Studley Royal Cricket Club

Club History

Estate workers on the Studley Royal estate started playing cricket in the Deer Park at Studley Roger around 1900 but it was not until the early 1970’s that current Club President, Robert Sowray, founded Studley Royal Cricket Club. Rob had to beg, steal or borrow players to get a team together each week in the early days and it soon became apparent to him that for the future benefit of the Club that junior cricket was required. This early vision today sees the Club fielding four adult Saturday teams, one adult evening league team and up to eleven junior teams. Rob still is closely involved in the Club Tykes which sometimes sees as many as one hundred children, as young as six, having fun and being coached on a Monday evening.

Originally one team played in the Nidderdale League, and they played their way through the divisions winning Division 3 in 1987, Division 2 in 1991 and finally Division 1 in 2001. This was a fitting finale to the 1st team playing in the Nidderdale League, because the decision had been taken to progress into Senior League cricket and in 2002 Studley Royal began life in the York Senior League Division 2. Three seasons later they became League Division 2 Champions, above long established teams from Goole, Bridlington and Ripon. In 2007 they reached the Final of the York League Premier Cup, the highest cup final in the Clubs short history. Meanwhile life in the Nidderdale League flourishes for the other 3 Saturday teams currently playing in Divisions 2, 5 and 8.

The Club is fortunate to have Andy Mackle as our Director of Cricket. Andy Mackle for many years was the Director of Cricket at the Yorkshire School of Excellence based in Northallerton. 2008 sees Andy stepping down from 1st team cricket so as to concentrate more closely on the development of junior cricket within the club having successfully help found the Studley Royal Junior Academy in 2007. Andy is keen to see better integration of the older junior players within the adult teams so as to enable continued development of our junior players at all levels.

For ten years the Junior section of the club was under the very able management of Angela Bryant. The club plays in the Nidderdale Indoor and Outdoor Junior Leagues as well as the Yorkshire and other junior cup competitions. The Junior section continues to progress under the control of Sue Coad who is assisted by many volunteer coaches and team managers in delivering not only the league and cup matches but also Club Junior days, winter indoor coaching and annual trips to Headingley. The Club ethos is very much to make juniors and their parents feel an all round part of Studley Royal Cricket Club.

As a result of all the hard work put in the Club has seen many boys progress to representative honours with boys playing across a variety of age groups for the North of England, Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and the Nidderdale Junior League teams.