1. A brief history of Burn CC by Dave Queenan
Burn Cricket Club is a traditional village cricket club situated in a small village in North Yorkshire.
The club was formed in the early 1900s and cricket is played at the ground, known as "Linnet Park", located 3 miles south of Selby on the A19 Doncaster Road, a small ground carved into cornfields on three sides and tight up against the A19 on the other, it provides a unique opportunity for high scores and exciting cricket.
This has been home since 1947, following a move from the original ground on Henwick Hall Lane, which was taken over by the RAF when Burn Airfield was established during the war. The ground is owned by, and rented from the "Websters Trust", a local farming family associated with the village over many generations.
Burn Cricket Club is known as "The Linnets", a name they adopted in the 1980s, A "Burn Linnet" was a title given to children born in the village, known In the local vernacular as "A Bon Linnet" ( a Burn Linnet )
In the early years, all the cricket played was against local villages, with teams being predominantly residents of the villages, travel to away games often being by bicycle with the cricket bag on the handlebars.
Fortunately, despite its small population, the village has continued to provide players for the team, some families have been representing Burn on the cricket field for close to 100 years. The current club President, an ex-player, is Graham Stansfield, his grandfather Fred, played cricket for the club back in the 1920s and his father Alan played 42 seasons, retiring in the 1990s. Other notable families were the Harrands, Philipson's, and Walkers.
More recently the club has been well served by three generations of the Adamson family, with eight playing members, and two generations of the Webster family providing five players.
Back in the day, the majority of local villages had teams competing in the Selby Cricket League, Burn fielded a team in the league until1953 before joining the West Riding Cricket League in1954.
Again, the early years in the West Riding League were spent playing teams local to Burn, there were two divisions and all teams arranged their own fixtures, having to play a minimum of 14 games to qualify for the league title.
Two competitions were run, a "Leaders" cup for each division winner and a "Playoff" trophy, the top two teams of each division playing for the overall title of league champions.
A more formal arrangement of the West Riding League took place in 1974 when the league was formed into 5 divisions, with teams playing in a promotion and relegation competition. Burn CC started life in this new format in Division 5 and found it a successful format, winning promotion in 3 successive years, reaching Division 2 in 1977, and finally managed to gain promotion to the first division in 1983.
During this period the club also fielded teams in the Howden Evening League on Tuesdays and the Snaith Evening League on Thursdays.
With so much cricket being played, a second-team was established in 1983, by club stalwart and then Chairman Brian Walker, and the club went from strength to strength with an influx of new young players, most of who were associated with Selby Rugby club, and the association with Selby Rugby continues to this day.
A number of the current club's management group, Chairman, David Bramley, Treasurer, Adrian Huetson, Main Sponsor, Richard Walker, and first-team stalwart Ashley Abbott all joined the club during this period and have around 30 years of service as both players and administrators.
The second team captain Ray "Boo" Adamson has played for the club for over 25 years, the majority of them in the first team, and holds the record for the most centuries scored for the club.
The club Groundsman and genuine " Bon Linnet " Dave Queenan played for fifty seasons, over seven decades, and has over 30 years of service in as the club groundsman.
The late 1990s brought about a change of scene, the catchment area for the West Riding League was expanding, resulting in more traveling so a change of leagues was proposed and the club joined the York Vale Cricket League 1997, where both teams have enjoyed success in terms of promotions and cup wins.
Once again, with changes to a more structured format to the area Cricket Leagues, the First eleven, having finished as runners up in the 1st division in 2019, were promoted to the York Senior League for the 2020 season.
All Cricket Clubs have a "Headquarters" and Burn is well served by the village local, "The Wheatsheaf Inn". It is said that as much cricket is played in the local pub as on the field of play and the Wheatsheaf has been host to many a replayed game over the decades.
The Wheatsheaf is where team selection takes place and back in the days before "WhatsApp" the handwritten team would be displayed, on a Thursday evening, in the bay window of the pub Taproom, the groundsman recalls as a young lad cycling down to the Sheaf hoping to see his name listed in the eleven.
Landlords Andy & Joe continue to support the club, providing post-match Pizza & Chips, together with a warm welcome to visiting teams and a fine selection of craft ales to celebrate wins or drown sorrows.
The club continues to run two Saturday teams, the 1st eleven in the York Senior League West 3, and the 2nd eleven in York Vale Division 2, together with an evening league team in Snaith Evening League Division 2.