Bradford Cricket League
| Format |
Amateur, 50 over game |
|---|---|
| First tournament | 1903 |
| Tournament format | Four divisions |
| Number of teams | 49 |
| Current champion | Pudsey St Lawrence |
| Most successful | Bradford (10 titles) |
| Most runs | Richard Robinson (16,352) |
| Most wickets | David Batty (1,823) |
The Bradford Premier League (currently known as the All Rounder Cricket Bradford Premier League for sponsorship reasons) is an amateur cricket competition centred in Bradford, West Yorkshire. It has been described as "arguably England's strongest amateur competition."
The league is structured into four divisions. A large number of teams are from Bradford, with others from neighbouring towns across West Yorkshire.
The league was renamed the Bradford Premier League in 2016 – a merger of the Bradford Cricket League and the Central Yorkshire League.
The Bradford Cricket League was formed in 1903 with twelve clubs but only two (Undercliffe and Bankfoot) of the inaugural twelve are current members.
The first club to win the Bradford Cricket League was Shelf, in 1903, claiming their only League title. In total, the League has had twenty-six different winners of its top division. The most successful club is Bradford CC, with 10 titles. The most successful club to still operate in the Bradford League is Undercliffe, who have 9 titles to their name.
The turn of the century saw the domination of Pudsey Congs and Woodlands within the top division. Pudsey Congs won five consecutive titles between 2000 and 2004, and Woodlands won the following four titles. The only other team to win the title since 2000 is Baildon, who were victorious in 2009. Woodlands are the current champions, and their five titles could be considered as quite a feat as they were only readmitted to the League in 2001 (they previously spent two seasons in the second division in 1910 and 1911).
In 2016, The Bradford Cricket League merged with the Central Yorkshire League to form the Bradford Premier League. Until then, the League had operated as two divisions, but this format was expanded to four divisions to accommodate the extra teams.
The League runs two cup competitions for the first and second teams of every club within the League. The first team competition is the Priestley Cup, which has been running since 1904, and the second team competition is the Priestley Shield, which has been running since 1911. The only club ever to have won the Cup three times in a row is East Bierley, who won in 1998, 1999 and 2000. However, the most successful club in the competition is Undercliffe, who have won it fourteen times.
The League competition is made up of fixtures of fifty overs per side, with each team playing the others in their division both home and away. The strength of the League and its players is in part assisted by the League management having an open policy on the payment of players and no particular limit on the number of professional players in each game. However, teams are limited to one overseas player. In 2008 some first division sides have fielded as many as six players with professional (first-class) credentials.
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