For 10 years ago, the club was just one day away from folding after Tynedale Sports Club (TSC), which consisted of the cricket club, Tynedale Tennis Club and Tynedale Hockey Club, ran into great difficulties.
After acquiring a 10-year loan for a major revamp of the clubhouse at Priors Flat, in Hexham, the club struggled to cover repayments as bar takings dropped due to the clubhouse being used less.
Desperate action was needed and, under the guidance of chairman David Mason, a decision was made to market the club better and attract business by using the venue as a function suite.
After many trials and tribulations, it was decided TSC would be disbanded and arrangements to exist as three separate clubs was the only way forward.
The cricket club would charge the tennis and hockey clubs annual fees to be able to use the clubhouse for meetings etc, and the cricket club would have the responsibility for running Priors Flat and letting the space out.
The club was saved as the clubhouse became regularly booked out, allowing cricket to flourish on-field.
‘The darkest days’ of Tynedale Cricket Club are detailled in a new book compiled by former local cricketer with Wark, Matthew Erskine, who has trailed through the old archives to pull together in-depth analysis from the past 30 years.
Erskine, who has attended most Tynedale games home and away since 2012, has become a real statistician for the club and writes reports for the first team for the Hexham Courant . In addition, he provides ball-by-ball coverage of the games online via his internet radio programme Cricket West Tyne.
Concentrating on life at Tynedale since 1988 to build on a book released in that year for the club’s centenary, his entertaining and informative book recounts the action on and off-the-pitch, whether happy or sad.
Erskine said: “Not a lot of people know how bad it was, but the club was actually one day from collapsing back in 2008 when it was TSC. It all fell to pieces and there was no money coming in as social habits changed, but the clubhouse was costing a fortune to run.
“That is the biggest challenge the club had ever faced, even worse than when playing stopped for the two world wars.
“There were many arguments and people lost to the club, but they survived and recovered well.”
There have been many other interesting, and amusing, periods over the past three decades, most of which get an airing in the new book.
For example, the early 1990s when ‘there were more court writs at Tynedale Cricket Club than the county court’ as the club got into trouble when surrounding houses and garden furniture were damaged as a result of the action!
Spectators have been treated to many thrills and spills on the pitch, too, with details of the club’s numerous cup and league triumphs, their latest with the young underdogs in 2015, included.
Key players during that time have been focused on including from the existing Trinidadian professional Kelvin Williams, to the recently retired club legend Richard Darling who spent 30 years playing senior cricket for his home town club.
The prowess of the understated Paul Pickworth, Edwin Bell and Neil Clark, who played 33 consecutive seasons, are other notable servants.
The book moves to present day and Erskine describes in his own words the excitement captain Tom Cant has generated in the first team by bringing through the club’s younger players.
Cant, the son of chairman Gary, was made captain at the age of just 21, and has been inspirational in developing the club’s juniors in the first team.
The likes of homegrown youngsters Matthew Percival, Richard Brooks, Josh Renton, Will Dagg, Ollie Fletcher and Euan Stephenson have all benefited from playing regular adult cricket, and Erskine thinks the future is bright at Priors Flat.
“Behind the scenes, the club is doing fantastic in its aims to get more people parricipating and there’s 150 juniors registered to play.
“And the club has got the line right with participation numbers and developing excellence, and all these juniors are coming through into the senior teams and working really well.
“This is the youngest first team Tynedale has had in 30 years but are doing very well. They won the league in 2015 and, in their first year without a professional or overseas player, they did very well this year and I daresay that 80 per cent of that success is down to Tom Cant’s captaincy.”
Erskine’s book, Tynedale Cricket Club 1988-2017 , comes with a preface from BBC Radio cricket commentator Richard Rae, and is available to buy from October 28. Launch events will be held at the club between 9am and 1pm on both October 28 and 29. Books can be reserved by contacting Matthew Erskine at mattyerskine@ymail.com.
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