The Grey Fox Trophy wrapped up its 2026 season at Scarborough – and for many, it’s about a lot more than winning.
The Over 50s competition, supported by the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation, has been popular for years, with changes introduced for the 2026 edition.
There were new teams, such as Lightcliffe and 1860 Victorians (Thongsbridge CC), as part of a 20-team competition framed around a league table that led to the finals day on the coast.
Bowling Old Lane pedigree
What’s really striking is that teams are from right across Yorkshire: Helperby to Horsforth Hall Park and Beverley Town to Batley.
Ultimately, Bowling Old Lane won the Grey Fox Trophy, their sixth title, at North Marine Road. Chair Naz Ali tells me it’s a squad built around decades-old friendships: “The group of lads who play, the majority of them went to school together between 1980 and 1984.”
This form of the game has allowed mates, who wrapped up their cricket years back, to rekindle their love of cricket.
The contest has its own sense of identity too as shown by the team names. The Stick of Rhubarb XI have been together a while now and Helperby’s moniker of ‘Helperby the Aged’ is a wry smile at their own ranks. Windhill & Daisy Hill’s self-appointed nickname of ‘Over the Hillers’ is along the same theme.
Lightcliffe debut
Richard Leach, Chairman, Lightcliffe (Over 50s player & Plate winner), said: “As a club, we have so many brilliant players who are of somewhat more mature years but still have the passion for our sport.”
He added: “A great example of the joy this sport can bring, whatever your age.”
Lightcliffe’s success in their first season is worth pausing on. The squad is a proper blend: stalwarts still playing week-in week-out, those who were connecting back in with cricket after a spell, and newcomers to Lightcliffe.
Leach links their Plate success to the club’s nearly-200-strong junior section. Not bad when a club’s players from age 7 to over 70 are all involved.
Sohail Raz, Development Manager and Diverse Communities Specialist for the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation (YCF), highlighted how the Grey Fox Trophy fills a void:
“Sometimes in Saturday league cricket, you get to an age where you think ‘actually… there’s youngsters coming through, and maybe I need to step aside a little bit’ – but I think The Grey Fox Trophy is keeping people playing longer at the level that they’re comfortable with.”
He also credits Helen Heald for all of her stellar efforts in making the competition what it is.
We wrap up with the thoughts of Bob Spencer, Manager and player for Thongsbridge’s 1860 Victorians.
He observed: “What stays with me from the Grey Fox Trophy is less the cricket itself and more what it did for the group of us who played it. You would look across at another team and know they were dealing with the same creaks and frustrations… There was a lot of sympathy in that, and a lot of humour.”
The 1860 Victorians had a squad of 19, aged 50-67. They travelled from as far afield as Cheshire and North Yorkshire with varying experience. Some are still regular cricketers, others hadn’t picked up a bat since school.
Bob recognised how the game brought everyone together too: “The teas mattered more than I thought they would. So did standing around afterwards talking to, and having a drink with, players from other clubs, other parts of the county, different backgrounds and religions. You do not get that in the same way, if you only ever play the same few grounds.”
On a personal note, Bob said: “I came away feeling fitter than I expected, better in myself, and part of something I would not have had otherwise.”
By John Fuller – cricketyorkshire.com.
