Brew News - the Yorkshire Tea blog

In the middle of a cricket match, everything stops for tea.

It’s a fine tradition, and it’s one of the many reasons we feel such a strong connection with the game – culminating this year in Yorkshire Tea becoming the Official Brew of England Cricket.

And it’s the inspiration for one of the most exciting competitions we’ve ever dreamed up. This year, we’re searching for Britain’s tastiest cricket tea.

Together with Channel 5, we’re staging The Great Cricket Tea Challenge. It’s a hunt for the cricket community’s best bakes, scrummiest sandwiches – plus a signature show-stopping tea break bite.

Our favourite will win a brand new £10,000 kitchen for their clubhouse, and all entrants have a shot at stardom too!

The four finalists will face off for a day of final judging in The Long Room at Lord’s, and the competition will feature on The Test Highlights Show on Channel 5 during the Investec Ashes Series, with the cricket tea expert Michael Vaughan, among the judges.

To enter, just head to our Great Cricket Tea Challenge website, where we’ll ask you to upload five simple photos – one of your clubhouse, one of your club kitchen, one of your cricket tea and one each of your two team members. We’ll also ask you to tell us what makes your tea the best in Britain.

Good luck!

Phew – it’s been a big week for us.

This was the week that we announced that Yorkshire Tea is now the Official Brew of England Cricket.

We launched the news at Lords on Monday, with the help of long-time Yorkshire Tea drinker and former England Captain Michael Vaughan.

But why tea and cricket, you might ask?

Well the pair have always gone hand in hand. Whatever level you play or support cricket at, the tea break is a time to gather your thoughts, discuss tactics and quench your thirst.

Now 1886 was a remarkable year, for both cricket and tea. This was not only the year that England won all three tests against Australia, it was also the year that our founder, Charles Taylor, opened his first case of imported leaf tea. We’ve been honing our craft ever since.

We’ve been involved in cricket for quite some time, from supporting local league level back in 1997 to sponsoring last year’s Village Cup.

And of course our famous illustrated pack has always prominently featured cricketers. Coming from a county with such a strong cricketing history, it’s perhaps only natural that we’ve always felt such a connection to the game.

So becoming the Official Brew of England Cricket is a natural step. With the Ashes on the line this year, we’ll rest easier knowing our team has a proper brew to back them up off the pitch.

If you’ve got a ticket for the test this year, look out for us at the Yorkshire Tea Break. There’ll be lots going on!

If you’d like to keep up with our cricket activities, you can find us on Facebook and Twitter (#teaatthetest).

Wow! What an incredible day it was at Lords on Sunday for the Yorkshire Tea Village Cup Final. Where do we start? Well, first of all a big thank you to all 292 teams’ players, family, fans and tea ladies and men who did their bit in making it happen in the first place.

The two teams that made it to the final were Woodhouse Grange Cricket Club near York and Reed Cricket Club from Hertfordshire. Unfortunately, there could only be one winner and after a cracking game in perfect sunshine, Reed came out on top winning by 6 wickets – it was actually much closer than that sounds.

The day itself had everything. Little Urn was there, highly polished, gleaming and on his absolute best behaviour. He and the Brew Crew, Melissa, Heidi, John and Will had plenty of takers for our Yorkshire Tea for Hard Water – makes a proper brew with London’s notoriously hard water. Little Urn even got to meet Lord’s famous Ashes little urn!

Both teams had important league games the day before and both won! Then there was a mad dash down to London and the three coaches we put on for each team packed with family and fans arrived in the morning. Others made it down under their own steam and there was a great turn out.

No big village occasion would have been complete without a village fair and Sunday was no exception. Kids of all ages and parents loved all the fun and games such as hook-a-duck, tin can alley, high-striker, hoopla and balls in a bucket. With loads of Yorkshire Tea goodie bags up for grabs, their competitive spirits really came out. The face painters were kept busy too turning children into tigers, rabbits, butterflies and pirates.

Will, one of tea buyers, joined the tea ladies for both teams in the iconic media centre for a tea-tasting session on Test Match Sofa which was being broadcast live from Lords on the day. Even Sky Sports turned up and recorded a couple of news reports.

After the match, family and fans crowded onto the hallowed turf to see both teams being presented with their medals and jubilant winners Reed lifting the cup. Five times finalists Woodhouse Grange were wonderfully sporting, took their defeat with real grace and congratulated the winners.

In the evening, players and close family of both teams got dressed in their finery and enjoyed a sumptuous dinner in the famous Long Room at Lords. After speeches, as a special treat, bowling legend Darren Gough took questions from fellow retired England cricketer Chris Cowdrey, which fascinated both teams.

Looking back, despite some typically British weather, our Summer of Cricket has been a tremendous success. We’ve travelled to villages all over the country and chatted to some lovely people and watched some excellent cricket over a brew. Best of all, we’ve seen some delicious cricket teas put on by some really dedicated unsung heroes.

So let’s raise our cups and mugs and have a proper brew, not only to winners Reed Cricket Club, but also all the villages that entered the Yorkshire Tea Village Cup and everyone who puts so much dedication and effort into making cricket teas with proper love and care.

Oh, and if you want to win a Bat-Making Experience, you’ve until 9am on the 17 September 2012 to win one in our Facebook competition.

To us, tea is special. Very special. We don’t mind having to wait for it either, while it brews properly – the anticipation makes it taste even better. In fact, the anticipation has been brewing all summer for thousands of tea fanatics of a different kind up and down the nation, and on Sunday, the waiting is over.

This Sunday, we’re going to make the best tea ever. A tea to end all teas at the home of some of Britain’s most famous and traditional teas… Lords Cricket Ground.

The preparations began months ago in 292 villages in every corner of England and Scotland. Lovely tea-ladies at village cricket clubs started preparing the cricket teas for the players in the first round of the Yorkshire Tea Village Cup. Since then, clubs have been knocking each other out and the last two standing, Woodhouse Grange near York and Reed Cricket Club, are due to face each other on Sunday. At Lords, the Home of Cricket, no less.

Tea-ladies are incredibly important to cricket clubs. That’s why we invited the tea-ladies, and one tea-fella, from all the quarter-finalist clubs for a lavish afternoon tea at the Harrogate tearoom of our sister company, Bettys. We had a good natter about important stuff like cheese and onion sandwiches, mugs, and smelly boiled eggs, over flutes of pink champagne, silver pots of tea and copious cakes. A real treat and thoroughly deserved.

We filmed the journey along the way and on Sunday it’s the Final. It’s going to be a brilliant day, not just for the players, but for their families, friends and their local communities.

Now Lords cricket ground is pretty imposing, so we’re going to lighten it up by recreating a village atmosphere. It might relax the players too, who are bound to be a little nervous.

It’s going to be a fantastic family day out and to add to the occasion we’re transforming the Coronation Garden into a proper village fete. There’ll be a barbecue, candy floss, face painting, hook-a-duck, tin can alley, high-striker, hoopla and balls in a bucket and some crazy catch cricket games.

Of course Little Urn will be there (you try stopping him) to serve free tea throughout the day. He’s been attending games and brewing up throughout the entire competition at village cricket clubs the length and breadth of the country. He’ll also be accompanied by a brass band – well, no proper Yorkshire do is complete without one.

Finally, as a real treat for the players, after presenting the Yorkshire Tea Village Cup to the winning team, there’ll be a special dinner in Lord’s famous Long Room hosted by Darren Gough, legendary England fast bowler, Yorkshire CCC captain and Strictly Come Dancing star.

As teas go, we hope you’ll agree that this will be one that’s fit for a Lord, as well as Lords. What do you think?

Since the beginning of May, we’ve been supporting village cricket teams the length of Britain in the Yorkshire Tea Village Cup. Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been quite so supportive. But we’re British – and a proper brew sipped through a stiff upper lip is all we need to get through this together.

So far, numerous washouts aside, it’s been a fantastic competition, with some really cracking games, and this last weekend was the Regional Finals. It all started with 300 teams from all over the UK. Due to ‘inclement’ weather, 64 teams are currently in the middle of batting and bowling it out with each other in their region’s Finals. It’s a big deal to village cricketers, as the two teams that face each other in the national final will do so at Lords – the home of cricket – on 9^th September.

Little Urn has been out and about getting to as many games as possible, serving Yorkshire Tea to people who really appreciate a proper brew. Cricket lovers really do love their tea – what better proof than the fact that cricket is the only game that actually stops for tea?

We’ve also been looking for the Best Cricket Tea of each round and we’ve seen some mightily impressive spreads. Everything from delicate sandwiches with their crusts cut off and flaky, meaty sausage rolls to wonderfully light sponge cakes and scrummy scones – all with lashings of Yorkshire Tea. Competing Yorkshire Tea Village Cup teams just tweet us a pic of their cricket tea and the most delicious looking one of each round wins a whole cricket season’s supply of Yorkshire Tea.

We’ve also been looking after Yorkshire and England cricketer Tim Bresnan and the rest of the England Team, by keeping them topped up with Graham Gooch’s favourite brew, Yorkshire Gold. It certainly seemed to help against the West Indies.

Little Urn, along with our friends at Barrington Sports (who provide lots of cricket fun, games and prizes) have been from Birmingham to East Sussex and Neston on the Wirral. Little Urn was also all set to hit Fort William Cricket Club (the wettest ground in Britain) with proper brews, but you guessed it, the match was rained off, as was last weekend’s North Yorkshire North Regional Final at Studley Royal Cricket Club.

The weather is just not playing cricket.

We’re hoping the Regional Finals that were rained off last weekend will be played this Sunday and Little Urn will be able to make it to Sessay who’ll be hosting Studley Royal. On Sunday 1 July, Little Urn, the Brew Crew and Barrington Sports will be squeezing in at the smallest and possibly most picturesque cricket ground in the country at Tolethorpe Cricket Club in Rutland… weather permitting, of course.

So that’s where we’re at in our Summer of Cricket and there’s still plenty more action to come. You can see all the results so far and forthcoming fixtures here and you can also follow us on Twitter if you’d like the highlights. There’s also still time to win a custom made ‘Rolls Royce’ of cricket bats on our Facebook page – click here to enter.

We love people who do things properly, especially if it’s something that’s still made the right way with real skill, genuine pride, tonnes of TLC, and in Britain too.

Well, cutting corners and skimping on quality just isn’t cricket, is it?

Talking of which, you may have heard that we’re getting loads more involved in the world of balls, bails, bats and (most importantly) teas this year. In addition to serving proper brews to tea-loving spectators and players at games up and down the country, we’re running a Facebook competition to win a hand built, 100% British ‘Rolls Royce’. Well, okay, not an ACTUAL Rolls Royce, more the ‘Rolls Royce’ of cricket bats. We’ll explain…

Our friends at Barrington Sports, who organise the fun and games at our ‘Proper Days At The Cricket’, introduced us to Salix – a company in Kent that has been making cricket bats, by hand, since they began. We instantly took a shine to them.

One shake of master bat-maker Andy Kember’s hand and you instantly know that he is a real craftsman and a gentleman. You don’t have to love cricket to appreciate what he does either. Ask Andy what it takes to make a good bat and he’ll tell you “It’s labour intensive, time-consuming and hard work, but a real product”.

Anyway, you’ll see exactly what Andy means if you win our Facebook competition. Click here to enter (before 9am on September 17, 2012) and you could win the ultimate Bat-making Experience. If you win, you’ll get to go down to Salix in Kent and have master bat-maker Andy create a cricket bat to your very own personal specifications right there in front of your eyes. He’ll take into account your weight, height and any personal requirements to make and custom fit a bat that is unique to you.

Mention this to any keen cricketer and they’ll go weak at the knees. (It really is that good a prize.)

Andy and the Salix team also appreciate what we do here – they say they’re Kent’s biggest Yorkshire Tea fans. He and his wife Vicky only drink Yorkshire Tea, and one of their most prized possessions is a Yorkshire Tea caddy, which is coveted by all who visit (and therefore guarded closely!).

Come to think of it, you don’t have to win the prize to see Andy in action. On May 27, Andy will be making a special appearance at one of our ‘Proper Days At The Cricket’ at the National Trust’s stunning Sheffield Park in East Sussex. Little Urn and the Brew Crew will be handing out free Yorkshire Tea during the Armadillos Cricket Day. Barringtons sports will be organising the fun and games which we’d love you to join in with, whilst Andy will make a cricket bat live on the day using traditional tools and techniques.

Do try to make one of our ‘Proper Days At The Cricket’ – they’re great fun and there’s a full schedule on our Facebook page. If you can’t catch one, there’s bound to be a local club competing in the Yorkshire Tea Village Cup that would really appreciate your support. It’s a great way to while away a Sunday afternoon, too. Click here for a list of all the Yorkshire Tea Village Cup fixtures.

So if you want a slice of Great British properness, why not enter our Facebook competition now and give yourself a chance of winning our Bat-making Experience. Off you pop.