Darlington RA cricketers celebrate the start of their 110th season

No dropped catches or fumblings in the field; no bowling the ball short down the leg side for an easy pull for four; no fishing uncertainly outside the off-stump with the bat – but always on the front foot, driving the ball firmly to the cover boundary.

At the Darlington Railway Athletic, with the first eleven promoted back to the Premier League of the North Yorkshire and South Durham League for the first time in 15 years, the players will feel the promise of the new season as keenly as any of the railwaymen who have run out of the Brinkburn Road pavilion in the last 110 years.

The club was initially part of the North Eastern Railway’s workshops on Darlington’s North Road, where the Morrison’s supermarket is today. It had a cricket ground on the edge of the works, but just before the First World War, the shops needed to expand onto the green sward and the sportsmen needed to look for a new home (today Marske Grove and Appleton Close occupy the site of the ground although there is still a Cricket Field Row in Rise Carr that runs along the old boundary).

On March 13, 1913, a meeting was held in the Railway Institute in North Road to create the Railway Athletic and to take control of the land that the NER was offering on the edge of the Stooperdale estate on which it had just built its palatial offices.

The Stooperdale offices were so grand they were known as Darlington's Buckingham Palace

On June 7, 1913, Sir Arthur Frances Pease – a grandson of Joseph who stands on the statue in High Row and a director of the railway – officially opened the ground, which consisted of a cricket field, three tennis courts, a bowling green and some quoits claypits.

Sir Vincent Raven, the chief mechanical engineer of the NER who had been the driving force behind the offices which were so grand they were known as Darlington’s Buckingham Palace, also gave an opening day speech which sounded a little like a threat. The land had been given to the sportsmen for free, he said, and so “it would be their fault if they didn’t make a thorough success of it for the benefit of all railwaymen in Darlington”.

A 12-a-side cricket match followed, between Darlington NER and the Great Northern Railway from Doncaster.

The opening day of the 1936 season at Darlington RA's Brinkburn Road ground

Yet war immediately intervened and quashed the club’s early hopes – it joined the NYSD league in 1914 but didn’t play its first match until 1919. However, new sports joined the fold, including rifle shooting (there had been an indoor range at North Road since 1907), football (1919) and rugby (1925).

Harold Harrow, the scrapbook compiler when he played football for Darlington St Augustine's before the First World War

The first stalwarts of the club began to emerge, led by Harold Harrow, a legend of those early days who compiled his sporting career into three scrapbooks.

The scrapbooks show how before the war, he was an extremely promising footballer, playing for Darlington St Augustine’s. Liverpool wanted to take him to a higher level, but instead he joined the Durham Light Infantry and became a sergeant instructor.

After the war, he must still have been impressive as there is a letter pasted into the scrapbook from the secretary of Second Division Hull City dated Friday, March 1, 1921, asking: “Can you play against Lincoln City tomorrow, kick off at 2.45pm? Kindly reply per bearer and oblige. Please do your best to turn out. It will be a good game as Lincoln are a very good side, as you probably know.”

The RA team in the Northern League in 1920. Back (left to right): H Harrow, W Kent, Blackett, G Lawson (capt), S Hughes (trainer). Middle: E Park, W Argyle, C Warburton. Bottom: E Burnley, J Brennan, W Dinsdale, S Baines, HW Mitchell, E Yarrow (secretary)

The 1913 pavilion at the RA is still in use

Harold was, though, devoting himself to the RA’s cricket team, playing for more than 20 years after appearing in their first league match in 1919. Oddly, he didn’t bowl and only batted, usefully, way down the order, but he excelled as a cover fielder.

“His speed, the clean way in which he could pick up a fast-moving ball and his prompt and accurate returns were a treat to watch, though much less of a treat to an unwary batsman who knew nothing of his agility and accuracy,” said a profile in the Echo’s evening sister paper, the Sports Despatch. “He was rather a run saver than a run getter.”

He could bat when necessary. In a 1926 Kerridge Cup match, played at Brinkburn Road, RA played West Hartlepool, who batted first and made 193.

RA lost their best batsman cheaply but, with Dr UJ Cherry at the crease, they recovered to 188 when their ninth wicket fell. Harrow was last man in with just six needed to win.

“It was well after nine o’clock and the lighting was getting bad,” said the Despatch. “News of the RA’s great fight had spread and there was a tremendous crowd on the ground. They saw Harrow go to the wicket and with Dr Cherry, they got the runs, Harrow making the winning hit.

“Pandemonium was let loose. The cheering was tremendous, the crowd swarmed on to the ground and Harrow was carried off the field shoulder high.”

Then the reporter added: “Dr Cherry was too much of a heavyweight to be carried.”

Darlington RA 1st XI in 1929, which won the club's first North Yorkshire & South Durham league title. Back (left to right): H Linton, Dr Cherry, W Brown (pro), W Kent, S Jackson. Front: G James, H Harrow, R Hunt, A Cass (capt), JH Hall, WH Cuthbertson

Dr Cherry is another fabulous character from the early days of the RA. He was described as “always an attraction through his coloured skin and keen enthusiasm”. He seems to have been West Indian, and he practised medicine in the Coundon area – has anyone any information about him?

Nobby Clark, the fiery fast bowler who played for the RA in 1938

Another extraordinary character to grace the RA field alongside Harrow was Nobby Clark. He was second only to Harold Larwood as the fastest bowler in the country during the 1930s and he was certainly the fieriest. He regularly fell out with his county side, Northants, and would explode with anger on the field at a drop of a catch or a stumble in a foothole. His reputation held back his international career – as the Despatch profile writer said, “the wind of his temperament veered like a cardboard weathercock” – and he only played in eight Tests for England over five years.

Having fallen out once more with Northants, he somehow became the RA professional in 1938, drawing large crowds to Brinkburn Road and skittling out the opposition. “In four games, he has taken 22 wickets at an average of 9.3 runs,” said the Despatch. He took 6 for 14 as RA bowled Bishop Auckland out for 35, but even with his firepower, the railwaymen only finished mid-table that season.

Opening for the women "sloggers" at Brinkburn Road on June 21, 1938, Miss G Crawford and Miss E Wilson

Nobby did, though, play in an extraordinary charity match at Brinkburn Road when the men, dressed in “dazzling jumpers and saucy berets”, took on the women, the men “having chivalrously agreed to bat with broomsticks and bowl and catch left-handed”. Although Nobby did “gallantly” with his broomstick, hitting five fours on the way to 25, the women “sloggers” won by 27 runs.

The Second World War again changed the face of local cricket. With many younger men away, Harold Harrow became captain of the RA, and led the club in a remarkable friendly in 1940 against a Catterick XI, which included Yorkshire and England legends Herbert Sutcliffe, Len Hutton and Hedley Verity.

Sgt Len Hutton arrives at the RA ground on May 2, 1940, ahead of scoring his brilliant century for the Catterick XI

On the Brinkburn Road ground, Sutcliffe – the first batsman to 16 Test centuries – was out for 18 but Hutton swept to a brilliant century. Hedley, who would be killed in Italy serving in the Green Howards, then took four for 24 as the visitors won easily, but the Echo noted: “The RA’s fielding was good, H Harrow giving an outstanding performance and taking two fine catches.”

Harold Harrow in the early 1940s when he captained the RA

In 1944, Harrow was captain of the RA side which won the NYSD title for a third time – he was one of two players who had also been in the side of 1929 and 1932 which had won the championship.

“Few players in any sport have such a fine record of service to any one club as Harold Harrow,” said the Despatch.

Today, at the start of the new season, he would find his club in fine fettle. Promoted back to the top flight, with an overseas professional, Tanveer-ul-Haq, of real promise, they have four senior sides and three junior teams plus a real swell of interest in girls cricket.

And, like Harold at the start of every season, today they have hope in their hearts.

With Locomotion No 1 on the club badge, the Darlington Railway Athletic is looking forward to being involved in the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Stockton & Darlington Railway

READ MORE: HOW DARLINGTON POWER STATION CAME TO TOWER OVER THE TOWN

• With huge thanks to Paul Eckles whose father, Albert, played with Harold Harrow who gave him the scrapbooks