The Park Avenue cricket ground was definitely the Yorkshire Cricket Academy ground in the mid 90s, but I recall there was talk of it being sold off.
Yes, it did get sold actually. Part of it was effectively broken off and now a health club is built on that part of the old cricket ground...
...The few glimpses you could get from gaps in the (badly maintained) walls would suggest that it had hardly had a lick of paint since PA left. I've not been back to that part of Bradford for years. I guess its kind of understandable that City get more press, being in the football league. But I recall the T&A being fairly pro-leeds. Definitely used to see more leeds shirts around than city. I developed an irrational dislike of Huddersfield after watching a few derbies at Valley Parade - must be the blue & white...
Yeah, can't disagee there Kendall. Shame about Horton Park Ave - there has been plenty of 'wishful thinking' on the part of the Club/fans of buying t back but it's really not feasible to be honest. Absolutely huge Mosque opposite the ground (where the old train station used to be) now for one thing...
Mmmmm...I don't read the T&A regularly enough to see the Leeds connection, but I'd say is less 'Leeds' now than it (probably) was. Yeah, there are quite a few Leeds fans here, and funnily enough, I'm managed to ascertain that quite alot are actually from family's that were Avenue 'in the day' and in '74, went to watch other 'local' Clubs as opposed to the 'most hated' in Manningham...
But what irks so many of us is the lack of 'interest' the T&A (the Council and everyone else) show us; it's not just 'space' in the paper etc., but that fact they simply don't WANT to promote us. For example, we won a PO promotion last season against FCUM of all teams; huge attendance, great day for the club and the city etc. But did we get a back page feature, and open-top bus parade, a flag outside City Hall, ad nauseum...you can guess the answer
And indeed, I'd concur that my own utter disdain for City is completely 'irrational' as you imply. All 'hate'
is, so I won't defend it as anything else; but irrational or not, it's still there and I have no plans to get rid of it
BTW - I tend to 'like' Hudds (a bit at least) as they equally hate City -
the enemy of my enemy etc....
...Should we all adopt Park Avenue as a 2nd team? Would any City fans twig if there were more than a few green & white flags/shirts in the away end next season?
Where can one buy a PA shirt?
Well, as much as I'd personally love to see that, and indeed, I think there are a few on this here forum who have some Avenue ancestry (Grecian is one I specifically recall), I can't see many Blades doing that. But please...be my guest. The more the merrier
To be honest Kendall, yes, it is possible they might twig that actually - and it's funny you should mention shirts. I can happily provide anyone with such if they want one. On this point, last season's very limited shirt (it's a 150 years anniversary shirt) is now being sold off for £15. I've uploaded a pic below. As you can see it takes in the Red, Amber & Black - the traditional colours of
all Bradford's Clubs (
N.B. note I say Bradford's and NOT Manningham's
). I'll see what sizes are left if anyone is interested - please let me know.
Better still, I'm in the process of having TOFFS reproduce a classic shirt (long sleeved, cotton) from 62-65 - again image below; these are going to have a very limited run too. This is the shirt worn by the 'Tony Currie' of Ave, Kevin Hector. I should be having a few done with his number (8) on too, so again if this is something of interest, drop me a line. These should be done for the friendlies starting in July (I'm hoping at least).
Thanks for the interest Kendall - it's nice to be able to "spread the faith"
All the best,
Craig UTB & UTA!
