Greatest Moment

Helping to form the Dewsbury & District Cricket League in 1911.

Local Hero

Gilbert Cummings - hardworking club stalwart.

Bizarre Fact

Elsie Cummings once gave her husband, Gilbert, out...when she had been co-opted, at the last minute, as a matchday umpire!

Methodist Link

Moorlands were originally founded as a church cricket team in 1884. Their full title was Dewsbury Moorlands Methodist Church Cricket Club and they were based at the church in West Town. They played in the Sunday School League, and there was a strong link between church and cricket team.

In fact there was a rubric which said that in order to play, members of the cricket club had to attend either the Moorlands Methodist Sunday School or church services. Young men were issued with an 'attendance card', which had to be stamped each Sunday they attended.

In turn, this enabled the church authorities to determine whether individual players were eligible for cricketing duty. This ritual eventually proved to be the undoing of the church-cricket club connection.

Fundraising Success

From the early 1950s up to 1987, Moorlands played their home matches at Sands Lane – a council-owned pitch. They then moved to the Memorial Ground – where they play on an adjacent field to Mirfield CC.

During the 1980s and 1990s the club engaged in a variety of fundraising activities.

The club also formed a link with a local day centre, and helped with raising money; and in 1994 the club itself was delighted to receive a bag of cricket kit from the Lord’s Taverners.

In the Huddersfield Central League, the club won its fair share of silverware, and then in 1997 changed their name to ‘Moorlands’ to emphasise that they were actually a Mirfield-rather than Dewsbury-based club.

Home Sweet Home

Moorlands’ ground is located in Memorial Park, on Huddersfield Road, next door to Mirfield Harry Lime’s HQ.

Home to two local cricket clubs, the Memorial Ground is a unique cricketing venue. Moorlands’ ‘half’ is pleasant and easy on the eye. It is circled by a ring of dark and emerald green trees, so much so that the main road is hardly visible.

Apart from the pavilion and scoreboard, there are no other buildings visible, save the rear of the Mirfield CC pavilion and the kiddies’ play area diagonally across from the pavilion.

Near Neighbours

To be fair, Mirfield’s ground is well hidden by trees and buildings, but occasionally you do catch sight of a few small figures in white or you do hear the noise of ball on bat. Two cricket matches for the price of one – heaven, surely, for the passing cricket-lover?

Mirfield Cricket Club’s pavilion backs on to Moorlands’ outfield. Local children have painted a football net on the brick building. To the left, more elegant trees; to the right, the Mirfield CC car park.

Building work on Moorlands’ new pavilion started in 1996 and 1997 and the structure was ready for the 1998 season. The glass frontage opens out onto the outfield, and the Club has been able to display a number of advertising boards within the window panes.

Pavilions and Pools

Like many local cricket clubs, Moorlands are indebted to national funding bodies. The total cost of the pavilion project was £120,000 and the club was aided by a Sport England Lottery Fund grant of £75,000.

In front of the pavilion is a garden of beautiful flowers. The scorebox is sited adjacent to the pavilion, behind the bowler’s arm at the main-road end of the ground. It houses the two scorers – one from the home side and one from the away side – and can be ‘shuttered’ up when it is not being used.

The back of the Mirfield CC pavilion forms the boundary in one part of the ground. And a children’s paddling pool is sited beyond the boundary diametrically opposite the pavilion.