Think Headingley sport think Leeds Rhinos, think Yorkshire Cricket Club and rugby union’s Leeds Carnegie.
But don’t forget the suburb’s grass-roots sporting battle including a healthy football rivalry between Headingley FC and Old Headingley, not to mention a thriving local cricket scene at St Chad’s Broomfield.
Headingley FC play in the Yorkshire Amateur League with Old Headingley opting for the West Yorkshire League.
However, every year the two sides lock horns in a pre-season friendly with Headingley FC boss Chris Kuc delighted to take bragging rights from this summer’s 2-1 victory.
The two sides are rivals on the pitch but unified in their cause off it – to recruit talent to lesser known grass roots clubs away from the likes of Rhinos, Carnegie and Yorkshire CC.
As away from the rugby and cricket superstars lies a thriving Headingley football scene which also features Shire Academics – all three clubs affiliated to three of the suburb’s popular drinking holes.
“You have got three teams really in Headingley,” explained Kuc. “There’s Shire Academics who play from the Original Oak, Old Headingley who are Skyrack and then us who are the Voodoo pub which used to be the Citrus.
“But the exposure is nothing compared to the big teams in Headingley. It’s a word of mouth thing really though we try and affiliate ourselves with bars and pubs.”
Kuc’s Headingley FC play home games at Tinshill Recreation Ground with Old Headingley branching out to Stanningley due to a lack of available pitches.
“We suffer a nightmare with a need for pitches as the universities will not rent out to non-university teams,” explained Kuc.
That’s certainly true from a football perspective and Headingley cricket pitches are also in short supply.
St Chad’s Broomfield are the suburb’s only recognised cricket team who are fortunate to be able to use the area’s only two grass roots cricket pitches – at St Chad’s church and at Richmond House School.
The club under its current name was born in 1979 when St Chad’s and Headingley Broomfield joined forces and now the thriving club has four senior teams and five senior teams.
Paul Berry, 3rd XI captain, is delighted with the current well-being of his club but admits a lack of green space limits grass roots Headingley teams across sport as a whole.
“Other than the football teams and ourselves there aren’t many others really,” he said. “If you look at the map –there is a lot of houses but not a lot of green space.”
There is, of course, a rather fine space at the home of Yorkshire CC but the hallowed turf is somewhat out of bounds!
“There’s only two cricket pitches really in Headingley – at the church and at Richmond House School and we are pretty lucky that we can use both,” he said.
“Yorkshire don’t let us play on theirs that often!”
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