Steel Town Cricketers

In the early 1870s, all roads led to Motherwell. The town needed skilled labour for the iron works, and amongst the newcomers were a bunch of blokes from Shropshire and North Wales who wanted to play cricket. This was the start of Motherwell Cricket Club, founded by proper steelmen. The book spans 150 years of club cricket. There are tales of ladies promenading the cricket field as smoke belched out factory chimneys; stories of crowds in their thousands watching Motherwell take on local rivals, Newmains and Bellshill; and memories of cricketing legends who graced Motherwell’s delightful old Home Park ground, even a prime minister. It recalls great games and great nights, the Cricket Dinners and Player of the Year Awards, and remarkable characters who devoted large parts of their lives to the club. Motherwell is not a “big club” and hasn’t enjoyed too much success, and that’s the fascinating thing about its story - how it has survived against the odds when world wars, pavilion fires, and diminishing playing resources threatened to spoil the fun. Happily, Motherwell Cricket Club is alive and well, still playing cricket in a footballing town.