It’s beautiful up here. I don’t exactly know, but it could be 20, 30 miles that you can see from here, over to Ilkley Moor. A lot of people come and say it’s the best view in the league, although there are some other great views. But obviously we’re a bit biased. We like this one.

Anybody can come up free of charge and we’ll let them use the ground for whatever purpose: sports days, fun days, birthday parties, anything that they want to. So it’s family orientated, community orientated, and we like to see it as a village asset and try to keep it going as best we can.

Sometimes you take it for granted because it’s always been here, although, like everywhere else, it’s become more inclusive. We’ve got a girls’ team now, and in the juniors, half of them are girls and half are boys. Most come from the village, but others can join from outside if they want to – any ethnic background, anybody can come and play for us, and everyone’s welcome. It’s great that you could come along and use us as an example of cricket in Bradford, Yorkshire.

It’s a tradition growing up. My son’s grown up at Crossroads, just outside Haworth, and he’s played for Haworth since he was nine – so that’s nearly 20 years. He’s playing today. He’s wicketkeeping. Most of this team have known each other for a long time. This is proper grassroots cricket. No messing about.

Cricket is absolutely a part of the district’s culture. There used to be cricket pitches on postage stamps that you wouldn’t think were big enough.

It’s just great, you’re just amongst friends, you’re amongst people who are all here for cricket.

What a vista we’ve got. You’ve got Keighley down in the valley beyond there, there’s a viaduct over there, you’ve got rolling hills, farmland, and you’ve got Queensbury and Bradford down that way.

It’s a wonderful place to be on a summer’s afternoon or a summer’s evening. It’s better than standing around on street corners, isn’t it? It just takes you out of normal life, really, to belong to a club like this.

Everyone chips in, so there’s people that don’t even play cricket, but they come on to help. I like it because it’s somewhere where I can come on and socialise. It’s very rewarding that it’s all on a volunteer basis.

And my son, he likes to come on here. It’s something for him to do. And also it gets other children involved. Then we’ll try and say: “Do you want to come and join in with the training for the under-9s team? Do you want to join the All-Stars?” Just trying to get it bigger and better. I think when All-Stars started, I think we only had about 11 children. And I think this year we’ve had close to 40. So it’s working, it’s nice, it’s a really community feel.

We’ve got other neighbouring villages, and there’s plenty of walks to be doing round here. There’s loads of public footpaths, which go down the side of the cricket club, taking you down to the reservoir, down to the viaducts. So yeah, it’s just absolutely stunning scenery, just views for miles and miles.

I think people imagine Bradford as mills, and what have you from history, and it gets a lot of bad press. But Denholme is a village that has beautiful views and I’ve heard people say that Denholme overlooks four counties on a nice day. Absolutely beautiful. This village is beautiful and it never gets associated with that, the walks and stuff around here.
So, that’s why I play here.

When I was a kid I used to come here and watch my dad play, and that got me interested in cricket. I played junior cricket here and did okay at it and it’s one of those sports, once you’re into it, it’s really addictive. I’ve played since I was seven. I’m 43 now, and I absolutely love it.

I mean, most of us have been friends for life, since we played junior cricket together, then up into senior level. And those of us that were good have gone on to a better level of cricket, Aire and Wharfedale League, Bradford League, and that’s great. but there’s sort of a core of us that have always been here. My dad has been president of this club, he’s been here 70 years. So, yeah, it’s absolutely that, about the people.

It’s a very Yorkshire thing isn’t it, being associated with good cricket. You know there’s a lot of villages around here and the cricket club’s at the heart of the community, Denholme, Cullingworth, Haworth, it’s a massive part of it.