Greatest Moment

Winning the Lumb Cup in 1956.

Local Hero

Maynard Bluff - legendary club stalwart, wicketkeeper and batsman. He is now Honorary Club President and consultant groundsman.

Bizarre Fact

The club used to go on a post-season tour to Wiltshire.

Hospital Link

Prior to 2003, Birkby Nuffield were known by another name, YMCA. The switch in nomenclature came after discussion with the hospital, the YMCA authorities and solicitors. The move was born out of common sense.

The cricket club had been losing touch with the YMCA, at Laund Hill, for a while; at the same time it had been developing relations with the hospital - through charity matches and other contacts. (The hospital was built in 1970; it has 29 private bedrooms with en-suite facilities; and, according to its website, 'is renowned for its welcoming and friendly atmosphere').

The club's change in allegiances also made sense in terms of geography. The cricket ground lies adjacent to the hospital, and when opposition players ask for directions to the venue, the cry usually goes up: 'Just by the Nuffield Hospital, mate.'

In fact, on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the cricketers are so close to the doctors and nurses that a big six hit could easily land in the hospital car park, if not in one of the hospital wards. Patients can look at things in one of two ways: the solitude of the cricket ground can be good for convalescence...or the possibility that a piece of red leather could come flying through the window at any moment can set full recuperation back a week or two.

The reality of the situation is that cricket club and hospital get along fine, and always have done. There has always been a little bit of commotion about parking - cricketers are told NOT to use the hospital car park - but apart from this minor issue, the relationship is a cordial one. Hence the name change in advance of the 2003 season.

Birkby, to the north-west of Huddersfield town centre, is a curious suburb. It contains rows and rows of terraced houses, inhabited for the most part by University of Huddersfield students. But it also has its well-to-do parts, in and around Birkby Hall Road and Birkby Road, and it is here that Rose Hill is sited.

The ground is a pleasant one. The playing area slopes downhill towards the hospital, but it is a good size. The wicket is usually pitched away from the hospital side, so the boundary down to the car park is a very long one. The newly-painted (blue) pavilion is on the opposite side of the ground to the hospital and incorporates home and away changing rooms (each with their own toilet) on either side of the tea room and kitchen.

The panoramas are fantastic. On a clear day, the view out over Edgerton, Gledholt and the town centre to Castle Hill is magnificent. On the Edgerton side of the ground, there are fields and gardens (and thus plenty of potential for lost balls); on the other side, there is Birkby Hall Road and some very nice houses.

Because players, spectators and umpires are asked not to park in the hospital car park, most eventually decide to leave their vehicles on Birkby Hall Road, but this is a dangerous option: when straight sixes are hit from the other end of the ground, the parked cars and the handsome houses are under serious threat.

And ball-retrieving fielders are under strict instructions to ring doorbells and ask for permission before they start wandering into local folk’s gardens.

The fact that the pavilion does not have a bar has two major consequences: (1) the club has to spend a lot of its time fundraising - BBQs, raffles, family fun days; and (2) Saturday evenings are usually spent in the Cavalry Arms, an exquisite public house on the corner of Halifax Road and Birkby Hall Road.

Although there has been another Birkby side in the Huddersfield Central League - Birkby FMA - the main rivals are Birchencliffe. In years gone by, YMCA-Birchencliffe encounters have been tense affairs.
On occasions, the ground and practice facilities are hired out to local sides.

But this is not the only piece of enterprise: the club goes on an annual September tour to Wiltshire - where it plays two fairly rustic village sides in the space of two frenetic days. And once upon a time, the club had its own quarterly newsletter, The Rose Hill Reporter.

YMCA CC (as was) joined the Central League in 1978 (but had played sporadically in the Huddersfield Association since the 1920s). It entered two senior elevens, and these teams have now done battle, in their respective divisions, for a quarter of a century.

The club is also very proud of its junior set-up, with the brothers Sugden - Tim and Andrew - responsible for turning out some excellent young cricketers.
In recent years, the club has been dominated by the Bluff family.

Maynard is the patriarch - brave wicketkeeper, doughty batsman and hardworking groundsman; Pam is the matriarch - former tea lady and jack-of-all-trades; Deborah and Dale are the daughters, who in their time have taken care of both secretarial and catering duties.

Deborah in fact is an ex-club chairperson and has been instrumental in the club's growth - and survival - over the last decade. In 1999 she was a nominee for 'Yorkshire Tea Lady of the Year', an annual competition run by Taylors of Harrogate, the people who manufacture Yorkshire Tea. The nomination read as follows:

By profession, Debs is a nurse…‘Why do I do it? I must be mad!’, she is heard to mutter under her breath…regularly during the season…And she 'does it’ enthusiastically and, I’m sure, better than any other tea lady in Yorkshire. She brews up like an international expert, she caters for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians in her luscious salad rolls, and she makes the most yummy chocolate cake…If Debs didn’t exist, the Rose Hill club would have to invent her. She’s masterminded dozens of fundraising BBQs, she sorts out vital club sponsorship and - when she’s not cooking, baking or tea-making - she’s a one-woman industrial cleaner who gets to parts of the club’s creaking pavilion that other tea ladies just wouldn’t bother with…

(By way of a postscript, it should be noted that in the end Deborah's modesty forbade her from taking part in the prestigious 'Tea Lady' competition).

Then there is Robert, the son-in-law - batsman, star fielder and assistant groundsman; Rebecca (Deborah's daughter) - the award-winning 1st XI scorer; and James (Deborah's son) - the enthusiastic junior cricketer. It is a dynasty to rival the Kennedys - and one that has kept the club alive through thick and thin in recent years.

The 'Nuffielders' are also proud that their club is a multi-racial one. Players from Pakistan and Sri Lanka have formed the backbone of both senior elevens in recent years. On and off the field, there have been outstanding contributions from Riaz Iqbal, Tariq, Tillena and Dr. Ambe (the G.P. who used to take his pager onto the outfield), not to mention Geordie import Dave Thompson and the Wilmslow-based Tim Johnson.

Not so long ago, Riaz and his friends put on a banquet of Indian food for all club members. In a multicultural Huddersfield suburb, this was a wonderful example of multiculturalism in action and working in exactly the right kind of way - knocking barriers down rather than building them up.