Sachin Tendulkar. Brian Lara. Joe Root. Ben Stokes. You can now add to that list:
me and my mate Al.
…..because we’ve become the latest cricket superstars to take the world by storm. Or, so it felt when we were smashing fours and sixes (and occasionally missing the ball completely) in the cricket nets that are upstairs at
Sixes, a new bar in Headingley that offers punters the opportunity to pick up a bat and face a few deliveries in between drinks.
The venue itself is fairly unassuming on entry; the ground-floor bar is pretty standard fare for a bar, with tv screens for watching sport dotted around the glitzily appointed room. But – this bar holds a secret. There is a series of cricket nets on the first floor where you can go and test your mettle against digitally recreated bowlers who send their deliveries down the wicket at a speed and level of difficulty that you can choose.
Although perhaps describing the presence of the nets as a secret is misleading: even over the, frankly quite loud, music being played in the downstairs bar, we can still hear the shouts of glee from upstairs as someone manages to hit one out of the (virtual) stands.
Neither my companion nor I has ever really played cricket before, and I think it’s important to say that even as complete novices this was a lot of fun. There are different sized bats so that everyone can join in, the balls aren’t real cricket balls as I think that would present a very real risk of getting someone severely injured, and most importantly for us, you can change the settings to “beginner” so that the balls come at you quite slowly, giving you the chance to actually hit a few.
As I touched on earlier, the music was quite loud, but I’m keen to avoid coming across as a crotchety old man, so instead I’ll focus on developing a positive interpretation of the ambience. Which is to say that it is quite a high energy place, even, on our visit, featuring someone walking around playing a saxophone whilst we sit enjoying our drinks. All of which means that it would likely be the perfect place to stop in before, after or even during a visit to watch the cricket at Headingley Stadium to keep the party going.
Sixes serves food to sustain you through your exertions (I was surprisingly tired after my stint in the nets), and has an extensive menu of pizzas, burgers and bar snacks with enough variety to keep everyone happy.
Having said that, we do struggle to get hold of any of the food on our visit, which I’m willing to attribute to Sixes, and many of the staff, still being very new. The staff themselves are lovely, apologetic and accommodating when we ask if we can try some of the food, explaining that many of them are still getting to grips with how everything works, which I think is fair enough.
These things take time and I’m sure they’ll get there. Eventually, we do manage to get hold of a plate of nachos, which are perfectly fine in their cheesy, garlicky, tomato spicy goodness. The burgers, pizzas and other bar snacks that we see go out to other tables look similarly serviceable and seem to put smiles on faces.
Me and my mate Al, surely by now newly inaugurated into some kind of cricket hall of fame after our batting exploits, both agree that we would gladly pay Sixes another visit to further hone our skills, and to try some more of the menu options on offer.
https://sixescricket.com/location/headingley
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 04:00 pm – 11:00 pm
- Wednesday: 04:00 pm – 11:00 pm
- Thursday: 12:00 pm – 12:00 am
- Friday: 12:00 pm – 01:00 am
- Saturday: 10:00 am – 01:00 am
- Sunday: 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
19 Ash Rd, Headingley, Leeds LS6 3JJ
Photography by Jac Williamson.
