Park Avenue (stadium)
Encyclopedia
Park Avenue is a sports ground on Horton Park Avenue in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was used for both cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 and football. It held 306 first class and 48 list A cricket matches between 1881 and 1996, and was home to former Football League
The Football League
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

 club Bradford Park Avenue
Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C.
Bradford Association Football Club, previously also known as Bradford and since its reformation in the 1970s now referred to as Bradford Park Avenue, is a football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England...

, to which it lent its name.

Cricket

The first match, starting on 20 September 1880 pitted the Players of the North against the touring Australians while the last first class game in June 1996 saw Yorkshire CCC play Leicestershire CCC in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...

. This final game saw Leicestershire compile 681 for seven wickets declared, the record score on the ground, with Vince Wells and James Whitaker
James Whitaker
James Whitaker is a British journalist, specialising in the British royal family.-Biography:Formerly a pupil at Cheltenham College, Whitaker is best known as the Royal Editor of the Daily Mirror. He broke the story of the eating disorder of Diana, Princess of Wales...

 both scoring double hundreds. A women's one day international was held there on 7 July 1973 in the Women's World Cup when England Women played Jamaica Women. Park Avenue was also the scene of the famous Test Trial of 1950 when Jim Laker
Jim Laker
James "Jim" Charles Laker was a cricketer who played for England in the 1950s, known for "Laker's match" in 1956 at Old Trafford, when he took nineteen wickets in England's victory against Australia...

 took an incredible eight wickets for two runs in 14 overs as "The Rest", including Peter May, were skittled for 27. Worcestershire CCC were bowled out for 28 by Yorkshire in 1907 when John Newstead
John Newstead
John Thomas Newstead was an English first-class cricketer, who played 96 first-class matches for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1903 and 1913.Newstead was born in Marton, Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England...

 took seven wickets for ten runs.

Percy Holmes recorded the highest score on the ground, 275 against Warwickshire CCC in 1928 while C.B. Fry scored 234 for Sussex in 1903. Six bowlers took nine wickets in an innings at Park Avenue, with Albert Thomas taking nine for 30 for Northamptonshire CCC in 1920 and Emmott Robinson
Emmott Robinson
Emmott Robinson was an English first-class cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1919 to 1931. He was awarded his county cap in 1920. Robinson was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm fast-medium pace.-Life and career:Robinson was born in Keighley, Yorkshire, England...

 taking his career best nine for 36 in a Roses Match
Roses Match
The Roses Match refers to any game of cricket played between Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Lancashire County Cricket Club. Yorkshire's emblem is the white rose, while Lancashire's is the red rose. The associations go back to the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century...

 in the same year.

Football

The ground was also used for football matches and was home for many years to Bradford Park Avenue
Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C.
Bradford Association Football Club, previously also known as Bradford and since its reformation in the 1970s now referred to as Bradford Park Avenue, is a football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England...

, a former member of the Football League. The club was officially known as Bradford, but Park Avenue was often appended to their name to avoid confusion with Bradford City
Bradford City A.F.C.
Bradford City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, playing in League Two....

. The club left Park Avenue in 1973, selling it for financial reasons. After going bust and reforming as a Sunday league
Sunday league football
Sunday league football is a term used in the United Kingdom to describe those association football leagues which play on Sunday, as opposed to the more usual Saturday. These leagues tend to be lower standard amateur competitions, whose players may have less ability, or less time to devote to...

 team in 1975, the club returned to what was left of Park Avenue in season 1987–88. However they had to vacate the ground at the end of the season when an indoor cricket centre was built on part of the pitch. Bradford Park Avenue was reformed as a semi-professional club late in 1987 and now play at Horsfall Stadium
Horsfall Stadium
Horsfall Stadium is a sports stadium located just off Halifax Road in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, approximately three miles south-east of the city centre. It is currently the home of Bradford Park Avenue Football Club and Bradford Airedale Athletics Club.It was originally built as a running...

.

Modern day

It is still a cricket ground and is used by Bradford College Cricket Academy. Only a perimeter wall of the football ground remains and some of the bricked up terrace entrances can still be seen on Park Avenue with admission signs still in place.
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