York Cricket Club wants to host more Yorkshire CCC matches and introduce Scarborough-style festival

A tradition that dates back to 1876, interrupted only by the war years, will see Yorkshire play Derbyshire in the County Championship.

Some 40 miles south-west, York has aspirations to hold its first annual festival.

Buoyed by its successful introduction into county cricket in 2019 - or, technically, its successful reintroduction, given that Yorkshire played one Championship match in the city in 1890 - it has ambitions to expand.

“I would love for York to have its own festival,” said Nick Kay, the York club secretary.

“My personal ambition is that I want to bring a lot more cricket here if possible.

“I would like to be in a position where we can host not just two Yorkshire one-day games, as we’ve had this year and for the last couple of years, but two one-day games and a County Championship game every year if the timetable allows.

“Two games of one-day cricket is great for us because we can pack the marquee, we get loads of people in the ground and we fill the stands, but I feel like we can offer more if asked.”

At present, Yorkshire and their county rivals play seven home Championship matches each year. In Yorkshire’s case, five of those fixtures take place at their Headingley headquarters, and two at Scarborough’s North Marine Road.

With no appetite to encroach on Scarborough’s entitlement, either from Kay or indeed the club’s fan-base per se, one idea would be to play four Championship fixtures each year at Headingley, two at Scarborough and one at York.

Crowds would certainly be higher at York, as they are at Scarborough, with attendances at Headingley down anyway after all the off-field difficulties in recent times, but ultimately that would be a decision for the Yorkshire hierarchy, who would have to factor in costs, logistics, and so on.

“Yorkshire would obviously have to be on board,” said Kay. “We’re very grateful for the support that they give us, and all I’m saying is that if there was an opportunity for us to facilitate more cricket, that would be great.

“Of course, I get the obligations that Yorkshire have to Scarborough, and we certainly wouldn’t want to take anything from Scarborough, definitely not, but if we had an opportunity where we could run a four-day game into two one-day games, then we would be delighted.

“We can’t have our infrastructure up indefinitely, but we could have it up for that length of time, and to have two games of cricket at present with all the work that’s involved, from my perspective, if we could expand on that it would be ideal.”

York showed what it could do in 2019 when the ground staged a one-off Championship game against Warwickshire. Yorkshire took the match to Clifton Park because Headingley was needed for the World Cup.

“The first Championship game was challenging because we’d never done it before; we winged it, I suppose,” said Kay. “It was a great experience and, for me, the County Championship is the heartbeat of cricket. One-day cricket is great, but the County Championship is where it’s at.

“We also accept that Yorkshire’s a big county, and I’m sure that there’s a pull from South Yorkshire, and maybe even East Yorkshire, to get involved as well going forward.”

The idea of a York festival would certainly be attractive and, said Kay, need not be confined to Yorkshire games either.

With women’s cricket on the up and attracting more support, he would like to see it become a focal point for the female game.

“We could use it for other games of cricket,” he said. “We’d really like to establish a bond with the (Yorkshire) Diamonds. We want York to become a hub for female cricket.

“The Diamonds came to us about a month ago, and I said to them that our facilities are available whenever you want them. But Yorkshire have been tremendous with us, the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) have been tremendous with us. We’ve been very lucky to have great support.”

A few days ago, York staged two matches in the One-Day Cup as Yorkshire entertained Surrey and Hampshire. Kay and his colleagues put on a great show alongside the Yorkshire staff and operations team.

“We’ve got to the stage where we’re comfortable that we can produce the event,” said Kay.

“You don’t want to take it for granted, but I think we’ve done enough to demonstrate that the ground and the facilities are perfectly adequate to host high-profile cricket games.

“I’m not saying a Yorkshire versus Lancashire T20, or anything like that, because clearly that would be too much, but for County Championship games, the One-Day Cup, we have the facilities, the space, the infrastructure, and we’ve got a team capable of producing the event.

“I wouldn’t say it takes care of itself, because we’re still learning and there’s always room for improvement, but I think the players and the staff enjoy coming here, the supporters enjoy coming here, and there’s a real sense now that people look forward to it and, if you’re a cricket fan, that you want to go and watch a game of cricket at York.”