Dove Holes Cricket Club

It is not easy to determine when Dove Holes Cricket Club was founded, although it seems that it was not until the early 1920's that competitive cricket was played in the village. There have been some oral recollections of cricket being played on a flat field opposite Bibbington hall.

There is a record of a match against Chapel-en-le-Frith on July 7th 1883 at Chapel. By 1900 cricket started to flourish and during that period the village had three teams, Dove Holes, Dove Holes St. Paul's and Dove Holes North End. For the Dove Holes versus North End fixture on July 23rd 1900 the report stated that the game was at St. Paul's. This would have been a field somewhere in the Hallsteads area. The opponents of the time were Sparrowpit, Fairfield, Cressbrook, Buxton Res., Chapel Res., and Tideswell.

After the war the club became a member of the High Peak league and competed in the 2nd & 3rd divisions.

The present ground at Hallsteads, which was rented from ICI limited was the home of cricket in the village from this time.

There was a flourishing ladies committee at this time who were involved in raising money for the club.

At the start of the 1930's the club was beginning to perform well. The first XI won the 2nd division in 1935 and the following season the club became the first to win both the 2nd & 3rd division in the same year. After strenuous efforts to introduce automatic promotion & relegation, the league in 1937 relegated Hyde (pop 30,000) and promoted Dove Holes (pop 650) to the first division.

The report on the season stated that "Dove Holes has earned their promotion" and that "they would play in a snow storm and the villagers are as keen about their cricket as Hayfield" - praise indeed!

For many years the cricket teams used an upstairs room in the Crown Inn across the road from the ground as changing rooms.

In 1952 the club became a founder member of the Derbyshire & Cheshire League. In the 1950's Dove Holes also had a team competing in the Buxton & District League. In 1981 Dove Holes Community Association purchased the ground from I.C.I. Limited.

Acknowledgment:

The above text was extracted from the book "Where Heather Blooms on Ladylow"

The Story of Dove Holes Village by Jenny Nicholson. - Thank You