Hartshead Moor stalwart Leonard Squire with grandson Daniel

If anyone round Cleckheaton way ever mentions a Squire of Hartshead Moor it probably won't be a reference to a member of the landed gentry - they are most likely talking cricket.  

Hartshead Moor's team in 1974

The Yorkshire Sports article

On Saturday, August 3, 1974 the Yorkshire Sports' photographer and reporter found their way to Highmoor Lane where Second Division leaders Hartshead Moor were playing lowly Queensbury and in 'The Pink' that night here was a match report and impressive photo of Leonard Squire forcing the ball away on the leg side.  

Leonard had already reached his half century, in years, earlier in the season but the quintagenerian was clearly in no mood to succumb to anno domini as he rattled up 60 runs in yet another victory for the eventual Second Division winners.  

Two weeks later The Pink carried a photo of the Hartshead Moor team that day and lining up alongside Leonard was his son Peter. Catching up with Leonard at Highmoor Lane recently it was interesting to see him chatting with his grandson Daniel, Peter's son, who is playing in the current promotion chasing Hartshead Moor side.  

But, while this cricketing family can actually boast three generations of Bradford League players they can go back yet another generation of Moor cricketers for Leonard's dad Freddie turned out for them in the Yorkshire Council before the war.  

"In fact," recalled Leonard, "I can remember going off to play for the first team during the war and, when I got back to the club, being really surprised to find my dad had turned out for the seconds."  

"He hadn't played for a while, although he was only in his early 40's, but they had somehow managed to persuade him to help them out - and he had thoroughly enjoyed himself.  

"They say he went out to bat and twice pulled the ball round to the midwicket boundary, where mum was sat, with a shout of 'here you are Daisy this one's for you'. When he came off, after making 20 odd he apparently said, 'young Leonard better have made as many as me or I'll not let him laik again'."  

Hartshead Moor cricket club was founded in 1876 but the Squire family probably pre-dates the cricket club, in the area, by at least 100 years. The 1841 census shows that Leonard's great great grandfather, John Squire, was born in the Cleckheaton district around 1791 and though his grandfather, Armitage Squire would have been in his early 20s when the cricket club came into existence he worked as an agricultural labourer and there would have been little time for recreation in the harsh rural economic climate of 1876.  

Leonard never got the chance to play alongside his dad at Hartshead Moor but he did inherit his enthusiasm for the game and, at 86 years old, it remains undimmed.  

As a batsman there are two distinct memories of his Bradford League career that stand out.

"I played against some very good bowlers, and still made a few runs," he recalled. "I particularly remember a confrontation with East Bierley's West Indian bowler Roy Gilchrist. "He was very hostile, as a bowler and a person, and I remember him bowling at me one day and getting more angry the more I batted.  

"Then, one ball beat me completely. Everyone could hear a definite 'click' and though Gilchrist appealed, jumping up and down, the umpire was unmoved. 'Not Out!' was the decision. Well, Gilchrist stomped around fuming.  

"I was eventually out but at the interval, he came over to me glaring. 'You were out man - you hit that ball' he said. I just smiled. 'I didn't touch it you know,' I said to him. The fact is, the ball actually snicked my wicket - but it didn't move the bails!' I think he was lost for words at that point and just walked away."  

Leonard was never a one to pay too much attention who was bowling at him, he just went out and batted. "One day I was at Undercliffe," he said. "One of our openers came to me and said, 'you know who they've got playing today don't you?' Well, I hadn't any idea but he wouldn't let on. 'You're at three, wait and see', he said. 

"I was curious but just got on with it when my turn came to bat. This Undercliffe fella looked familiar but I couldn't place him. Anyway, I prepared to face up to him and the first ball just whooshed past me. I can't remember facing anything so fast, before or since. 

"As it happened I think I made a few before getting out and when I got back to the pavilion my colleague approached me again. 'Don't you know who that was,' he asked again. I shook my head and he said, "Well, he was playing for England at Lord's last season, it was Les Jackson of Derbyshire!'  

"Without doubt I think Jackson was the best bowler I've ever played against. When I went out to the middle after tea I looked at the wicket and I noticed a small darkened circle on the pitch scarcely wider than the width of the stumps.

For 25 overs that man had dropped every ball within that circle and that was the mark the ball had left - it was incredible."  

Leonard finally packed his bat away for the last time at the age of 57 by which time his son Peter had become a Moor stalwart and Daniel has followed Leonard and Peter into the side at Highmoor Lane operating as a useful pace bowler, hard hitting batsman and stand-in wicket keeper.  

In a recent game, with Idle, Daniel demonstrated his power with the bat when, having had to sit with his pads on through a 214 run fourth-wicket partnership between Tom Manvell and Jonny Gould, he walked to the wicket and cracked his first ball, from young Tom Johnson, straight back over the bowler's head and into the adjacent garden.

There was no better way to give vent to his frustration at having to wait so long. Whether Daniel achieves the longevity of his grandad in the game remains to be seen but, for the moment, Leonard is content to sit in his favourite spot on the boundary edge while the pleasure of watching Daniel mingles effortlessly with the vast collection memories he loves to share.  

Flashback to 1969

NOTE: With reference to the 'Footballers photo quiz', see 'In The Pink' - 'footballing cricketers', the six county cricketers to have played football for England since the war are Raich Carter (Derby County, Sunderland, Hull City and Derbyshire), Derek Ufton (Charlton Athletic and Kent), Leslie Compton (Arsenal and Middlesex), Geoff Hurst (West Ham United and Essex), Arthur Milton (Arsenal, Bristol City and Gloucestershire), Willy Watson (Huddersfield Town, Sunderland and Yorkshire and Leicestershire).  

As for the Bradford City AFC gallery, Bobby Ham (Cleckheaton and Brighouse), John Hall (Saltaire and Yeadon), Ian Cooper (Bankfoot), Stafford Heginbotham (Manningham Mills and instigator of the Tebro Trophy), Gerry Lightowler (Steward at Gomersal CC), Bruce Stowell played Halifax League while Tony Leighton played at Heckmondwike and Liversedge in Central Yorkshire League.