The Formation of the Scunthorpe and District Cricket League

The Scunthorpe & District League was formed following a meeting in Scunthorpe on Saturday 20^th January 1934. Thirteen teams took part in the inaugural League season split into two geographical divisions, very much along similar lines to the old Dinsdale Competition. Infact the trophy, donated to that competition some thirty years prior was put up once again for the final match of the season between the winners of the two divisions. These divisions were as follows;

DIVISION A
Elsham
Scawby
Hibaldstow
Barnetby
Thomas Firth and John Brown's (Firth Brown foundry)
Appleby-Frodingham 2nd XI (steelworks)
Ashby

DIVISION B
Whitton
Winteringham
Scunthorpe LNER (railway company)
Messingham
Scunthorpe Postal Staff
West Butterwick

Winteringham won the title in the inaugural season. The team were given Caps, Green with a Yellow ‘W’ on them. Crowle joined the league in its second season, the competition being won by Barnetby. In their ranks was a Yorkshireman who had moved over from Penistone to work on the railways, by the name of Harry Lawton. Harry played at Yorkshire Schoolboy level and acted as a professional for a number of years with Barnsley and Wakefield and he represented Lincolnshire, between 1937 and 1946, being the captain during his final year.

The images here show the 'batting order' for the speeches which accompanied the annual dinner held in October 1935 at Scunthorpe's Crosby Hotel, when the guest of honour was Herbert Sutcliffe, the famous England and Yorkshire batsman who played in 54 Tests for his country. The league's chairman back then was Ernest Plowright, who lived on Central Square, Brigg, in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

    

Editor of the Scunthorpe Star weekly newspaper, this well-known journalist was the father of famous actress Dame Joan Plowright (Lady Olivier) who is widely regarded as the most famous Brigg person of all time, having been born in Brigg in 1929. Ernest, who subsequently moved to Scunthorpe, proposed a toast to the King (George V) while Talbot Cliff proposed another to the Lincolnshire County Cricket Club. Talbot, who had played first class cricket for Worcestershire, was a member of the family which pioneered and developed ironmaking and then steelmaking in Scunthorpe in the latter decades of the 19th century, living in a mansion at Scawby (The Grove). He was a local magistrate.

Herbert Sutcliffe, speaking at this function, bemoaned the “doping of wickets to such an extent that even the best bowlers in England can’t get life out of them.” He was talking about first class cricket; local pitches would have been rather different for batting! Herbert also mentioned the dropping of Larwood and Voce following the short-pitched 'Bodyline' tactics employed by England in a famous, or infamous, 1932-33 Test series in Australia. “No England team can be complete without them," Herbert said in his speech about Harold and Bill, two of the pace bowlers who played Down-Under for a touring side captained by Douglas Jardine.

For 1936, Elsham and the Scunthorpe Postal Staff departed the league for financial reasons. Travel was difficult, even in 1936. Winteringham completed a second triumph in the final of at the John Brown’s ground off Brumby Wood Lane. Barnetby were the opponents and they, present with Harry Lawton, were regarded as favourites. A young Alan Codling, later of Appfrod, Broughton and Brigg Sugar Factory bowled Lawton and Winteringham went on to complete a second triumph in two years.

Winteringham Cricket Club 1936  - Scunthorpe & District League Champions  

Back Row (L to R) John Dudding, Fred Hawkins, Bernard Sutton, Alan Codling, Len Parkinson, John Burbidge, Ralph Harrison, Umpire (Unknown). Front Row (L to R) Arthur Bee, Charlie Beacock, Lionel Burkill, Walt Chafer and Len Sutton. Commemorative Photo taken at Winteringham.