The wait is over! I know many of you will have been eager to reminisce about this exciting episode in Menston Cricket Club’s history. And for those of you who didn’t know, well, read on.

The year was 1985. The situation looked bleak. With the 1st XI staring relegation in the face, captain David Thackeray engineered the recruitment of two New Zealand Test players mid-season to help avoid the drop. Amazing at is was, Menston Cricket Club was absolutely delighted to welcome both Martin Crowe and Derek Stirling to the club.

In Jack Kell’s book “Menston Remembered”, he records that ‘something of a stir’ was created and that dual signing of Crowe and Stirling ‘sent shock waves round the local leagues’. Inevitably, having players with Test experience playing for a village cricket club was a major talking point and caused much consternation within the Airedale & Wharfedale Senior Cricket League at the time.

Indeed, it led to the creation of league rules regarding overseas players that exist to this day – and from personal experience, I can guarantee that any club official of Menston Cricket Club is regularly reminded of this fact by seasoned league veterans whenever the subject of overseas players is mentioned at league meetings!

Martin Crowe’s performances especially, according to Jack Kell, were some of the finest exhibitions of batting and fielding ever likely to be seen in local league cricket. Extracts from some scorecards show the following:

10 August 1985: Menston 116-1 (M Crowe 82) v Burley (A)

24 August 1985: Menston 139-9 (M Crowe 76) v Adel (A)

29 August 1985: President’s XI 138-9 (M Crowe 33) v Skipton (A)

31 August 1985: Menston 74-2 (M Crowe 66 not out) v Addingham (H)

The President’s XI match refers to Skipton CC President, Dick Greenwood, who had a legendary rivalry / friendship with David Thackeray, from which this fixture arose. Other notable players in the match were Mark Greatbatch (New Zealand), Peter Winterbottom (England Rugby Union) and James Whitaker (England, 1 Test in 1986 and Chairman of Selectors 2013-2018).

In total, Crowe scored 355 runs in 7 innings at an average of 67. One wonders how many he would have scored had he played a full 22-match season. As for Stirling, his bowling returned 36 wickets from 154 overs at an average of 14.1 – inevitably the team’s best bowling figures for the season.

So, was relegation avoided? Well, yes it was, although it is somewhat soberly recorded in the club’s AGM minutes:

“The President [Ron Beer] opened his address by describing his first year as President as a most interesting one. On the playing side, the highlights had been the under 18s reaching the Denison Cup Final and the 2nd XI reaching the Birtwhistle Cup semi-final. Interest had certainly arisen in the form of New Zealand Test players Martin Crowe and Derek Stirling who had joined the club mid-way through the season from the endeavours of David Thackeray. Thanks were expressed to David for his efforts in this respect and, although their playing for Menston was in some ways a debatable issue, at the end of the day the 1st XI avoided relegation, which was the object of the exercise – and it was a great experience for players to play alongside the pair and for the spectators to watch two first class performers.”

We hope this brings back some good memories from the club’s archives. As always, if you have any personal records about Menston Cricket Club that you are willing to share, please get in touch.