Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) are delighted to announce that top order batter Noah Kelly has signed his first professional contract with the county.
Kelly, 18, has penned a two-and-a-half-year rookie deal, which started on July 1.
The left-hander has been with Yorkshire since the age of 10 and has graduated through the age-groups.
The Driffield Town product makes the step up from the Club’s Academy, where he has been a heavy run-scorer for the last three summers, including in 2024.
“Yorkshire is such a massive club and my home club as well,” said a delighted Kelly. “To sign with the Club adds more beauty to it. I can’t wait to get stuck in.
“The pathway has been absolutely amazing. I joined the pathway when I was 10 and have gone all the way through.
“This is a big check point in my cricketing career. Signing your maiden Academy deal is your first, and your second being that first professional deal.
“It feels like a new chapter and the beginning of a lot of hard work to come.”
Kelly, a former Bunbury Festival player, won the Yorkshire Premier League North title with Driffield in 2022, the same season he helped Yorkshire’s second team win the Championship title.
In all cricket last summer, including some England representative cricket and for Driffield, he scored 2,025 runs in 45 matches with 12 fifties and five hundreds.
At the start of this summer, he hit a superb 171 for Yorkshire’s Academy/Under 18s side in a two-day friendly against Lancashire at Bradford Park Avenue whilst batting at three.
Kelly, who made his second-team debut for his home county towards the end of 2022, was with Yorkshire’s first team for the first time in April of this year.
He undertook 12th man duties for the Championship match against Middlesex at Lord’s and has just completed his A-Level studies.
Kelly said: “Hopefully I can keep scoring runs. But, as long as I’m enjoying it, that’s the main thing. I feel like when I’m enjoying my cricket, that’s when I’m at my best.
“I think I’ve started the season well. Juggling it with my A-Level exams has been tough, but now that they’re all over I feel I can play a lot more freely.”
Kelly plans to travel to Australia to play some winter grade cricket at the end of this season.
On his aims before then, however, he added: “I first of all want to get some good scores in the second half of the second-team T20 block, which is ongoing.
“There’s then quite a break in the second-team schedule for the Metro Bank One-Day Cup. If I can get some scores in the twos, we’ll see what happens. I’m trying to put my hand up for that.
“Whatever happens, I just want to keep being positive. That’s something I’m determined to keep doing.”
Yorkshire’s Academy lead coach Tom Craddock was the one who broke the news of a first pro contract offer to Noah and his parents, Rita and Mark.
Craddock said: “It’s been an honour and a privilege to work with Noah over the past seven years since I first met him at the age of 11.
“Watching him develop as a cricketer in both age-group cricket and in the Academy has been amazing.
“Alongside this, he has grown into a brilliant young man.
“He has always worked extremely hard to be the best player he can be.
“He never underestimated how important each opportunity was when he got to represent his county, and it showed. He ended up amassing over 4,500 runs whilst playing in the age-groups and Academy, which is an astonishing effort.
“I speak on behalf of all the coaches and volunteers who have helped him on his journey, we are all so proud and delighted for Noah.
“He fully deserves his first professional contract, and we can’t wait to watch him thrive and go on to achieve great things for Yorkshire and hopefully England.”
Ottis Gibson, Head Coach for YCCC, said: “Noah is a very good young player, and he loves batting.
“He’s highly thought of at the Club, and the guys in the Academy have done a fantastic job getting him to where he is at the minute. To be able to sign him to a first professional contract and give him the opportunity to continue his development is fantastic for him and for us.
“He’s been around the first team a couple of times already.
“What we’ve been trying to do as a first-team squad is get those young players involved and give them some exposure to this environment.
“We’re all very pleased for Noah because it’s an important step in his career.”