Claygate CC history
A little club with a big heart...
Claygate Cricket Club started 125 years ago when General Gordon relieved Khartoum and Mark Twain first wrote Huckleberry Finn! Only 8 years previously England had played Australia in the first ‘Ashes’ test match!
In 1885 cricketers still wore spots or stripes on their shirts, and the club became established thanks to the energetic Honourable Fitzalan Foley as President with ‘Loseberry’ as the first home ground. Local press reports described the club as one the ‘strongest village combinations in the country’ and a ‘nursery for first class cricket’. Some journalistic licence may have been involved! All-rounder Fred Napper appears to have been the star player of the time.
After the First World War, the club reformed as Claygate Comrades with Stanley Brown starting a 35-year reign as secretary and treasurer. Games were played at Claygate Common with fielders apparently worried about encountering adders as they retrieved balls from the nearby woods! The move to the Recreation Ground took place in 1935 and during World War Two, players believed they could actually hear the rumble of guns from Dunkirk. Imagination in those days may have been somewhat vivid!
In the 1950’s, membership flourished. Among the newcomers was Tony Davis due to make a big impact on the club over the years. In one match in that time, Heathfield were dismissed for just ten (Ticker 6 for 6) and the celebrated sportswriter Desmond Hackett made a special presentation to the family of brilliant all rounder D. May who tragically died aged only 25.
In 1957, under Captain Alan Pritchard, the club lost only 12 out of 55 games. The vicar asked that one Freddie Markland could be left out the side because his big hits might endanger the children’s tea party at the vicarage! (Still a problem now! – Ed)
In the 1960’s, the club celebrated their 75th anniversary with an ‘Olde Worlde’ cricket match in period costumes, advertised around the village by the well known singer Alma Cogan.
With the pavilion being improved and new players joining, some members could not get a game. The club was very strong with stalwarts like Brian Jackson, Bob Buckland, Jem Price, John Bethelll, Mike Holt, David Milner, Bob Capon, Jeff Thomas, Andy Spector and Tony Munday being the backbone of the club. Tony Davis was also still going strong in a new ball partnership with John Oliver. Bethelll remains the only man to have scored 1000 runs and take 100 wickets for the club in a season and he did it three times. Brian
Woolnough, now a leading football writer and broadcaster, was amongst the talented group of young all-rounder at that time. The annual Goatacre fixture also started in this era.
Still going strong 39 years later, the annual Cricket Week started in 1971 with Bob Capon providing a TV in the pavilion to keep players abreast of racing, test matches and other sports news. Quite an innovation in those days! Regular opponents were HARPS from the Birmingham League whose supporters included the father of England’s Denis Amiss a straw hatted umpire who enjoyed his lunch at the Foley! David Milner was already supervising the colts and Ted Ralph retired after 26 years as a superb umpire and died in 1982.
Into the 1980’s playing membership fell, several stars being no longer available and standards dropped. However some talented youngsters Alan McKinley, Russell Davis and Mark O’Connell amongst them were coming through. To keep players with the club Claygate needed to reverse the trend and embraced league cricket which was really taking over across the country. CCC joined the Slazenger League in 1986 with immediate success - promotions following in the first few seasons. Tim Scott and Warren Ganesh emerged as a record breaking opening pair and Ganesh still holds the clubs individual record score of 178 not out in a Slazenger league match.
As the nineties began, the death of Tony Davis, by now an umpire and a larger than life character with a penchant for singing in the pavilion after matches, was a real blow to the club. His memory is still honoured with the special bell in the pavilion.
There were switches from the Slazenger league to the Wey Valley League winning the title in 1992 under Alan McKinley and then in 1999, the Surrey Downs League.
One high spot at that time was Gerard Didcock’s blitz of sixes in the last over to win Claygate a knockout cup competition against all odds.
As the millennium dawned, the club’s top players were all rounders Mark O’Connell and Ben Lane, Simon Bushell, Richard Waller, Russell Davis and Damien Ross and with a new crop of youngsters emerging fast. Oh and David Milner continued serving the club magnificently as President!
The club entered an adventurous era with its first overseas tours to Sri Lanka (1995), Barbados (1997) and Goa (1999).This sequence has continued into the 21st century and the club has been all over the cricketing world – adding South Africa in 2001 and 2008, Trinidad and Tobago in 2003 and St Lucia in 2006. We intend that the international tours will continue and the aim for 2012 is the long anticipated trip ‘down under’!
Into the new millennium and Claygate Recreation Ground Trust took over the running of the Recreation Ground from the local council and plans are building for a new pavilion to be part of the 125th...126th...127th anniversary celebrations!
One of the major successes of the last few years has been the growth of the colts section. As well as a highly successful Kwik cricket for 6-10’s, CCC now run five colts sides at every age group up to 14. These will be the payers who become the club in the years to come. Looks out for the Matt and Ed Jones , Rob Carnegie Brown and a few others!
Claygate achieved possibly their greatest season ever in 2004 when both league teams won their respective league titles. One of the key elements behind this was the joining of the club by South African Dillon Woods who captained the 1st XI to the Surrey Downs league championship in 2004 and runners up in 2006 Graham Dear led the 2nd XI to successive titles in 2003 and 2004. During this period Rufus Legg was remarkably consistent exceeding 1000 runs a seasons for three successive seasons
The club has fantastic strength in depth in the over 50’s section. We could turn out a full side at this level on a weekly basis! Darke, Guyatt, Abbott, Vincent, Spector, Cope-Morgan, Murphy, Cecil, Law, Waller, McKinley (this year...ho ho!) Ross, Wells, Dear, Cockburn-Smith, Lewis, Graham, Williams...the list and their combined total of years is endless.
Another great feature of the club is the strength of families with the Vincent turning out 5 family members for a game a few years ago...and several father son combinations are in action each weekend.
And the colts of 10 years ago have matured into the new generation of real players – Price, Howe, Watkins, Vincent, Holmes, Burt, McKinleys, Webb, Law, Abbott, Harrington, Dear, Henderson, Davies .So many familiar names showing the real family feel of the club...
Add to that a terrific span of other stalwarts... Prabhakar, Shury, Hannaford, McPhail, Simmons, Andrews, Louw (Others? Just send name and £10 to the editor)
And a brief word of thanks to our sponsors over the years. Taxwise and CAG in the early 2000’s and now local estate agent Matthew Peirce and The Griffin Pub.
So a new pavilion in 2010/11? An Australian tour in 2012? A league promotion in 2013?
These are the hopes for the future!
CLAYGATE CC PLAYERS PEN PIX 2009
NIGEL ABBOTT: Lifetime Achievement Award from club in 2005 after years as skipper of ageing Sunday team. Marathon runner, mountaineer, film maker, seam bowler and now freelance communications consultant. Is there no end to the man’s talents? Yes, batting.. and web site editing!
PETER ANDREWS: What’s Up Doc? Nothing wrong with Peter, never injured... Hard-hitting tall left–handed opener. Affable, if occasional, member of Sunday side.
KIM BAHL:
CLAYGATE CC PLAYERS PEN PIX 2009
NIGEL ABBOTT: Lifetime Achievement Award from club in 2005 after years as skipper of ageing Sunday team. Marathon runner, mountaineer, film maker, seam bowler and now freelance communications consultant. Is there no end to the man’s talents? Yes, batting.. and web site editing!
PETER ANDREWS: What’s Up Doc? Nothing wrong with Peter, never injured... Hard-hitting tall left–handed opener. Affable, if occasional, member of Sunday side.
KIM BAHL:
