Wetherby Cricket Club: Sadness as beloved Leeds club forced to close after 100 years

Wetherby Cricket Club, a founding member of the Wetherby League in 1920, shut its club house doors for the final time recently after it announcing its closure.

The decision came following a recent decline in memberships with not enough people on the pitch or in the club house. The news was confirmed via a statement on the club website.

It said: “After over 100 years, Wetherby Cricket Club is no longer an active club. Thank you to all those people who played, supported or worked behind the scenes for the club.”

Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post, outgoing club chairman Arthur Probert admitted that the decision came with a heavy heart but had been “a long time coming”.

He said: “The reasoning behind the decision is very very simple – not enough people on the pitch and not enough off it. You look at Wetherby, there’s a lot of clubs nearby and it came to the point where the network of people who wanted to play with us was no longer going to be sustainable.

"There has obviously been sadness among the local community that the club is no longer part of the town but there has also been questions raised as to how in a town of 15-16k people that it couldn’t support the club.”

The closure was recently covered as part of the Wetherby Free Press newsletter which called out what it views as a “lack of care” within the community with the local Bowling Club also advertising a need for members.

Arthur said the decision to close down came at the end of last season with an announcement made just before Christmas and he is now overseeing a sale of the club’s assets and equipment.

Adding: “I’m obviously sad that it’s happened but it’s been a process that’s been happening step by step over a number of years. We used to have a thriving juniors section and that gradually got smaller as did other groups.”

The club’s vacant grounds and facilities will now be taken over by Wetherby Rugby Club.