Well, in my case a great deal. My involvement with the Club spans 44 years, since 1977. I was born in Scarborough, went of to university and then studied to be an accountant, working in industry in the Midlands. In 1976 I moved back to Yorkshire, as Cost and Management Accountant, at a chemical works in Wyke. For a single guy, relocating to a new area, cricket provided a great way to meet people socially, and I was introduced by a girlfriend who lived in Adwalton, to Peter Goor, at the newly reformed club on Moorside Green. Adwalton CC had not played for two years, while the ground was moved from the Feast Ground to Moorside Green, so Ray Andrews, Peter Goor and Jack Horrocks had to gather a new band of locals, including Cliff Aveyard, Bob Blezzard, Alan Inskip, Keith Hotchen, Peter Harrison and Graham Johnson and Peter’s workmates, Jim Coulson and Maurice Senior, to play two seasons in the Dewsbury League, before we returned to play in the Bradford Central League. All the players who would turn up were on the Committee and I was rapidly given the job of Treasurer. We were joined shortly afterwards, by Les Jackson and John Michell from Gildersome, who brought Ken Beavers and Graham Ford with them. Also, by a young lad from Drighlington, by the name of Ian Lindley and by Brian Gibson from rivals Crofts. To raise funds, we held dances in the Community Centre on the Moor and had to put in a lot of work to make the ground playable. When Ray Andrews stood down as Chairman, I became Chairman as well as Treasurer and Ian Lindley took on the Secretary’s role, when Bob Blezzard moved to Southampton. The Committee soon realised that our route to financial stability lay in installing a bar into the single storey pavilion. The Warrington brewer, Greenall Whitley, provided a mortgage, on more advantageous terms than our local brewers and the Club is indebted to people like Cliff and Winnie Aveyard, Les Jackson, Peter and Joan Goor, Jack Horrocks, Richard Jackson, Sheila Gibson, John Hill and many others, who spent many hours voluntary work behind the bar, which was open 7 days a week, throughout the year. In less than 10 years, the club was able to build a two storey extension, converting the whole ground floor into the bar clubhouse, with changing rooms above, which David Bairstow (YCC Captain ) graciously opened for us. With the club in a strong financial situation, in the 1990s, I retired from my Committee roles when career pressures increased. I have continued with the Club, as auditor of the club accounts and as a player for the club until 2006. Since 2006 I have umpired in the Central Yorkshire League and Bradford Premier League as the Adwalton CC League Panel Umpire. When Peter Goor stood down as President, I was honoured to be asked to take on that mantle of Club President, and to work with Ian Lindley and Julian Hall and a new cohort of committee members and cricket committee members, who are continuing to put in the voluntary work as hard as the old guard did, by achieving ECB Club Mark accreditation and they are taking the Club vibrantly forward into its 150th year celebrations, with bold plans to continue our development work on the pavilion and further groundworks.

So, what makes Adwalton CC so special for me? Well, I still really enjoy walking the boundary on a matchday, pint in hand, talking to old friends like Ian Lindley, Alec Sutherland, Colin Laycock, Richard Jackson, Dave Sadler and many other former players who still support us, while watching a younger group of players fulfilling their cricketing dreams. I still get a lump in my throat when I see the Peter Goor Scoreboard, the Les Jackson Memorial Plaque and our younger players making their way in the game of cricket. It has to be the friendships and the commitment shown by so many people, over the years, to make the Club into such a valuable community asset, that provides the social setting, for cricket and the other sports that the Club have supported, to flourish within the community of Adwalton. A key difference between our club and many others, who have since folded over the passing years, has been that so many of our players have been prepared to join the Committee and many more have actively contributed by time and effort, by coaching juniors and supporting the various social events and groundwork projects devised by Ian Lindley. It has also taken many years to enlist our neighbours to become Club members and our social members have been equally as important as our playing members in building the Club and participating in its development, with an especial big thank you to all our past and present Committee Members for leading the Club towards a vibrant future.

I look forward to meeting all our members, old and new, in our 150th anniversary celebrations and to enjoying another season of cricket at Adwalton CC.