EAST RIDING CRICKET SOCIETY

Aussie Test bowler and current Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie is just one of the star names lined up for the East Riding Cricket Society this winter. Alongside Gillespie will be England captain MJK Smith , Yorkshire opener Matthew Wood , YCCC Members' Committee chair, Stephen Mann and award-winning journalist Graham Hardcastle - cricket correspondent of the Telegraph and Argus and York Evening Press - who opens the batting on Wednesday 9 October. Members old and new are welcome to our monthly meetings at Humberside Police Sports Club, Inglemire Lane, Hull HU6 8LE, 7.30pm for 7.45pm. Membership costs just £15 a year, a single meeting £5. For more information telephone chairman Michael Hardwick on 01482 861228 or follow us on Twitter. Please note our 2013 AGM will be held prior to this meeting at 7.15pm.  An invitation to spend the winter Down Under means that Andrew Gale will be unable to join us as planned on 11 December and now hopes to visit the society at...

Umpires Mullaney, Smith, Foster & Coward The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was not the only event of note in 1953. Congratulations also go to the East Riding Cricket Umpires & Scorers Association which is celebrating its Diamond Jubilee this year with a number of events throughout the summer. Today sees the opening of an exhibition on the history of the association at Hull History Centre, with cartoons, poetry, biographies, photographs and a range of cricketing artefacts on display. The exhibition is on until 29 July and the treasurer of ERCUSA, Michael Free, has produced an illustrated book to accompany it. With a foreword by Dickie Bird, it expands on the written material on display and gives an interesting insight into some of the characters who have umpired local cricket! Next Sunday 14 July sees a charity cricket match at Hull CC's Chanterlands Avenue ground, when an Umpires XI will take on an Invitation XI made up of cricketers from the local leagues. A raff...

Our March speaker will be journalist and author David 'Plum' Warner. The former cricket correspondent of the Bradford Telegraph and Argus , David has been reporting on the ups and downs of Yorkshire cricket since 1975, and now writes daily reports for the Press Association as well as end-of-season reviews for Wisden. Yorkshire supporters will also know him as editor of the YCCC Yearbook and most recently as author of the bestselling hardback The Sweetest Rose: 150 Years of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, 1863-2013 . In his foreword to the book, CricInfo's UK editor David Hopps describes the challenge of writing a history of Yorkshire as 'a task that demand meticulous research, a dogged perseverance and above all a high level of integrity. David Warner is well equipped on all three counts.' Much of the modern material is drawn from David's own collection of cuttings - some ninety volumes collected throughout his career. "Over forty years now,...

Great to hear from past secretary, chair and president Terry Frost. Our list of past speakers brought back many memories for Terry ... and he was also able to solve a mystery for us. Who was 1982 speaker A.W. Lawson? Thereby hangs a tale ... so we'll let Terry take up the story. 'At the time,' he writes, 'I was chairman and Harold Cook was secretary. Harold called me the day of the meeting to say that our speaker, the late Peter Roebuck, would not be coming to Hull due to illness! How could Harold and I possibly find a speaker for that night? After lunch we were faced with the daunting task of cancelling the meeting. Then, through my office door at Fenners, in walked Alan Lawson! Alan had just arrived from Heathrow, having landed from South Africa that morning. Alan, a director of Fenner South Africa and a close personal friend, was steeped in South African cricket at a time when it was was ostracised by the cricketing world. He was chairman of Old Edwardi...

New to Pace and Bounce. We're proud to present the full list of all our speakers since Bill Bowes (pictured right) - the great Yorkshire fast bowler of the 1930s and later cricket correspondent of the Yorkshire Evening Post - first opened the batting in 1966. (An unusual experience you might think for a man with a first-class average of 8.60!) Plenty of great names among them. Click on the links to read more about a speaker, and watch out for future articles taking a year-by-year look at the society as we build up to our Golden Jubilee.

Yorkshire have what it takes to achieve success in their 150th anniversary season. That's the opinion of our latest speaker, Lancashire's assistant coach Gary Yates. Yorkshire have recruited well over the winter, reckoned Gary, increasing competition for places in the team with the signature of highly rated pace bowler Jack Brooks from Northants, and former England man Liam Plunkett from Durham. Lancashire too were interested in signing Brooks, he revealed, but they came off second best on this occasion. Gary also explained exactly why Lancashire's young players had managed to win the county championship in 2011, why they suffered unexpected relegation in 2012, and why he backed them to bounce back straight away in 2013. As coach to Lancashire's highly successful Second XI, Gary gave us a fascinating insight into modern coaching ideas and how he goes about developing aspiring test and county cricketers. As a spin bowler he provided an action close-up of the doosr...

Many happy returns to Yorkshire County Cricket Club - 150 years old today! More on the club website , from Graham Hardcastle in the Graham Hardcastle in the York Evening Press, or from these links to the special Yorkshire Post 150th birthday supplement . Meanwhile new signing Liam Plunkett is heading off to Adelaide for a couple of months at the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy , and Yorkshire are planning to follow Old Trafford's lead with a series of concerts at Headingley over the next couple of summers, subject to council permission. For more news updates and selected links to the best of cricket journalism  Follow @ERidingCricket