Scarborough CC finding new ways to improve Yorkshire CCC cricketing experience

While the bonfire burned at Headingley, the embers still visible, the shock still acute, thoughts drifted now and then to North Marine Road and lingered there happily, recalling past visits and the prospect of new ones.

That magnificent outground, so beloved of Yorkshire’s members and supporters, was a mental safe haven in times of woe.

Like you, perhaps, the first fixtures that I look out for each year are the ones at North Marine Road – in this case, Surrey in the County Championship on July 11-14 followed by Hampshire in the Championship on July 25-28, then Worcestershire in the One-Day Cup on August 7 and Hampshire again in the same competition on August 23. Bring ‘em on...

Inevitably, after the most painful period in Yorkshire’s history, the winds of change that have blown through English cricket have found their way to the North Yorkshire coast.

Scarborough, too, has had to adapt in the current climate, and just as the main planetary body of Yorkshire CCC has had to take steps to improve, so too Scarborough, its most glorious moon.

“We have looked at all our policies really from the base level,” says Bill Mustoe, a club director and vice-president, whose natural bonhomie rather sums up ‘Scarbados’.

“We’ve tried to approach things a bit differently, to really hone in on the fact that spectators, as we all know, are not just one group of people, one big block of people, but individual components that go to make up the whole, and that they all obviously have individual needs and individual preferences.

“So we’re providing an area for families now that is alcohol-free (this is between the press box and the pavilion), we’re continuing to improve the variety of food we offer to spectators and trying to make the ground even more welcoming.

“My definition of EDI is that equality and diversity is when you get invited to the party, whereas inclusivity is when you get invited to dance, and it’s about treating everyone equally but also treating them with inclusivity so you’re thinking of them.”

Mustoe and most of the Scarborough staff have had an EDI course lately and found it useful. The determination to get better cannot be faulted.

“I learned a lot from the course,” says Mustoe. “The danger, I think, is that you go into it all with a closed mind and I actually said at the start, when they asked me what my objectives were on the course, that I said it was very much to keep an open mind and to learn as much as I could.

“So I learned more about how to think of the people who come into the ground, how you can improve that experience for them individually rather than, as I say, just thinking of them as a block of people who pay ticket money to come in, be they Yorkshire members or otherwise, and that everyone is different.

“It’s an ongoing process for us as a club, but it’s important to make sure that we grow and improve.”

How did Scarborough react to events at Headingley last winter?

“We were shocked at the kind of outcome of what happened pre-Christmas,” says Mustoe. “We then had to look at ourselves and say, ‘Right, how would we organise ourselves differently?’

“The world has changed, and it’s about making sure we’re very much on top of what we’re doing and that we understand the current thinking, adapt and take note.

“Ultimately, it’s about building on what we offer in terms of spectator experience and what people get when they come here to Scarborough.”

Mustoe pays tribute to the work of new chairman Kevin Grace, with the board having expanded to create a wider diversity of skills and experience.

Scarborough has had its share of challenges just like any other ground, and beyond the responsibility of helping to make cricket more welcoming for all, it faces a constant battle to make ends meet.

“Ultimately, we have the structure of a county headquarters but not that many days of county cricket,” says Mustoe. “That structure is our strength, but it’s also our Achilles heel in terms of maintaining an 8,000-seater stadium in effect for 10 days’ cricket.

“A county headquarters, for example, would have over 40 days of cricket each season, so it’s difficult, but we’ve got a great team here, we’ve been very fortunate over several decades to work jointly with the exceptional Headingley operations staff, and our pitches under head groundsman John Dodds remain second to none.”

Dear old ‘Scarbados’. Where would we be without it.