A History of Winslow Town Cricket Club

Much of the following is taken from an article in the Centenary Brochure. Our thanks go to the anonymous compiler.

Twenty Five Years from 1886 to 1910

The origins of our club are of an ecumenical nature, with the founder members belonging to the local Reading Room, a building erected by the Rev A M Preston for religious and other meetings. The first captain of the club was the local vicar of the town, the Rev H A Douglas Hamilton, with the first secretary and treasurer being a Mr Fulks and a Mr Creasy respectively. The initial subscription was set at the sum of three shillings.

Early fixtures were few and far between with matches usually arranged for special occasions such as public holidays and sports days, and mainly of a representative nature like Winslow Married v Winslow Single. As little preparation went into the early wickets, and games were played in local fields, matches often comprised two innings, although if time did not allow the completion of both teams' second innings, the game was decided on the first innings total.

The first recorded match for which details have been found, was on 3rd July 1886 when Mr Geo Robinson of the Swan lent a field for a match between married and single workmen in the service of Mr Parnell. The sides were chosen by Mr F Ligging and Mr C Woodley, and the match resulted in a win for married who scored 42 against single 40. Umpires for the match were a W Goddard and a T Eagles.

Click here to see a Fixture Card dating back to 1891

The first match against opposition outside Winslow was on the 28th August 1886 when Winslow beat Little Horwood by 8 runs. The score sheet for the two innings of Winslow showing:-

Other matches in the inaugural season of 1886 were:-

4th September, Winslow beat Padbury by 28 runs.

11th September Messrs Parnell & Sons Winslow beat Messrs Trollops and Sons London Employees by an innings and 44 runs, with W Bromwich scoring 36 and taking seven second innings wickets.

22nd September, Loyal Grenville Lodge, Buckingham beat Loyal Western Lodge, Winslow by 5 runs at Buckingham.

Winslow Court beat Winslow Town by 2 runs.

In 1888 the restrictions of members belonging to the Reading Room were lifted, and at a meeting at the Bell on 19th November it was agreed that six new bats be purchased as the club held a balance of £5 10s.

There was uproar in the club in 1889 when the captain, Rev H A Dougla Hamilton, was put under pressure to resign his position as he had missed a practise match. This appears to have happened as on the 3rd August 1889, the Winslow captain R Creasy played for a North Bucks XI v South Bucks.

By 1893 the fixture list of the club had expanded and second eleven fixtures were introduced. Matches at home were now being played on a ground loaned by Mr Chinnery of the hall. The list of fixtures was as follows:-

*second eleven matches

Unfortunately, our information becomes a little sparse after this date, but it was reported in 1910 that the sad news of the death of King Edward VII was received at 6am on a Saturday morning. Out of respect for His Majesty the club's game which had been arranged for the day was hastily abandoned.

Fifty Years from 1911 to 1960

It was during this period that the club started trying to establish a ground of its own. Having moved from a field along the Buckingham Road, which had been kindly lent by Mr Silvanus Jones, it was the mid 1920s when a ground was established in Vicarage Road. The ground overlooked the church, and it is reported that the members of the Bowling Club, on the other side of the road, were in fear of their lives when a match was played. By the mid-thirties the club's ground had changed to 'Dene Hill' near the Winslow Church of England Primary School (since closed and converted to housing in the early 1990s) along the Aylesbury Road. This site was believed to have housed King Offa's palace, and gives the club its tie with the crown on the club's emblem. The ground proved to be a popular site with cricket being played there for the best part of two decades.

The first trophy victory recorded by the club was the Brackley Hospital Cup in 1939 on the day before the Second World War broke out.

It is pleasing to see that the war did not hinder the club too much as the following team dismissed Whaddon for 18 runs on 31st May, 1947:-

J Cubbage, G Clements, W Chapman, L Gibson, R Taylor, L Gurnett, C Walton, K Keys, H Norman, J Isham and J Battams. Taylor, Gibson and Gurnett had all been members of the cup winning side of eight years before.

The forties saw the formation of a Thursday side as well as a weekend side, with fixtures running into the fifties, until the increasing difficulty in raising a side led to the eventual end of the Thursday fixture list.

The early fifties saw cricket first played on the present ground. At the AGM held on 27th March 1951 it was emphasised that there had been improvement on the ground especially owing to the purchase of a motor mower and erection of a pavilion, but at a heavy cost to the Club. The accounts showed a loss of £59-9s-5d, and a balance in hand of £20-11s-11d. It was decided to raise subscriptions to 10s and match fees to 1s. It was also reported that 1950 was a successful season with 27 wins, 7 defeats and 3 draws. R Harwood topped the batting averages with 24.7, and Les Gibson runner up with 22.2.

Ten years later, at the AGM in 1960 the membership fee remained fixed at 10s for seniors, a figure that had increased only 7s in 75 years. At this meeting it was decided that a fee of 1/6d be charged for both home and away matches, and that spectators be charged this fare when travelling by the coach to away matches. A proposition that a coach be hired for away matches on both Saturdays and Sundays was adopted, as so few members of the club possessed cars at the time.

Twenty Five Years from 1961 to 1986

The present pavilion was officially opened by Jimmy Hill in the mid sixties. This followed victory in the newly formed Holton Cup when in 1964 Winslow beat Westbury in a final played at Buckingham.

On 22nd May 1966, former England test captain, Peter May, brought a side to Winslow on what proved to be a memorable occasion. The Winslow side which took the field that day was Hart, Ball, Cornley, Colledge, Longton, McLernon, Middleton, May, Perkins, Goodgame and Chapman. The umpires came from York and Harrow.

A remarkable game took place at the Elmfields Gate ground  on Monday 24th May, 1971 in the first round of the Advertiser Cup. Winslow were playing Little Horwood, and after winning the toss, the visitors elected to bat. They never recovered from a bad start and were promptly dismissed for seven. Eight players failed to trouble the scorer, with six runs being scored off the bat and one extra. Ball took 6 for 2 and Tompson four for four. Winslow were able to complete victory by ten wickets before the expiration of their second over.

In 1975 the Club split the weekend captaincy for the first time, as it was felt too big a burden for the same player to captain the side on both Saturdays and Sundays. This year also saw the reintroduction of the Western Lodge of Oddfellows Cup. The cup was played for between Winslow and Addington Estate, with scored aggregated over two games. Winslow won the cup in 1975 and 1977, the latter year seeing the disbanding of the Addington Club. The competition was revived again in 1978, with a 55 overs a side game being played against the Northampton Gullivers. The match was played for a number of years into the late eighties. Since then a number of clubs have competed for this fixture which persists to this day.

The club entered the Buckingham and District Mid Week League in 1977, together with its associated competitions. The limited over cricket has proved popular with members but the club has become an eternal bridesmaid in the various competitions.

With league cricket beginning to dominate the local scene, the club entered the newly formed Milton Keynes and District Cricket League in 1982, gaining promotion to the Premier Division in the first season. This year also saw the club embark on its first tour as well as George Sharp, the Northants captain, opening the bar in the pavilion. Both have proved beneficial additions to the club, although the drink may have had a bearing on sixteen fixtures in Hampshire, Sussex, Kent and finally Essex before a victory was achieved.

To celebrate the clubs Centenary year in 1986, a cricket week was organised and proved to be an outright success both on and off the field. A festival of good cricket played in a tremendous spirit ensued. Winslow entertained a Bucks County XI, a Club Cricket Conference XI, a Club Cricketer Magazine XI and the grand finale of the week saw an all-star Fred Rumsey XI take to the field with celebrities such as Chris Tarrant and Bill Maynard plus famous cricketers including the one and only Ian Botham !! The appearance of the famous England star attracted a record 1500+ crowd at the Elmfields Gate ground and those who attended were treated to some splendid batting and powerful hitting.

Perhaps the cricket from the week and maybe from that last day inspired the Town side as from the end of June they embarked upon an undefeated league run for the remainder of the season which culminated in the Club being  Premier Division League Champions for 1986.

1987 onwards

1987 saw another famous cricketer take to the field in Winslow as a David Gower XI took on the town. He was joined that day by other county players including England Internationals Chris Tavare, Chris Lewis and James Whitaker. At the end of 1987 a group from Winslow played in the Fred Rumsey Cricket Festival in Barbados. The Winslow team was made up to strength with the addition of Mark Nicholas (Hampshire and England) and Simon Hughes (Middlesex). 

The late 80’s saw a golden spell for the Town side with another Premier Division League Championship coming along in 1989. During these years the Club had numerous players chosen to represent the Milton Keynes League XI. It should be noted, however, that the success was built upon some solid leadership from then Club Chairman John Prodger and long term Club President John Larking. A hard working committee off the field supported this leadership and it should be noted that most of the credit for getting such high profile and quality fixtures at this time was down to the hard work of then Fixture Secretary Nigel Norman.

The 1990’s saw changes to the teams as some players moved away and a new crop of players came through. The late 90’s saw some focus on developing the Junior side of the Club and this continues into the 2000’s. We hope that the current batch of Town Junior players will develop and take the Club through to the next chapter in its history.