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07
Apr 2023
Harrogate's most eye-catching cricketers set for another season
As another cricket season gets underway, a team from Harrogate is set to begin its 24th consecutive season with a virtually unchanged line-up.
The players are only about a foot tall and have been in a few scrapes but they remain undefeated.
Thousands of people see them each year in the garden of Kenneth and Lesley Simpson on Knaresborough Road, opposite the One Stop shop.
The statues of eight players, two batsmen, an umpire, a sight screen and a pavilion are often admired by passers-by and have become such a landmark some bus passengers ask for tickets to 'the cricket pitch garden' as it's more memorable than the name of the bus stops.
Kenneth, however, has a confession to make — he's not a big cricket fan. He's more of a football man, who supports Leeds United and is a former referee.
He is, however, a canny Yorkshireman who created the design as an easy way to maintain his garden. He said:
The view from behind the bowler's arm
Lesley noticed some statues of cricketers at the Harrogate Flower Show and when she spotted some more on holiday in Skegness they had enough for a display.
Over the years two have been vandalised — one was repaired but the other was too badly damaged and had to be replaced. Kenneth, who has lived in the house for 54 years, said:
All the statues are now fixed into the concrete. Kenneth paints them every other year but the hardest job is cleaning the green grass that passes as the pitch.
One day a member of Marylebone Cricket Club passed by and was so taken by what he saw that he returned days later with the sight screen, which he made. Many have stopped to take photos and compliment the couple.
Lesley said:
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