Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Yorkshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Yorkshire. Yorkshire's first team is the most successful in English cricketing history with 33 County Championship titles, including one shared. The team's most recent Championship title was in 2015. The club's limited overs team is called the Yorkshire Vikings and their kit colours are Cambridge blue, Oxford blue, and yellow. Yorkshire teams formed by earlier organisations, essentially the old Sheffield Cricket Club, played top-class cricket from the 18th century and the county club has always held first-class status. Yorkshire have competed in the County Championship since the official start of the competition in 1890 and have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England. The team play most of their home games at Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds. Another significant venue is at North Marine Road Ground, Scarborough, which houses the annual Scarborough Festival. Yorkshire have used other grounds in the past including Bramall Lane, Sheffield, which was the club's original home; Horton Park Avenue, Bradford; St George's Road Cricket Ground, Harrogate; The Circle, Kingston upon Hull; and Acklam Park, Middlesbrough. The earliest certain reference to cricket in Yorkshire dates from 1751 when local matches were held in Sheffield and a game took place on or soon after Monday, 5 August at Stanwick, near Richmond, between the Duke of Cleveland's XI and Earl of Northumberland's XI; the same teams earlier played a game at Durham. Sheffield Cricket Club was probably formed about this time and there are references to Sheffield matches in Derbyshire in 1757 and home and away matches against Leeds in 1765. A club was formed in Leeds in 1760 and in York in 1784. Bedale in North Yorkshire was a noted centre in the early 19th century. But cricket in most rural areas was slow to develop.