Chop Gate Legend, Archivist and Umpire Ken Cook gives us a unique insight into the history of cricket at the Gate...

Chop Gate Cricket Club:  A Century and a Half

Chop Gate is a small village on the Cleveland Hills halfway between Stokesley and Helmsley and first formed a cricket team back in the mid eighteen-hundreds when the team was made up of farmers, farmhands and occasionally jet miners.  The pitch was mown out of a meadow field and the grass was grazed by cows and sheep who often left ‘deposits’ on the ground.  The pitch roller was hewn out of a block of stone till it was perfectly round and could weigh anything up to two tons.  Some of the early gear was quite primitive, bats without spring handles, balls made of one piece of leather and players didn’t wear much protection like pads and gloves.

Chop Gate eventually came to a field near to the Buck Inn to play their home matches. The pitch was leveled out a sloping field, the pavilion being a large tree in front of the village school.  The womenfolk would prepare the cricket tea at home and carry it to the match in baskets, very much as it is done today (it should be pointed out that CGCC now operates an Equal Opportunities policy as regards tea production and serving – Ed.). 

When Chop Gate played away matches they had to walk to places like Ingleby Greenhow, Snilesworth and Spout House.  After the match they mould retire to a local Inn for drinks then they had to walk home, often arriving back at their houses at midnight or after.  Some of the men would have to attend to their livestock before retiring to bed.

It was one such match on June 3^rd 1896 that Chop Gate achieved a genuinely historic result in a game played against Ingleby Greenhow.  The scorecard read as follows:

Chop Gate batted first scoring 89.

Ingleby Greenhow

By the late 1930s Chop Gate were a prominent member of the Langbaurgh West Rural Cricket League which was formed in 1919. They played teams like Crathorne, Rounton, and lngleby Cross and in 1938 they won the Lady Dorman Cup at Stokesley.  At that time the team was conveyed to away matches by S.E. Stemp of Gt. Broughton and most of the gear was, and still is, supplied by Jack Hatfield (Sports Outfitters) in Middlesbrough.  In 1939 the costs of playing included cricket bats at 7s\5d, a ball cost 6s\6d, batting gloves were 5s\11d and the price of a stamp to send the result to the league secretary was 1d.

In the mid-50s Chop Gate could muster two teams for friendly matches.  However, only one team played in the Langbaurgh League.  A typical team sheet from 1956 would read:

Talk about too many Cooks!   

Gjers Cup Winning Team (1960):  Back Row (l-r) - G. Atkinson, J. Hird, G. Cook, F. Cook, J. Cook, L. Cook

Front Row (l-r) - D. Brown, A. Brotton, G. Johnston, F. Garbutt, A.Cook

In the early sixties Chop Gate played an opposing side in a Gjers Cup match in the old Buck field behind the pub, the spectators included six cows.  Needless to say the ground was covered in sloppy cowpats which made life difficult for the players.  The opposition needed two runs to win off the last ball of the match.  The ball was hit towards the boundary, catching a large cowpat on the way which stopped the ball.  The fielder collected the ball and threw it in to prevent the team scoring a second, making the match a tie.

It was incidents like this that brought a change to the rules, the League deciding that all grounds should be fenced off and cut to the boundary.  In the mid-60s Cup success came to Chop Gate in a big way, winning the Flintoft, Gjers and Dane Cups on more than one occasion.

The first win at Castleton, in the Flintoft Cup, was quite a match!  Glaisdale batted first scoring 89 all out, at one stage Chop Gate were 40/8 needing another 50 to wln.  Jimmy Hird was 9 not out at the time, he was joined by the number 10 batsman Ken Cook who combined to knock off the runs.  The partnership realized 50 with Hird scoring 39 not out and Cook 20 not out.

Walsh Cup Winning Team (1966):  Back Row (l-r) - G. Cook, J. Hird, L. Cook, A. Brotton, G. Atkinson,  K. Brown, L. Ransom 

Front Row (l-r) - B. Hoggard, D. Brown,   K. Cook, A. Cook

Chop Gate won the Norman Walsh Cup in 1966 and returned as Champions to contest the trophy in the following year.  An in form Ken Christon couldn’t put a foot wrong scoring an incredible 180 in his teams innings putting Chop Gate completely out of the game.  One of the bowling figures read: Des Brown, 4 overs 0-70!

Later in that decade they won more cups thanks to some great bowling from Jimmy Hird, Alec Cook and Alec Brotton who mesmerized batsmen for over 40 years.  Chop Gate managed to win the League in 1965 and again in 1970, their only League triumphs to date.

The most incredible batsman ever to play for the team in the Seventies was Trevor Hornby.  He had the eyes of a hawk and the accuracy of his swing put most other batsmen in the shade.  Here are just a few examples of his opening partnerships with yours truly:

Against Ingleby Greenhow – 51/0, T. Hornby 50 not out.

Against Maltby – after 8 balls, T. Hornby 34 not out.

Against Gt. Broughton – 119/0 after 10.2 overs, T. Hornby 102 not out.

Chop Gate lost their ground in the Eighties and had to play all matches away for many years.  The club never gave up and the last decade of the century brought new hope and optimism with a new ground and a new look team.  The side won the Flintoft Cup and the Dorman Cup in recent times although league success still proves elusive. 

Into the new Millennium and cricket has been played in the village for over 150 years – long may it continue!

K.G. Cook