Picture courtesy of Mo Hussain. Bolton Villas 1924 – Captain Mo Hussain (third from right, bottom row) and his first-team colleagues.
Bolton Villas 1924. A new name for an old league club whose reconstitution is taking place under the guidance of Yorkshire CCC’s off-spin bowling Equality, Diversity and Inclusion manager Mahboob Hussain.
The Wrose club play in the second tier, Division One, of the Airedale and Wharfedale Senior Cricket League, of which Calverley St Wilfrids and Rawdon currently lead the way.
Bolton Villas’ first team currently sit towards the foot of a division they have been in for the last three seasons, though this is the first under their new title.
Before we look at their tale, it’s worth looking at Hussain’s background.
In March 2021, Yorkshire appointed Mahboob – Mo, for short – as their new EDI manager.
Hussain, whose background is in social work, is from a cricket mad family.
He started out as a junior at Undercliffe and has played for the likes of Lidget Green, Queensbury, Manningham Mills, where he was first-team captain for 10 years, and Spen Victoria and Yeadon.
He has been with the Bolton Villas club since approximately the same time he took up post at Headingley.
He is currently first-team captain and chair at a club which sits on the outskirts of Bradford.
“It’s a complex story with Bolton Villas,” he said. “The club’s gone through a lot of change.
“The previous committee decided that they didn’t want to continue with the club. They couldn’t do it any longer, and they felt the best course of action was to dissolve it.
“There were lots of protests from the cricketers around why they shouldn’t do that, because it has a 100-year or more history. It was established in 1902 and the first league game was in 1924.
“The committee were more social members but also included former players who now play at more affluent clubs.
“The current demographics had changed. Its playing members are predominantly South Asian now.
“The committee and social members voted to dissolve the existing club and change it to a charity, meaning we had to reconstitute, restart the migration process on PlayCricket, change the name and become tenants at the ground.
“The biggest challenge was raising finances as the financial assets were also transferred to the new charity. With no cricket representation on the newly formed charity trusteeship the cricketers felt quite aggrieved.
“There were suggestions from the committee to call it Bolton Villas 2025, but we didn’t. We wanted to call it Bolton Villas 1924 because we didn’t want the club to lose its long history.
“Nobody owns that history. It was the history of the area, which was my argument. That didn’t bode well with some people, but it is what it is.”
Bolton Villas are currently fielding senior teams at first and second team, they also play T20 cricket and there is an Under 13s side emerging as well down at All Alone Road.
In terms of the first team, Hussain says: “We’ve had better starts to the season, but we’re enjoying it.
“We’ve had a couple of narrow defeats. We played Rawdon in the first game of the season, and they got 346-7 in 50 overs and we lost by 40 runs. What a game that was!”
Clearly, with so much change, perhaps on-field performances are not quite the be all and end all for the club right at this minute.
“I think it’s about getting the infrastructure right, getting that financial model in place properly,” said Hussain. “There were a lot of reasons why we got to the point we did, but that was one of them.
“League cricket’s changing a lot these days. Clubs have made a lot of money on the bar in the past, and some still do, but it doesn’t work for everyone. You have to look at alternative models.
“The ambition is to be established, to have good facilities, to have two to three teams playing regularly and build up the juniors.
“We currently have a ‘change of use application’ submitted to Bradford Council.
“This will allow us to open our facilities to the wider community, and especially people with learning and neurodiverse needs.
“This will help significantly with income generation.
“I do feel the success of this application will go a long way in determining the future of the club.”
In addition to their Under 13s offering, Bolton Villas 1924 is planning to run a Dynamos programme and also Roses Cricket, which is a new all-girls Under 11s programme supported by the Yorkshire Cricket Board. The latter is starting in the next few weeks.
Hussain, who is closing in on 500 senior career wickets, has also gained great delight and pride in the performances of his sons, Amir and Siraj.
Amir is a prolific off-spinner with Jer Lane in the Bradford League: “He absolutely rags it,” said Mo, with a glint in his eye.
Siraj is playing at Bolton Villas and is a prolific run-scorer. He is captaining their T20 side, who have won two from two so far. He has opened the batting with scores of 41 off 25 balls and 79 not out off 39.
Mo doesn’t play in that team, instead watching from the sidelines.
“Both of them play for us in the T20s because you’re allowed a guest player in that,” he said. “They’re both very good cricketers who have had a journey in the county age-groups as well.
“We beat Thackley a couple of Thursdays ago, and I was at my happiest just watching.
“Not only because we won and my two boys played, but I think we had five players under 21 playing and there was a good crowd on.
“I just sat back, reflected and thought, ‘This is the reason why I wanted to fight for this club and continue it’. It was an amazing night.
“There was a real richness of communities all enjoying it together, and cricket was being showcased in its best light.
“Our players are brilliant, and we have many good people behind the scenes.
“Why would we not want to continue for another 100 years?”
Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com. Mo Hussain, who is Bolton Villas 1924 captain and chair, is also Yorkshire CCC’s EDI manager.
