Don’t bowl in Noah’s arc!
Noah Kelly signed his maiden professional contract with Yorkshire midway through the 2024 summer and made his first-team debut shortly afterwards.
Kelly, 20-years-old, is a left-handed top order batter who also keeps wicket. He signed an initial two-and-a-half-year contract at Headingley in July 2024.
He made his first-team debut in an August Metro Bank One-Day Cup defeat against Glamorgan at Cardiff, scoring three whilst opening the batting against the soon-to-be-champions.
Kelly is a product of Driffield Town CC and has already captained their first team. He was part of the side which won the Yorkshire Premier League North title in 2022.
Continuing the theme of silverware, he helped Yorkshire’s Academy win the Under 18s County Cup (one-day) competition in September 2024. They beat Middlesex in the final at Kibworth.
Kelly was a talented junior tennis player, one who played at county age-group level. He played with and against current Yorkshire Women’s star Erin Thomas.
He played cricket for Yorkshire’s age-groups and debuted for the Academy in 2022 and for the county’s second team a year later.
In the summer of 2023, he also played for England’s Young Lions (effectively their Under 19s) in a series against Australia, in which current Test batter Sam Konstas featured.
Kelly scored a T20 century for Yorkshire’s second team against Lancashire in 2024 – 100 off 55 balls whilst opening the batting.
He also ended the 2024 summer opening the batting in second-team red ball cricket, though batted in the middle order and at three earlier in the campaign.
Kelly warmed up for the 2025 and 2026 summers with spells of winter club cricket in Melbourne, playing for Beaumaris. Though, prior to Christmas 2025, he was invited to represent Ringwood Under 21s in a T20 festival and scored three centuries in four days.
In 2025, he was the second team’s leading red-ball run-scorer with 934 to his name.
UPDATED: Jan 2026.