Memories from 1997
The Huddersfield Examiner reported in October 1997 of two Subscription Cup teams being deducted 15 points for the next season for ignoring a Huddersfield League ruling. Longwood and Waterloo played a match in defiance of a League ruling and despite apologising for this act were still punished by the League and the full story is in the cutting alongside.
In a separate report in an earlier edition of The Examiner it was also reported that the 22 bowlers involved in the match were also to be fined £5 each for playing in the match directly against the ruling issued by the Association's Management Committee.
The neutral venue for the match was Marsh Liberal Club and they were absolved of any blame and no action was taken against them after it was revealed that the clubs had mislead the Marsh Lib personnel about the situation.
In addition in the same month, The Examiner reported on the passing of Slaithwaite bowler Percy Ellis at the age of 87. Percy won the 1970 Webster's Brewery Northern Counties Handicap, one of the game's major tournaments at that time. He also won the Colne Valley Merit in 1971 and the Veterans League Rose Bowl in 1976. A late developer as he also made his debut for the Yorkshire team just two weeks before his 55th birthday.
The end of the 1997 season saw a tie for the Beaumont Cup title between Farnley Tyas and Thorpe Green B who were locked together on 153 points. A play-off between the two teams saw the Farnley team come out on top to take the title. Also interesting to see the full set of end-of-season tables below which show that there were 123 teams in the Huddersfield League's 8 divisions in 1997 compared with this year's totals of 65 teams in 6 divisions. Factor in that the top four divisions this year were all 10-man teams shows how deep the decline is hitting.
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