The rough plan was to take in some of North Leeds’ Aire-Wharfe League Division One game with Bilton and perhaps a dip over to watch Leeds Gladiators of the Dales Council League at the Roundhay Oval.

The first surprise came with the weather. A dull, chilly but dry afternoon was forecast – not the biblical monsoon as we scooted past the donkey sanctuary (near New Rover CC) and found our way towards Roundhay’s LS8 backstreets.

Rain (briefly) stops play

The covers were on at North Leeds Cricket Club, with play paused on 103-3. After the sun came out and some examination of the square by the umpires, we got back underway with only the loss of six overs.

A natter with the umpires revealed that one of them had bought my new book, Dales Bails, from the Grove Bookshop in Ilkley who are one of the stockists around Yorkshire.

I said hello to Ian Chappell, who I first met when as Chief Executive of the Yorkshire Cricket Board, he saw something in the potential for Cricket Yorkshire in its early days.

Ian has been a stalwart for North Leeds Cricket Club with long history with the Aire-Wharfe Cricket League and previously, the YCB for decades before his retirement.

It was also nice to bump into Bilton’s Secretary Matt, who had been drafted into the first team at short notice. I had visited Bilton (along with Harrogate and Pannal) last week with Anthony Burton of Total Play to see the impressive outdoor nets facilities they’ve built.

Speaking of impressive, North Leeds Cricket Club has plenty of character with the single-storey clubhouse with covered seating outside and exposed wood.

It has all of the stuff that a progressive, well-equipped cricket club might wish for: Covers and sightscreens to FrogBox live streaming and handsome scoreboard with a new repeater scoreboard in a different part of the ground.

(Shoutout to my website partner Bespoke Scoreboards who did that project for them.)

Cocooned in the greenery from established trees, it’s a decent-sized playing surface but spectators, of which there were a few regulars, feel close to the action square of the wicket.

We were peppered with sixes on a semi-regular basis so you had to keep your eye out but it made for a lively encounter.

Bilton were dismissed for 196 in 39.4 overs, captain David Cummins striking 100 off 121 balls in the process. Something to defend but it felt quite very light.

The visitors, bottom for Premier Division 1st XIs of the Aire-Wharfe League and without a win, were up against a batting unit who had smacked 360-3 against leaders Otley.

Archie Ralphs (4-52) and Australian Jason King (3-29) claimed the bulk of the Bilton wickets to fall. King, a Queenslander who has moved the mere 4.7 miles from New Rover CC for this season, was a bustling, moustachioed seamer whose 191 against Otley has doubtless marked his card in this league.

We opted to take a stroll through Roundhay Park for a bit of nostalgia. While I had once almost played at North Leeds in their annual Boxing Day match for charity, I had definitely had a game or two at Roundhay Oval.

It was about a ten-minute walk across a flat spread of football pitches with lots of goalposts stretching out, as if giant white staples had been pressed into the ground.

In the middle of them was an artificial cricket pitch and a dig around online revealed that is was part of a £49,830 project, funded by the ECB as part of their South Asian communities project some eight years ago.

Other non-turf pitches were put in at Armley Park, Cross Flatts Park, Harehills Park, plus two replaced strips at Roundhay Park.

I am obviously in favour of more freely-available facilities and crucially those where you don’t necessarily have to join a cricket club to use them.

I did wonder how this is facilitated and quietly hoped that the investment is linked with schools and local communities to ensure those non-turf pitches are still used now and in future, as well as being maintained.

Back at Roundhay Oval

Pondering over, we suddenly stumbled upon the Roundhay Oval, reaching it from the crest of the hill near the car park. I had once spent a sweaty afternoon chasing leather for Shipley Prov first team there.

Today, Leeds Gladiators were playing Yorkshire LPS in Division A of the Dales Council Cricket League.

First impressions were that the sunken bowl was not as deep as I remembered but on one side, opposite the clubhouse, is the hill where we were stood and that amplifies the effect.

Another observation was the electronic scoreboard (another upgrade) on the side of the building that had bars across all of its windows; I suspect less for cricket balls than to reduce the risk of vandalism in an open park.

Not for the first time, the inequalities of cricket were apparent between two clubs barely a mile apart. The reasons for that are many and complex but it always brings me up short.

A pub stop later (less said about that the better) and we were back at North Leeds Cricket Club for the fireworks. The home side had reached 96-1 and things were about to get a whole lot worse for the visitors.

I had barely settled in amongst the capacity crowd when Jason King decided now was the time to kick on. His knock of 143 off 70 balls included eight effortless sixes and just the 19 fours.

He rode his luck a bit with a few edges and I seem to recall King was dropped, to a quiet groan from the fielding side no doubt, but it was scintillating to watch.

Sixes were pummelled straight with a full flourish of the bat (see below) and a few legside maximums were hit at me, landing in the dense hedge behind us. Jack, the first-team skipper here at The Homestead, rummaged around and discovered not one but three balls of varying age and condition.

The end came quickly but not without a heartening cameo for Bilton whose seven-wicket defeat at least saw Harry Scofield (2-20) dismiss King and then McGahan in successive balls.

I learnt that North Leeds Cricket Club is on an upward trajectory, and not just because the latest win for the firsts see them rise to third. After a difficult last season where there wasn’t the strength in depth, there’s more optimism and winter recruitment has gone well.

The clubhouse, packed for England’s latest rollercoaster in the Euros, had an energy to it and the burgers sizzling away on the veranda were popular.

It’s a very attractive place to catch a game of cricket and while the club has the full range of juniors, it’s perhaps women and girls cricket where momentum is really building.

Their women’s 1st XI are second in the top division of the West Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket League. A league that is growing at an exponential rate but seems to be suffering from one-sided games and conceded fixtures in Division One.

All of which I was pondering on the far more pleasant drive back to CYHQ in dappled sunlight as we avoided the gnarly roundabouts in favour of the suburbia of Camp Town, Black Moor then the fringe of Golden Acre Park en route to Bramhope and beyond.

Perhaps I was also swayed by the empty roads with everyone seemingly inside chewing their fingernails over another England football penalty shootout.

So, while I racked my brains for King-related headlines (he will be a handful for bowling attacks this summer), the overriding feeling was one you get at having been to a ground that ticked all of the boxes.

If you get a chance, catch a game at North Leeds.