News of Workington Juniors’ pleas to stay on their home at the old British Steel playing fields evoked many memories of The Ranch in its golden years.
It was built in the 1950s and the style of the building that housed the changing rooms earned it the nickname – the Ranch.
Later the social club, which also housed sports changing rooms built alongside, was to prove one of the most popular clubs in the town for a couple of decades.
There used to be 7,500 employed on the steelworks site and each department had a football (winter) and cricket team (summer) entered into the annual competition.
The winner of the Workington competitions travelled to Scunthorpe or Sheffield to meet the winners from three other steelworks in the country. Workington won the overall title twice.
The inter-departmental cricket competition was a 20/20 format but unlike the modern day game, all players (except wicket keepers) had to bowl two overs and batters had to retire on 25.
In the final of the cricket the game was played over two nights with the team batting first on the first night batting second the next night and it was an aggregate of both night’s scores. Perhaps the ECB should take note!
A great time was had by all and the old Ranch was busy every night of the week.
In the 50s and 60s is was common place on the Ranch field to have a rugby union game, football and hockey matches taking place at the same time every Saturday.
One former steelworker who was a keen sportsman told Cumbria Crack: “The problem is ‘youngsters’ don’t remember the pleasure both Ranches gave to young and old when the steelworks was in full flow.
“A game of sport and then a gallon of beer was the norm.”
We have been inundated with old team pics from the era, some of which are shown here. Have you got any photos from the Ranch? We’d love to see them! Email them to [email protected] and we’ll publish a selection.
