THE work of a talented doodler in the original score book of a Keighley cricket club, this drawing shows a match being played in 1848 in the grounds of what looks like Eastwood House, later to become the Mansion House in Victoria Park, to which the leisure centre is attached.
Other doodles reveal that those early cricketers wore striped jerseys and retired into a tent with a flag on top when it rained.
Described as a “field day”, this was presumably a practice match, as the club had only been formed that April of 1848.
When in May they were challenged by Halifax Cricket Club, they declined to play because of their lack of experience, modestly admitting that “were they to accept your offer, t’would be no honour for you to beat them”.
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