Yorkshire County Cricket Club is a professional cricket club based in Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the County Championship, the top tier of English First-class cricket, as well as the T20 Blast, and the One-Day Cup. Yorkshire's first team is the most successful in English cricketing history, with 33 County Championship titles, including one shared. The team's most recent championship title was in 2015.
The club's limited overs team was originally branded Yorkshire Carnigie. From the 2013 season they were called the Yorkshire Vikings. For the 2025 season all of the clubs men's and women's teams will return to competing under the single Yorkshire name.
The clubs traditional colours are Cambridge blue, Oxford blue, and Old Gold.
Yorkshire teams formed by earlier organisations, essentially the old Sheffield Cricket Club, played top-class cricket from the 18th century and the county club has always held first-class status. Yorkshire have competed in the County Championship since the official start of the competition in 1890 and have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England. The team play most of their home games at Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds. Another significant venue is at North Marine Road Ground, Scarborough, which houses the annual Scarborough Festival. Yorkshire have used other grounds in the past including The Fartown Ground, Huddersfield; Bramall Lane, Sheffield, which was the club's original home; Horton Park Avenue, Bradford; St George's Road Cricket Ground, Harrogate; The Circle, Kingston upon Hull; Acklam Park, Middlesbrough; and Abbeydale Park, Sheffield.
Earliest cricket in Yorkshire The earliest certain reference to cricket in Yorkshire dates from 1751 when local matches were held in Sheffield and a game took place on or soon after Monday, 5 August, at Stanwick, near Richmond, between the Duke of Cleveland's XI and Earl of Northumberland's XI; the same teams earlier played a game at Durham."At the Sign of the Wicket" , F. S. Ashley-Cooper, Cricket, issue 535, 26 April 1900, p. 83.
Sheffield Cricket Club was probably formed about this time and there are references to Sheffield matches in Derbyshire in 1757 and home-and-away matches against Leeds in 1765. A club was formed in Leeds in 1760 and in York in 1784. Bedale in North Yorkshire was a noted centre in the early 19th century. But cricket in most rural areas was slow to develop. Yorkshire cricket became centred around Sheffield, where it was more organised than in the rest of the county.
From 1771, Sheffield played semi-regular matches against Nottingham Cricket Club. Nottingham was generally the better team and Sheffield sometimes played with more players to give them a greater chance of victory. Nevertheless, the Sheffield player Tom Marsden was regarded as one of the leading players in the country in the 1820s.
Cricket increased in popularity after one of the 1827 roundarm trial matches was played at the purpose-built Darnall New Ground in Sheffield to evaluate the new style of roundarm bowling. After this match, many new cricket clubs were formed in the county.
In 1833, "Yorkshire" was first used as the name of the team, although it contained eleven Sheffield players, for a game against Norfolk at the Hyde Park Ground in Sheffield. The name may have arisen from a need to match the status of Norfolk as a county rather than a city. There were some differences in the organisation of the Yorkshire team vis-à-vis those called Sheffield as it included three amateurs while Sheffield teams were entirely professional. Yorkshire, as such, played intermittently over the next thirty years but was not organised in any formal way. Among their opponents were Sussex in 1835; Manchester in 1844 and 1845; and Kent in 1849. Also in 1849, Yorkshire played against a "Lancashire" team for the first time, though it was really a Sheffield v Manchester match. By 1855, Sheffield and Yorkshire were playing at Bramall Lane.
Club history Origin
On 7 March 1861, during a meeting at the Adelphi Hotel in Sheffield, a Match Fund Committee was established to run Yorkshire county matches. The committee was made up from the management committee of the Bramall Lane ground and representatives from clubs willing to pay £1 to the fund. But the committee was unable to persuade other clubs that it was not seeking to promote Sheffield cricket and a lack of funds prevented some matches being played in 1862.
By this time, there were several cricketers with good reputations and the county team was one of the strongest in England. Consequently, on 8 January 1863, Yorkshire County Cricket Club was formed. Membership was unlimited and cost a minimum of 10s and 6d. Like most first-class cricket clubs of the time, Yorkshire relied on private patronage with administrators "paying to serve" and "moneyed enthusiasts" acting as ready match sponsors. The majority of players were freelance professionals who were paid a usual match fee of £5, from which all travel and accommodation had to be paid. Travel could be arduous, living away from home could be "rough" and sometimes the match fee was not enough to cover expenses, especially if, as was often a problem with early Yorkshire cricketers, "the ale-house was a temptation".
The first club president was former player Thomas Barker, who had become Mayor of Sheffield, although he probably never attended any meetings. Michael Ellison was the first club Treasurer and at some point early in Yorkshire's history, he assumed the Presidency. Most official accounts record Ellison as Yorkshire's first president. Joseph ("J. B.") Wostinholm became the first of four long-serving club secretaries in 1864. The first team captain was Roger Iddison, a professional cricketer.
The objective of the club was to play matches "either in Sheffield or in any other towns of the county according as arrangements may be made". Other locations in Yorkshire were unable or unwilling to host fixtures in the first years of the club, and Bradford and York continued to attempt to organise games in competition with Yorkshire, sometimes causing confusion among other counties. Attempts to form an alternative Yorkshire team continued intermittently until 1884 although, by 1873, most clubs had accepted the authority of the Sheffield-based county club.
1863–1882
Yorkshire played their inaugural first-class cricket match against Surrey at The Oval on 4, 5 and 6 June 1863. Surrey scored 315 runs, to which Yorkshire replied with 257. Surrey were bowled out for 60 before the match was drawn. The team recorded their first win in the following match against the strong Nottinghamshire team and although they lost the return match, won two and lost only one of the four matches played in their first season. In 1864, the team won two and lost four of seven matches.
In 1865, the club and players became involved in a dispute. Five players – Roger Iddison, George Anderson, George Atkinson, Joseph Rowbotham and Ned Stephenson – refused to play against Surrey. This concerned a controversy that arose in 1862 when Iddison and Anderson played for an All-England team against Surrey at The Oval and the Kent bowler Edgar Willsher was repeatedly no-balled for using an overarm action by an umpire whom, they claimed, had been appointed by Surrey specifically for that purpose. Anderson stated in 1865 that he "would not play against those who have combined to sweep us from the cricket field altogether if they could".
The dispute was about a point of principle and centred on the right of bowlers to use an overarm action, which had been legalised ahead of the 1864 season. Consequently, with several important players missing, Yorkshire did not win a game in 1865 and were forced to cancel some matches for the 1866 season. The Yorkshire Committee and the players came to an understanding in early 1867 after the players apologised, but Anderson never represented the county again.
With the player dispute resolved, Yorkshire won all seven of their matches in 1867, defeating Surrey, Lancashire and Cambridgeshire. As a result, the sporting press proclaimed Yorkshire to be the "Champion County" for the first time. The following year, John Thewlis scored the first century for Yorkshire in first-class cricket, against Surrey at The Oval; in 1869, Joseph Rowbotham became the first man to score two centuries in a season for Yorkshire. Yorkshire won four games in both 1868 and 1869; one sports publication regarded Yorkshire as equal champions in the latter year. The team won six out of seven in 1870 to be acclaimed as Champion County again. Much of Yorkshire's success in these years came from the bowling combination of George Freeman and Tom Emmett.
Following Freeman's retirement from regular cricket after 1870, Yorkshire declined, winning fewer games in 1871 and 1872 as Gloucestershire rose to a position of dominance in County Cricket, driven by the success of W. G. Grace and his brothers. Conscious of the need to strengthen the club, Yorkshire instituted a Colts team of young players, but replaced Iddison as captain at the end of the 1872 season. Rowbotham, another professional, assumed the position. For the 1873 season, county cricket moved a step closer towards an organised competition when the counties agreed qualification rules for players to be eligible for a team; for many years, this was considered to be start of the County Championship. However, the counties did not organise a formal competition and the "Champion County" was still decided by the press; some publications disagreed.
Despite the team containing effective players, Yorkshire did not perform as well as expected over the next seasons. The bowling attack was strong, the team contained some experienced players and critics believed Ephraim Lockwood to be the best professional batsman in the country. In 1873, Yorkshire won seven games and lost five and for the following season, Luke Greenwood replaced Rowbotham as captain. The team had an improved record, but although second only to Gloucestershire, Yorkshire lost heavily in both encounters between the teams. Greenwood retired, Rowbotham resumed the captaincy for 1875, and Lockwood took over in 1876. The team did not perform particularly well in either season, but their worst performance came in 1877, winning two games – but none of the last ten – and losing seven. This placed them eighth out of nine counties.
Tom Emmett then took over as captain, but the following two seasons brought mixed results as the team displayed inconsistency, often losing to teams they should comfortably have beaten. Derek Hodgson, in his official county history, suggests a lack of discipline in the team throughout these years was to blame; contemporary reports suggested the team drank too much alcohol to be effective. The players also suffered from public attention, receiving generous hospitality at times which impacted on their performances. In these seasons, the team often began well only to lose form later in the season and the Yorkshire committee was reluctant to replace the experienced cricketers with younger players. However, off the field, Yorkshire became increasingly successful, and the profits made by the club paid for improvements to be made to the Bramall Lane Ground and increased player wages through the introduction of travelling expenses and talent money where good performances were financially rewarded. An influx of what proved to be effective new players saw Yorkshire finish second to Lancashire in the unofficial Championship for 1881, but more significant was the debut for the county of Lord Hawke, then aged 21.