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25
Mar
Pateley Bridge Cricket Club could fold due to lack of players
A lack of young players and a spate of retirements of older cricketers could force Pateley Bridge Cricket Club to fold, the club’s secretary has warned.
Robert Light told the Stray Ferret the cricket club was “desperately short” of players with the new season fast approaching.
The club, which plays its home fixtures at Bewerley Park Show Field, is one of the founding members of the Nidderdale League and dates back to the 1840s.
However, recent years have seen players leave due to retirement, injury and moving to other clubs.
Mr Light said the demographics of the Nidderdale area had also changed, which affects the team's ability to attract players.
According to the latest Office for National Statistics data, just 24% of people living in Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale are aged between 16 and 45, which Mr Light described as the “prime age for playing recreational sport”.
Pateley Bridge Cricket Club pictured in the 1920s.
Meanwhile, the same figures show that in the last 10 years the number of people aged over 55 has increased from 51% to 62%.
Mr Light said:
There's a wider story to tell here about the loss of traditional rural communities with local school numbers propped up by children from outside the area and an increasing number of holiday homes.
Pateley Bridge has become more of a place where people come to retire or go on holiday.
Mr Light added that the club’s senior side has about 18 players, but only eight of them can play most weeks.
But the issue extends beyond current players.
Mr Light said the club has also struggled to attract cricketers from outside Nidderdale, which has compounded the problem.
He said:
We have always had difficulty attracting players from outside the area, which is hard to understand as the club is situated in beautiful countryside at the heart of the Nidderdale National Landscape, formerly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The struggle to attract new players and older players leaving has led to the club being reliant on its junior sides.
Mr Light said the club currently has around 10 to 15 young players.
The number was higher, but has dropped “significantly” since covid, he added.
Players at Pateley Bridge Cricket Club pictured at a reunion in 1999.
Mr Light said only three or four players from the younger set-up have graduated to play adult cricket in the last 10 years.
He added that most cricket clubs struggle to keep youngsters interested as they grow into teenage years, but the situation was “particularly damaging” for Pateley due to the demographics of the area.
‘A huge loss’
Mr Light said the Nidderdale League has recently been conducting focus groups and polls to see how clubs can retain younger players.
But, the growing problem of attracting players and retaining youngsters could soon prove to be what forces Pateley to close.
Mr Light said the prospect of the club no longer being able to continue would be a “huge loss” for the area.
He said:
Our cricket club has been such an important part of the community since at least the 1840s. It has brought together generations of local families who have grown up playing for the club. It would be a huge loss if the club was no longer able to continue.
Anyone interested in joining Pateley Bridge Cricket Club can contact club secretary Robert Light by email here or call 07747697816.
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