Double act keep Little Hulton looking good
6:00am Friday 10th July 2009 in Sport By Neil Bonnar
LITTLE Hulton Cricket Club have plenty to thank Mike Tyldesley and Phil Holden for — not least saving the club from extinction.
The Manchester Road club, which was founded in 1876, would have been covered in houses a few years ago if it had not been for the two lifelong servants.
The lease on the ground was up for renewal and shot up from £1,200 a year to a whopping £12,000.
“There’s no way we could have afforded it,” said Tyldesley. “It would have closed the club.”
The one-club men, who started off as scorers, moved on to playing, then to the committee, and on to being joint groundsmen refused to sit back and watch their beloved club’s demise.
They decided to try to buy the lease from the Church of England and approached the Sports Council to find out what they had to do to get a grant.
Then they spent the next seven years getting £65,000 of lottery money which went a long way towards the £90,000 cost of the lease.
“We thought the club would fold,” said Holden. “We couldn’t see any way around it. It was quite a battle but, fortunately, we secured a 99-year lease which has secured the club for generations. If we hadn’t done it the ground would have been a housing estate.”
Tyldesley added: “The lottery had only just started and the Sports Council put us on to them. We were one of the first sports clubs to apply for a grant. It was the longest-running ground application there’s been, but eventually we got it.”
Tyldesley, aged 63, and Holden, 61, were both born in Little Hulton and have put 48 years’ service into the club.
Holden began a five-year stint as first-team scorer at 13 with Tyldesley helping outside the scorebox hanging tin showing the numbers on the scoreboard.
“I used to come down and started scoring for the first team at 13,” said Holden. “I was scorer when we won the Cross Cup in 1960, 61 and 62. Mike was the tin man. I was inside the box and he was outside, changing the tins at the end of the over and when someone was out. But the biggest difference was that the scorer got two shillings and sixpence and the tin man got one shilling and sixpence.”
Little Hulton has the mark of the two friends’ work stamped all over the ground. As well as keeping the square and outfield in tip-top condition, they are also responsible for the impressive new clubhouse.
“It’s was redesigned and renovated a few years ago after the roof came off in January, 2005,” said Tyldesley.
“I got a call from the cleaner telling me we had a bit of bad news — the roof was all over the ground.
“We gutted it inside, redesigned it and refurbished it ourselves with no paid help from outside.
“All members of the committee and the club did the work or got the work done.”
Both men have been have been on the committee for 35 years, Holden becoming chairman 15 years ago, and is the club’s league representative.
Tyldesley has been treasurer since he joined the committee and has combined it with the role of club secretary for 20 years.
As if they have not enough to do, they have shared the groundsmen duties for the last 12 years.
“I mainly do the outfield and surrounds and Phil does the square,” said Tyldesley. “But when one of us is away the other does everything.”
While Tyldesley spent most of his playing career in the club’s second team, Holden was a mainstay of the first XI for 33 years.
“It was something to do on a Saturday,” said Tyldesley. “I started playing at Farnworth Grammar in house matches and got more interested, and at 15 I started playing in the third XI.
“Ernie Machin, who went on to play professional football, was in the third XI at the time and went on to play for the first team. He was a good all-round sportsman.
“I was in the second team for most of my time playing. I didn’t play many first team games and finished playing in 2004.
“I was runner-up in the Isherwood Cup six times and won it once, and I was in the team which won the second team league four times.
“This year is the first year neither of us has played.”
Holden also started in the third team at Little Hulton at 15. “Then I got into the second team at 20,” he said. “I was second team captain, first team captain for two years, junior coach for about four years, and played first team cricket from 1970 to 2003.
“I played in four Cross Cup Finals — and we won them all — and I was in the team which won the league in 1977 and 1995. Unfortunately, we didn’t win anything when I was captain.”
Holden’s penultimate performance will last long in the memory. “Because I was small they put me at short leg and I got hit by the ball. I was taken to hospital and had four stitches. That was in 2005 and I only played one first team game after that.”
The men are happy that the club’s future — which they are responsible for securing — is in good hands.
“The people on the committee are nearly all under-50 and quite a lot are under-40 so hopefully the future is in good hands for a long time to come,” said Tyldesley.
Holden added: “From a young age, as a junior, it is a day of a job to play cricket and when you have a family it is a big commitment.
“My wife took an interest and did the teas and my son started playing, so, luckily for me, my family were involved.
“I was fortunate in that respect. Being involved in cricket is not something you can take on lightly because if you don’t put in the time and do it properly it falls apart.”
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