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Chalfont Saints Cricket Club was formed in June,
1950, by nine members of Chalfont St. Peter Football Club, who were
looking for something to do during the summer months.
The club was not set up to rival the main village club, Chalfont
St. Peter, based at Chalfont Park, but rather to provide some social
cricket for those who wanted to play and enjoy the game without taking it
too seriously. The Saints’
home ground was adjacent to the football club, sometimes known as “The
Playing Fileds”, at other times as “Mill Meadow”.
Two of the founder members were Wally Stevenson, an
expatriate Geordie and great raconteur, who loved to tell stories about
his lifetime experiences, both military and sporting, and Ron Larkin, who
served as Secretary and Fixture Secretary for many years, and later became
a well know local umpire, both for the Saints and Chalfont St. Peter.
In fact, many of the stalwarts of the Saints had close associations
with both clubs, among them Bill Horton, who in the early days was the
groundsman for both clubs, and also Jack Bickmore.
Eric Inglis was one of the great characters of the club, a hard
hitting middle order batsman in his playing days who later became the club
umpire for many years, and also club president.
Other notable figures in the early days of the Saints were Stan
Blows, Jim Bowler, Bob Breslin, Gerry Cohen, Ray Davis, Frank Graver,
Ralph Higgs, Ernie Jakeway, Bob Horton, Peter Martin, George Smith, Peter
Smith and Dave Thompson.
In the early days especially, the Saints wicket was
“sporting”, and few matches ended in a draw.
In fact, in these days, if you batted first and scored 50, it was
usually a winning score ! Bearing
this in mind, in 1956 the council decided to level the ground and relay
the square; this was originally scheduled to take three years, but in fact
took ten, with the result that Saints became a wandering club.
The late 1960s marked the beginning of a golden
period for the Saints, under the chairmanship of John Stocker Hocknell.
By his own admission, John was not a great cricketer, but he was a
wonderful character, a great raconteur, everyone’s best friend, and
someone who cherished the history and aesthetic beauty of cricket, and who
championed fair play at all times. During
this period the Saints developed from being a single XI wandering club
into one with its own clubhouse and ground, two senior XIs, a colts XI and
an active social side, too. John
also started the annual six-a-side tournament, held at Mill Meadow, which
became a memorable date in the local sporting calendar for several years.
During this period, another great stalwart of the
club, Peter Bunce, was starting to make his mark.
Peter was an outstanding sportsman, a fine footballer and an
outstanding wicket keeper batsman, and also a very kind and generous man.
He served on the committee for many years, and was club captain in
the mid 1970s. Everyone at
the club was devastated when he died suddenly in 1978.
In his honour, a beautifully carved wooden notice board was put up
in the pavilion, enscripted, simply, “In memory of Peter Bunce,
sportsman”.
Martin Everitt was probably the best batsman to play
for the Saints, stylish as well as prolific, and he was a useful bowler,
wicket keeper and fielder, too. At
various times, he was club captain, secretary, treasurer and chairman, not
to mention architect, carpenter, plumber, bricklayer and groundsman.
He was widely known as “Mr. Chalfont Saints”, and is now an
honorary life member of the club.
Other notable players during the 1970s were Tony Greenham, seam bowler; Graham Harrison, batsman and seam bowler; Robin
Harrison, seam bowler; Laurie Larkin, stylish batsman; Martin Little, seam
bowling all rounder; Bill Lambert, reliable seam bowler; Graham Lincoln,
opening batsman; Ken
McIntosh, local school teacher and much feared fast bowler, not to mention
hard hitting batsman; Mick
Ormerod, off spinner, leg spinner and dashing batsman; John Ridley, wicket keeper
batsman and colourful character;
Ian Stone, slow bowler; Brain
Welch, dashing opening batsman; Bill Thompson, unorthodox batsman and
brilliant fielder; Brian Whitby, stalwart player and committee man; Duncan
Whitwham, an outstanding batsman; George Young, dynamic West Indian
batsman, ladies man and character, and David Crowe, batsman.
In fact, one of the most famous Saints stories
relates to George batting in a match against Amersham Hill: after he had
hit several sixes, and lost several balls, the match had to be suspended
because no more spare balls were available; George remedied the problem by
retrieving a brand new ball from his own bag, and duly completing his
century without hitting the ball in the air again !
By the mid 1970s, Saints had become a formidable
cricket club, and around this time the first leagues were beginning to
start up in the south of England. Saints
initially resisted the temptation to join one of these leagues, and
continued to play friendlies. For
the first time, a colts section started to thrive at the club, with two
excellent colts managers, Paul Housego and Mick Ormerod, encouraging a new
generation of players, including John Coles, Stuart Dalrymple, Steve
Whitby, Risto Gronmark, Jeremy Sewell and Matthew Stevenson.
In 1984, Saints bowed to the inevitable and joined
the Mid Bucks League. At this
point, they enjoyed two lucky breaks, which led to a golden period of
success in league cricket and knockout cups.
Firstly, Martin Little, probably the best all round cricketer to
play for the Saints, rejoined the club after a spell at High Wycombe C.C.
and, secondly, Hugh Bell joined the club, along with his two sons, Nigel
and Duncan, after moving south from Yorkshire.
In 1986, Saints won the Mid Bucks League; Martin Little was the
outstanding player, but it was usually Hugh Bell, with a vital wicket, or
a crucial twenty or thirty runs down the order, who made the match winning
contribution. Saints also won the Timberlake Cup twice, firstly when Hugh
Bell scored a brilliant 75 in the final against local rivals Chalfont St.
Giles and, secondly, when Martin Little followed up an innings of 70 runs
by taking four cheap wickets, this time in the final against Winchmore
Hill.
The other main stalwarts of the very successful
Saints teams of the mid 1980s were Laurie Larkin, middle order batsman and
club captain; Ian Adams, opening batsman; Nigel Bell, powerful left handed
batsman with a taste for hitting big sixes; John Franks, all rounder; Gary
Lester, all rounder; Mick
Ormerod, evergreen spin bowler; Jonathan Royals, all rounder; Matthew
Stevenson, opening batsman and Steve Whitby, destructive top order batsman
and wicket keeper.
Another of the legendary Saints comedy moments took
place one season in the mid 1980s. The
Sunday XI were very short of players one weekend, and at the last moment
called up Martin Fisher, a well known local footballer who had only a very
loose understanding of the rules and etiquette of the game of cricket.
When he went out to bat at number 11, he hit his first ball into
the outfield, took an easy one but then started coming back for a second.
The throw from the outfield was coming over his shoulder, and was
clearly going to beat him, so he instinctively decided to intercept it
with his bat ! After much laughter, and consultation of the rules book, he
was given out for obstructing the field.
Martin later learnt the rules of the game, and became a popular
member of the Sunday XI for several seasons.
The late 1980s and early 1990s were not such a happy
time for the Saints. We
continued to be relatively successful on the field of play, with John
Franks and Duncan Bell contributing well alongside Martin Little, but
problems started to arise off the field.
Firstly, leagues were starting to stipulate that clubs must own
their own ground, or at least provide bar facilities, but this was never
going to be possible for the Saints, who had always stayed true to their
roots and socialised at the football club after matches.
Secondly, it was becoming harder to keep the colts section going,
because youngsters were being increasingly tempted away to clubs with
better practice facilities, and this meant that no new blood was coming
through. And, finally, the
club’s square was vandalised in 1991, which meant that, for the second
time in its history, Saints were without a home ground.
Although Mill Meadow was repaired for the 1992 season, the club was
in decline, and it was unanimously agreed that a merger with Chalfont St.
Peter C.C. would be in the best interests of cricket in the village.
Matthew Stevenson, November, 2001.
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