Best teas in the country!

A local club in Leicestershire is celebrating the magnificent achievement of being named the winners of the nationwide Yorkshire Tea Great Cricket Tea challenge.

Newtown Linford Cricket Club is situated next to Bradgate Park, and their tea, brilliantly prepared by Sancha and India Hopkins, is as delightful as the landscape.

By having the best tea in the country, Newtown Linford has secured a match against the PCA Masters (Professional Cricketers’ Association's team) on Sunday, September 6 from 10am.

Some big names from the world of cricket are set to be in attendance. Former Leicestershire duo Paul Nixon and Darren Maddy have been confirmed along with former England captain Michael Vaughan and England batting coach Mark Ramprakash.

The club is expecting a large crowd on the day and more information about the day’s events will be made available in due course.

Leicestershire County Cricket Club congratulates the club on its achievement and hopes the day goes well for Newtown Linford CC. The club kindly hosted an Academy fixture for Leicestershire earlier this season and our players thoroughly enjoyed playing on the ground.

Here is an article on Newtown Linford, written by Gareth A Davies for the Daily Telegraph website when the judges visited the ground:

Newtown Linford Cricket Club, nestling at the foot of Bradgate Park in Leicestershire, was formed in 1919, and is today a thriving hub of the local community.

Bradgate Park is steeped in history, being the ancestral seat of the Grey family in the 15th century. Indeed, the family’s most notable member, Lady Jane Grey, was born here, and the current owner is a descendant of the Greys.

The club ground, which is used by the 90 children from the village primary school, has impressive facilities, with covers, new sightscreens and electronic scoreboard all the result of the hard work undertaken by the committee and, in particular, chairman Jon Dale.

The club has sponsorships and associations with 30 local businesses.

Its greatest success story may well be its teas. It certainly stood out among the 130 entries in the Yorkshire Tea Great Cricket Tea Challenge – that’s why it made the shortlist of six for the 2015 title – and must surely be among the most up-market to be found anywhere in the country.

Local ingredients are the key. The venison in their sausages is reared locally and almost all the produce in what was a magnificent spread came from local farms.

On the day of our visit, the Newtown Linford 1st XI were playing Leicester Banks in the Leicestershire & Rutland Cricket League. Batting first, the home side posted 271 in the 45-over match. Dean Scaysbrook hit a powerful 93 and David Woods was unbeaten on a half-century.

Mr Dale doesn’t just chair the committee: he chipped in with four wickets with his canny medium pace, as the visitors shut up shop with eight wickets down on 250.

The match, played in great spirit, finished as a “winning draw” for Newtown Linford on a faster run-rate.

“It is fantastic when you see clubs like this,” said the former England captain Mike Gatting, one of the judges of the Great Cricket Tea Challenge who visited Newtown Linford and sampled the tea for himself.

“People in government don’t understand what this sort of club does for the community. It’s very difficult to measure, I suppose, but if you come down here and you see the lives it affects, not just on Saturday but during the week, you start to realise the value of the club in its community.

"There are four secondary schools within 10 miles, and a primary school next door, who use the ground.”

Beccie Deighton, assistant brand manager of Yorkshire Tea, said: “Newtown Linford made the final six for this year’s Great Cricket Tea Challenge because of their commitment to supporting their community by using local produce to make their cricket teas, particularly the locally reared venison.

"They put on a very proper tea in a wonderfully proper setting.”