in the town for many years before 1873. During this time matches were commonly played on a ground behind the parish church and the sport was fostered by a number of influential local gentlemen including C.Jessop Esq, J.Milnes and J.Grinerod who formed a club called Brighouse Alexandra.

The club was reformed in 1873 when the old Brighouse Alexandra Cricket Club amalgamated with the Brighouse Working Men’s Institute.

The result was that Brighouse New Alexandra CC was born, and the new club rented a new ground, which was situated in a convenient location behind the Working Men’s Institute’s clubhouse.

Clifton Road was to become the home of Brighouse cricket until the beginning of the twenty-first century. It was first rented from Messrs J.B. Sugdens, and after being relaid ‘for cricketing purposes’. the first match was played on 30 May 1873.

First Professional

The club’s first professional was William Shotton from Lascelles Hall. He was engaged in 1876, 11 years after the first of his two first-class appearances for Yorkshire.

His second came a year later when he was one of six players from Lascelles Hall who represented the county in a match against Gloucestershire at Clifton College.

His association with Brighouse proved to be long and successful. He played 12 seasons for the club as both professional and amateur, scoring 3,011 runs and taking 318 wickets.

Derby matches with Rastrick were always keenly fought affairs, especially in the 1870s. The first 2nd XI encounter took place in 1873.

By 1876 the two 1st XIs were playing each other and the first Brighouse victory came in 1878. Luke Greenwood, from Lascelles Hall, was engaged as professional. The occasion received special mention in the club’s 1873-1933 record book, as did the performance of that year’s professional, the great Luke Greenwood.

Greenwood was one of the great pioneers of early Yorkshire cricket. He was a regular in the county side from 1861 until 1875. In the Brighouse victory over neighbours Rastrick he scored 39 not out and took 5 wickets.

Expanding Fixture List

By the late-1870s the club, which now went under the name Brighouse Alexandra, was becoming more established in local cricket circles.

This was clear from its expanding fixture list, which included matches against more prestigious opponents. One of the leading clubs in the North was Todmorden who were approached in 1878 to arrange two 1st XI fixtures and one 2nd XI match for the following season.

In 1893, Brighouse became founder members of the West Riding League, which was recognied by the Athletic News as ‘the chief organisation of its kind in the county’.

The competition was an attempt to form a regional cricket league along the lines of the Football League and the later Northern Rugby Football Union. It included Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford, Sheffield United, Dewsbury, Keighley, Barnsley, Brighouse and Halifax.

In fact, it went further than the initial rules of the Northern Union by allowing open professionalism to exist alongside payments for ‘broken time’. Two professionals were allowed per team, and the rules also decreed that: 'An amateur shall be defined as one who does not receive any money over and above expenses actually out of pocket and an exact equivalent for the loss of his wages accruing from his usual occupation.'

First Successes

By 1899, however, the West Riding League had folded as the financial demands of semi-professional cricket on this scale were not met by public interest.

The club’s first major successes in both league and cup competitions came in 1918 when the Yorkshire Council Championship and the Halifax Parish Cup were both won.

The Yorkshire Council and the Halifax Parish Cup finals as they appear together in the club record book.

In Spring 1930 the local newspaper predicted that Brighouse’s prospects for the coming season were ‘exceedingly bright’.

And the confidence was justified as Brighouse stormed to the first of three consecutive Bradford League titles.