South Yorkshire Times October 5, 1946
Break After 80 Years.
Conisbrough Negotiation for New Ground.
Conisbrough Cricket Club, members of the Doncaster league, are to lose the ground they had occupied at The Pygotts, Conisbrough, for nearly 8 years but, I understand on excellent authority that negotiations are proceeding on the club’s behalf for the purchase of another ground in the township and the club’s representatives hope to be able to report some good news within the next few days.
Robinson’s First Ground.
During the season just closed, the ground has not been available to the club and they have had to play all their fixtures – more than 30 matches (league, friendly and knockout games) in all away from home, and now the requirements of the Yorkshire Amalgamated Products Ltd. for the development of their Conisbrough brickyard mean that the club will have to relinquish their tenancy of their ground altogether.
On this ground, 300 feet up, the Yorkshire County spin bowler, Ellis Robinson, product of Conisbrough Cricket club, had his first club games, and another county player who has also played in the ground is Micklebring’s Francis Appleyard, member of the Essex XI against Yorkshire this season.
The Pygott’s, scene of 5000 games, has always been a sporting enclosure, the home of attractive matches and the birthplace of boundless enthusiasm for the game. In days gone by it also possessed its social glory. Time was when the late Rev. W. A. Strawbridge, for many years Vicar of Conisbrough, was a conscientious captain, and the ground bolstered its professinal, among them George Hardy, still living in Denaby, and Matthew Harrison, a Nottinghamshire man, who played his last social visit to the ground on August Bank Holiday Monday, 1939.
One-time president of the club was Mr Godfrey Walker, J. P., and patrons Messrs. F. W. Fison, M. P., Caleb Kilner, S. Colton Fox and G. T. Nicholson, Mrs Goodyeare and Mrs Fisher; vice presidents Messrs. J. Appleyard, W. Appleyard, J. K. Bateson, T. R. Booth, Dr Craik, Maj G. E. Crawshaw, Dr Forster, J. Gillott, G. Kilner, W. Milner, A. Moody, T. Nesbitt, F. Ogley, C. Reina, R. H. Sharp, H. J. Sharp, H. H. Sharp, E. Watson, the Rev. W. A. Strawbridge and R. Hawley.
Conisbrough’s veterinary surgeon, the late Mr W. W. Norwood, was treasurer and chairman of the committee, and the secretary Mr G. W. Lawton, Church St, Conisbrough. Those who were the days when the cricket club ball was a great seasonal event. For some years now the club has been devotedly led by Mr W. Thompson, Highfield Road, Conisbrough, and in their final season at the Pygotts they have crowned their association with the ground by winning the highly competitive Doncaster Town knockout competition.
If negotiations for the new ground are concluded successfully the club will come into possession of an admirably situated enclosure. Plenty of hard work will be necessary to transform the playing area to standards associated with the club, but Mr Thompson and his band of helpers have never permitted the game or the club to suffer through any lack of enthusiasm.