Close, Parkinson and Rice

The years following Tom Pearce had to rely more and more on sponsorship and big names to attract the crowds.

The Club was particularly grateful for sponsorship from Asda Stores, Scarborough Building Society, Tesco Stores, Wards, White Horse ,Northern Electric and Tetleys. McCains and Boyes Stores were local companies who both became significant sponsors.

The sponsorship was added to by contributions from big names such as Brian Close, Michael Parkinson and Tim Rice. In the spirit of the Festival teams took the field as: The D.B.Close XI who played during the 80’s against International Touring sides; Michael Parkinsons World XI who played MCC in 1988 and 1989 and India in 1990 and Tim Rice’s XI v Yorkshire in 1998.

More recently the Festival is a week of Yorkshire Cricket which usually consists of a four day Championship match and a one day fixture, but it is put on in a festival atmosphere with marquee and band music, in the intervals these days, to produce a relaxed holiday feeling of Cricket by the sea.

The festival is still thriving, attendances in 2011 were excellent and August 2012 will see the 126th Festival.