York Cricket Club hoping that maiden T20 can be first of many

August 3, 2021, the ground’s first List A (one-day) match when Warwickshire were again the opponents.

June 15, 2025 promises to be no different as Clifton Park gets ready for its first Yorkshire T20, with Durham the visitors tomorrow afternoon for a match that is a 4,500 sell-out.

It will be the first of seven days of Yorkshire cricket at the ground this season, in fact, with Essex the opponents in the four-day Championship from June 29, followed by Lancashire and Somerset in the One-Day Cup on August 12 and August 14 respectively.

All of which adds up to a notable rise for leafy Clifton Park, which has gone from relative obscurity to become a familiar - and already much-loved - feature on the outground circuit, seemingly gaining in strength with each passing year and game.

For Nick Kay, the York CC secretary, a man heavily involved in the club’s success story on-and-off the field, it is a proud climb up the ladder and one that reflects well on everybody connected with the club.

“It's one of those things where you sort of pinch yourself,” he tells The Yorkshire Post.

“You look back 20-odd years, back to when I first joined, for example, back to what the ground looked like and what we offered to where we are now

“If somebody had said to me 20 years ago that you'd have seven days of county cricket at York in 2025, I'd have said ‘you can cart me off in a straitjacket because you're talking nonsense’.

“So I think proud is the way I'd describe it. We're all incredibly proud that not only were we able to be given the opportunity that Yorkshire were prepared to put their trust in us for that first game (in 2019), but then to deliver to the point where they want to come back this year for seven full days, yeah, I’m really proud of that.”

And so he should.

The vision of Mark Arthur, the former Yorkshire chief executive, in taking county cricket to York in the first place has more than paid off, and although there is likely to be less cricket to go round going forward amid ongoing discussions regarding the schedule, this season offers what Kay believes is the perfect blueprint, fixture-wise, from York’s point of view.

“This summer is a great one from our perspective,” he adds.

“I think the thing we always try to remind ourselves of is that everybody organising the matches at the York end, we're all volunteers, so it's incredibly time consuming and pretty much all of us have got day jobs as well.

“So we wouldn't want week after week of cricket from Yorkshire, or anything like that, because we just wouldn't be able to facilitate it, but seven full days, with the stand at the ground staying up all summer, that’s a really nice amount of cricket at York.

“And to have all three formats - the 50-over, the four-day game and the Blast, they all complement each other and attract different types of spectators, so if this is the formula for York Cricket Club moving forward then, yeah, we’d be delighted with that, but, as I always say, if they (Yorkshire) give us anything, then we’re more than happy.”

Sunday’s sell-out will be York’s biggest crowd for a Yorkshire game, eclipsing the gate of just over 4,000 when Lancashire visited for a One-Day Cup match three years ago.

There will be no big marquee for this fixture, giving greater capacity, while the close-knit feel of the venue should suit T20 to a tee.

“I expect there'll be a lot of boundaries,” laughs Kay.

“Hopefully it will be a hard, fast pitch with a quick outfield, and I'd like to think that we'll see some big scores.

“We're an easy ground to get to, we’ve got a lot of parking on site, and we can get people in and out of the ground very safely.

“The city centre of York on a Sunday afternoon is a very nice place to be and, yes, I certainly think that we lend ourselves, as a ground, to this format of cricket.”

All that remains now is for York - as well as Yorkshire - to put on a show.

Kay would like to see Clifton Park’s maiden T20 become the first of many.

“When we talked about the potential for York to host a T20, we always sort of stuck our hand up and said, ‘if you've got a T20 match that needs a ground, please do consider us’,” he says.

“I don’t know how many Headingley hosts for the average Blast game, but I think the powers-that-be at Yorkshire felt that, you know, a full house, 4,500 in at York, is something worth doing, and I think people enjoy coming to outgrounds like ours.

“So, yeah, we’re really pleased they chose us and we definitely feel ready and able to cope.

“From our perspective, if this T20 is a success on Sunday, we hope that Yorkshire will come back for more, but we’ll never, ever take these matches for granted, or rest until we know that we’ve got everything as good as it can be.”