Cricket in Bampton

Cricket in Bampton 1890 (ish) to today By Anna Pitt

Thank you to everyone who has helped with this publication and with the exhibition at the Vesey Room, in the Old Grammar School in Bampton. Many people have shared their thoughts and memories in order to document the history of Cricket in Bampton and Bampton-in-the-Bush Cricket Club, as it is known today.

Thank you to James Wildman for the layout, cover design and photography.

The author of this work acknowledges the respective copyright owners for the images and photographs used.

Jackson’s Oxford Journal - June 30th, 1900

BCA-48/ January 2019

A Bampton Archive Publication

Introduction This booklet to accompany an exhibition at the Bampton Community Archive in the Vesey Room at the Old Grammar School in Bampton sets out to tell the story of cricket in Bampton with almost 140 years of history.

It has long been thought that Bampton Cricket Club was founded in 1890, but when I started to investigate the history of cricket in Bampton, it seems that it probably pre-dates that. In 1990, people understood that it was the centenary year and it was celebrated accordingly. I don’t know why 1890 was assumed to be the year Bampton Cricket Club was started, but any history is always a retelling of the stories and documents that you have at the time you tell the tale. Nearly thirty years after the centenary celebrations, we have access to photographs and documents that show the history of the Club - or at least cricket in Bampton - may be longer than we thought, but we have none of the people to tell the tale. It has been wonderful to talk to some keen former cricketers who have helped me build a picture of cricket in Bampton since those very early days.

In more recent times, we have the wealth of information that is available to us from our website at bampton.play-cricket.com as well as a ton of paper work that various people have handed over to me. Anyone who is documenting history has to be very grateful for the hoarders in life and it is very handy when you are married to one. I didn’t realise before I took on this task that my own office was full of Bampton Cricketing History. Little surprise really, given that cricket plays such a key part in our lives. We are also lucky that some very exciting cricket moments have been captured over recent years by James Wildman.

As always, with a task such as this, it is impossible to include everything and everyone and there were people who I made attempts at contacting but didn’t manage to do so. However, there are, I hope you will agree, some wonderful voices, and some beautiful moments captured within these pages and in the exhibition. I have enjoyed every minute of putting this booklet together.

Maybe as a result of this book and exhibition more stories will emerge and more memorabilia will be added to the wonderful facility that is Bampton Community Archive.

Anna

Anna Pitt January 2019

Vernon Cannons’ photo from circa 1930 with the team all named

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Cricket in Bampton more than a century ago Cricket in Bampton appears to date back to the late 19th century. Photographic evidence held in the Bampton Community Archive shows the Bampton (Oxon) XI cricket team of 1881, with all the players named as J. Baker, G. Smith, F.W. Taunt, Rev. J.W.B. Bell, G. Taylor, W. Clare, C. Williams, E. Townsend, C. Faulkes, S. W. Hunt, and J. P. Oates who is believed to have founded Bampton Cricket Club in 1890.

Photographic evidence of cricket in Bampton as early as 1881.

The photo opposite shows Cambria Williams, seated second from the right, who was named as one of the players in the 1890 match against Faringdon. Kelly’s Directory of Bucks, Berks and Oxon shows that Cambria Williams was a plumber. Other Bampton Archive documents show that he died in 1931.

The image below shows Faringdon’s fixture list for 1889 showing both home and away fixtures against Bampton.

The first match the Club played was said to have been on 2nd August 1890 between Bampton and Faringdon. There are rumours of a scorebook at Faringdon Cricket Club, which records the 1890 match, but its current whereabouts is uncertain. There were matches against Bampton mentioned on Faringdon’s Fixture Card from 1889. But maybe there wasn’t yet a formal cricket club?

In 1990, an article in the Bampton Beam documents the history of the Cricket Club’s early years and how the Club got started. Matches were played in a field behind Ampney Lodge, which is now the houses of Ampney Orchard. The groundsman was documented as Jim Fox. The article told how the Cricket Club soon needed to find a new home - seemingly not an unusual situation - and one that was repeated a number of times over its long history. We are told that the farmer who owned the field wanted it back as it wasn’t earning him any revenue as a cricket ground.

The Cricket Club then moved to a field just south of the Old Swan Inn on the Buckland Road.

The England cricketer, Gilbert Jessop, played there against Bampton many times. A common problem back then was that when Jessop hit a six, the ball would land in the river. Even though Jessop’s batting was legendary, with a run rate of 82.7 runs an hour, it is probably safe to assume that the river in question is Shill Brook, rather than the River Thames.

By 1906 the Club moved, this time to a field at the back of the cemetery in Landells. It seems the cricketers had found a home for a while as the Club remained here until 1971.

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Photographs in the Bampton Community Archive show the cricket team over the years.

Bampton Cricket Team playing Lincoln College Servants in 1896 includes: R.H. Bullen, W.H. Clarke, F. Lane, Jackson Ryden, O. Williams, Hubert T. Fox, J.G. Oates, H. Stone, W. Lawe, J.C. Oates, W. Clare

Faringdon’s fixture list for 1896 showing both home and away fixtures against Bampton.

Documents and articles in the Bampton Community Archive show that there was a performance held on 29th December 1899 in the school room, which at that time would have been the old school in Church View. The event was in aid of funds for Bampton Cricket Club. An article in the Witney Gazette in 1958 tells us “the concert was a financial as well as an artistic succes. As a result of its efforts the minstrels were able to hand over the respectable sum of £7 to the town cricket club.” The programme shows that Dr Oates and Mr Bullen, both pictured in the 1896 photograph, were performing many of the songs and recitals. Dr Oates was remembered as being able to “make a cat fair want to laugh”.

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Bampton Cricket Team circa 1912 The above photo is undated, but records show that Mr William Norman, owner of The Talbot, was killed in action in 1918 and that Henry Green emigrated to Canada in 1912, returning with a Canadian regiment in 1914, and died at Ypres. Jim Green was badly injured at Ypres, but he returned to Bampton.

Bampton Cricket Team 1930s Back row L-R Captain Easton, Whitehead, H W Lock, Matthias, Jim Pratt, Roy Stroud, Fred Green, Dick Lane.

Front row L-R Barrett, Morris, Charlie Whiting, Arthur Plaster, C Robinson, Fred Cannons, J Haines

Cricket ceased in Bampton in 1914 but resumed at the end of the war. Between the wars, cricket was played on a Saturday. In those days, most of the young men were employed in the many shops in the village. This meant they were not able to play on Saturdays, so they played on a Wednesday afternoon when the shops closed early, hence the team name: Early Closures Eleven.

A picture of the Bampton Cricket Club taken in 1926.

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Vernon Cannons played his very first cricket match for Bampton in 1939 and it was the last match before play stopped during the war years. When the cricket stopped, Vernon’s parents stored the kit bag up in their attic for a while, but Vernon remembers that they then sold the kit to the Royal Corps of Signals for £7. When the Club restarted they had to start again with buying kit, and he remembers a Mr Blomberg, a “wheeler-dealer type from London”, was very good at raising funds to buy their new equipment.

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Vernon was childhood friends with Pip Horne, whose elder brother Godfrey was an excellent cricketer, footballer and was a fireman. Vernon describes him as a real ‘action man’. In the mid thirties, Godfrey Horne was the only cricketer in Bampton to have his own bat. Everyone else played with the two bats from the Club’s kit bag. It wasn’t until the sixties that people started to own their own kit. Godfrey obtained his bat by collecting tokens from a national newspaper, and these together with a postal order for 10 shillings enabled him to become the proud owner of an Atlas Manufacturing Company ‘Dominion’ bat which carried the autograph of the famous Australian cricket captain, the great Bill Woodfull. Godfrey was posted to France just after D-Day and sadly lost his life during the battle for Montchamp in Normandy in August 1944. He is buried in the military cemetery in Bayeux.

Various historical artifacts help to date some of the undated photos in the Bampton Community Archive. Several players in the photograph below have been identified and their names can be found in Kelly’s Directory of Berks, Bucks and Oxon from 1915. Arthur Plaster was listed as a cabinet maker and Bill Lock is listed as a beer retailer. Arthur Plaster is also documented as one of the local craftsmen who re-roofed the Old Grammar School. Harold Reason is mentioned as a bookie’s runner in other documents.

Godfrey’s mother kept his cricket bat, and did eventually give it to Pip, but didn’t allow anyone to play with it. Pip passed the bat on to Vernon, but Vernon couldn’t bring himself to use it either and didn’t let his sons play cricket with it. Vernon has given it a coat of linseed oil every few years and when the grip perished, he replaced that with a new one. The bat has remained unused since 1939.

Between the wars, Marjorie Pollard played hockey for England. She also played cricket and in 1926 she helped found the Women’s Cricket Association. Marjorie was editor of Women’s Cricket from 1930 through to 1950. From the forties Marjorie Pollard lived at The Deanery in Bampton.

Vernon Cannons remembers that Marjorie used to organise Liberal Party meetings and Vernon said that Pip “enlisted” him to go along to these meetings. He said he had absolutely no interest in politics as a teenage boy but he was obsessed with cricket and Marjorie Pollard knew “everything and everyone to do with cricket”, so of course he went along.

Then he was called up and he says “that was the end of an era”.

This photograph is thought to have been taken just after WWII. David Niven and Michael Trubshawe were remembered as occasional Bampton Cricket Club players, when visiting a friend who lived at Little Place in Bampton. It is said that the two friends met in Malta and Niven was playing cricket at the time. Michael Trubshawe was in Around the World in 80 Days, The Pink Panther and Guns of Navarone with Niven. When Niven and Trubshawe turned up in Bampton, that’s when the young players were ousted, relegated to scorer and twelth man to make room on the team for the visitors. Money and status was what mattered, not dedication and not even talent!

He remembers that Marjorie arranged a cricket match and he was invited to play. He declined the invitation, he said sheepishly, “because he couldn’t bring himself to play cricket with women”. He says: “What an awful thing to admit in one’s twilight years, but that’s how it was back then.”

Lloyd Hughes Owens’ wonderful account of the schools in Bampton has little mention of cricket except to say that all photos of the Cricket XI were sadly lost when a box of photographs “mysteriously disappeared” whilst packing up the old school in 1965.

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One of the young players in the 1952 photograph was Graham Taylor. Graham tells me he wasn’t a very good cricketer but he was certainly keen, and was part of the group of people who would go to the ground on a Friday to prepare the pitch. Four or five people would turn up, including Fred Rouse, who often seemed to organise it, Bill Lock and Ted Harding. Graham described himself as one of the players who “propped up the first eleven”. He said that Bampton was an “upmarket”cricket team for many years. In the fifties the team played on a Saturday. Graham remembers England cricketer, Colin Cowdrey once played at Bampton for Merton College Barnacles. Cowdrey thumped one ball hard and Graham stuck out his hand and was amazed to find that when his hand stopped stinging there was still a ball in it! For all those who play today... there’s a Champagne Moment.

Graham, now 87, was called up for national service in 1950, where he trained as a pilot. He flew Meteor jet fighters. He recalls playing cricket in Bampton from 1951. By 1952 he came out of the airforce but he still continued to fly right up until 1989 mainly at weekends, which meant that he wasn’t able to join in with the weekend cricket. Fred Rouse and Graham ran a Wednesday evening team. He said it didn’t go down very well with the Saturday team as they used to say that the Wednesday side messed up the wicket. But hang on a minute, as this story unfolds it seems like the Saturday team wouldn’t have had a wicket if it wasn’t for the work that people like Graham and Fred used to do on a Friday to prepare it.

Bampton Cricket Team 1952 Back row L-R Bob Hurst, Brian Barnett, Fred Fox the umpire, Fred Rouse, Ted Timms, Derek Cannons.

Front row L-R: Phil Horne, Graham Taylor, Roy Stroud captain (and organist at St Mary’s), Air Commodore Ellerton the president, Fred Cannons (father of Derek), Jim Barton the vice captain.

Graham never knew who was in charge of selection, and he didn’t know until the day whether he’d be playing or not. He just used to turn up at the ground and so mostly he became their number one scorer. He enjoyed scoring because it got him involved in the game. And he was good at it.

He said the good players were Vernon Cannons, the traditional opening batsman, Brian Barnett, whose father also played, and Fred Cannons was a “remarkable bowler, who could make the ball spin all ways” . He remembers Harold Chandler was an excellent cricketer. He also remembered Cyril Busby and Dick Print who played for Carterton, but if they didn’t have a game, they’d play for Bampton and “we - the propper-uppers, were left stranded. They took it very seriously,” he said.

Graham also played a few games for Aston, because it was less serious and more fun, but they did have to drive the cows off the field before they could begin. The ground at Bampton was better.

Graham described the old cricket ground behind the cemetery. The pavilion was situated alongside the high wall of the old cemetery and as you looked out from the pavilion over the cricket ground, there was a row of elms to the right. He remembers that Jim Pratt, one of the “big hitters” could hit the ball right over the top of the elms. That was always the aim - to hit a ball over the top of those elms. Graham also recalls the huge elm tree, named “Giant”, right opposite the pavilion and a smaller one that had been struck by lightning, further to the right along the same boundary. The smaller one was known as “Stumpy”.

The young man standing centre back is Pip Horne 14

In the seventies, the big line of elms, diseased by then, had to be cut down. Roy Barratt lived in Glebelands so was on hand to capture the sad moment.

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Jo Lewington remembers a “Gentlemen versus the Village” match. She says: “When I came to Bampton in about 1955, with my brother, who was studying architecture, my sister, up at Oxford, myself at The Ruskin School of Art, we moved into Sandford Cottage, which was really dilapidated then, with holes in the thatch and an outside loo and with partially mud floors inside. I think we were total misfits - three youngsters, barely out of our teens - our mother very ill - talking posh but living in a chaotic tumble down cottage. At that time there was an annual cricket match, we were told, ‘Gentlemen versus the Village’. My brother, who was sporty, would’ve joined in, but didn’t know what side he would play on so he didn’t try to find out about it. I have often wondered how the Bampton of those days sorted out who played on which side - did it depend on whether you spoke the Queen’s English, or your level of education, or what your father did, or merely whether you lived in one of Bampton’s very large houses? Is there any one left in Bampton who would remember how the two sides were decided. I would like to know. Nowadays, thank goodness, social divisions are a lot more blurred.”

Tom Papworth first started to go to the cricket ground as a teenager around 1960. He would go there on a Friday evening and join in with the preparing of the ground. He remembers that none of the other kids his age were interested because as a youngster you could never get a game. It took about three years of Friday evening pitch preparation before Tom ever got to play. There was no league cricket at that time (in Bampton). All the games were friendlies, with a few of the other local villages, plus a regular fixture every Whit Monday against the Merton College Barnacles and an annual visit to London. The London outing came about when Ted Timms moved there after the war to work at Bush Radio. Ted set up the regular fixture for Bampton versus Bush Radio.

The Cricket Club boasted a heavy roller and a light roller but they were just kept out in the open.

There was a well in the field, with a bucket on a rope which they used to water the pitch. At some stage Tom thinks, they laid a pipe from the cemetery and, he says, the fire service watered the pitch occasionally.

One of the great problems of that time, was that the youngsters rarely got a game. Tom said the “old chaps” had been playing together for so long and they only gave the youngsters a chance to play if they were desperate. (He then clarified for the record, you know, when you’re twenty, you think that forty is old.) By the early seventies several members of this mainstay of the team started to drop out as it does start to feel like a young man’s game. Phil Figgins, who played in the eighties and nineties, put it nicely. He said: “When you are used to being very involved in the game, like I was, as opening bowler or perhaps first change and with a usual fielding position in the slips, you see a lot of action. Then you start to drop down the order and bowl less and less, then maybe bat around number nine or ten, and stand out on the boundary. It gets hard to keep the concentration going. Then when the ball finally comes towards you and you’re half asleep, and you suddenly hear shouts of ‘Phil, Phil, it’s yours’. And then when you drop the catch that could have been your only chance in the whole game to get your hands on the ball, well, that’s when you wonder if you should be finding better ways to pass your time on a weekend.”

The cricket ground at Bampton was quite undulating and Tom remembers that it would often throw up a dodgy bounce and you had to make sure that you either avoided it or made sure you caught it properly or you’d be stinging for a while. Tom said they normally played the Merton College Barnacles at Bampton, but they did play at the New College Cricket Gound in Oxford one year. It was like playing on carpet, he said.

When Tom was playing, he remembers that Air Commodore Ellerton (pictured in the 1952 photo) was President of the club, but he says they didn’t see him very often. He remembers Rodney Adams and Chris Timms as regular players, as well as George Slee, who was a teacher at Bampton School. Alan Barker was the club captain at the time. Alan’s wife was also a teacher at the School.

Other players, he remembered, were Fred Rouse, Tom Harding Norman Craddock, Roy Stroud and Mike Hirons, who was in the fire service with Tom. He doesn’t remember anyone playing, who was younger than him.

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So gradually the stalwarts started to fade away and it became harder and harder to get a team out.

Any young talent had generally found other interests or found other clubs where they would get a regular game. Hence by early 1972, with no one wanting to run it, and just three or four people doing the maintenance, the Club just died a death. The cricket pitch became a field once more, with the well filled in and the pavilion taken down.

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Post 1972, cricket continued in Bampton but only thanks to Albert Radband and the Bampton Football Club. Albert ran a Sunday cricket team of footballers for a few years during the seventies.

In 1975, Albert Radband asked Vernon Cannons to captain this team which he enjoyed doing.

So despite having no cricket club in Bampton for several years, cricket still went on. Then in 1986, thanks to the efforts of Paul Wilmer a proper Bampton Cricket Club was resurrected with a new president, Dee White. The following year Peter Smith, succeeded Mrs White as president.

Martin Landray said: “The Headquarters were at the Morris Clown, the landlord was Tom Mace.

Games were played at the football ground on the left of the Buckland Road as you leave the village. In those days there were two football pitches running parallel to the road. We used to use an ex-council road roller to flatten the strip of ground between the two pitches and that was the wicket (again running parallel to the road so that one bowler ran away from Bampton and the other towards). There was no work done on the soil or the grass. The pitch played terribly. My memory is that the opposition would think they’d done well to bowl Bampton out for a low score (often less than 100) until they tried to bat on it!”

arranged. Her great friend, Jacky Allinson asked neighbour, John Smith - a Bampton cricketer, if she could store some things in his kitchen. Pauline recalls: “We had supper to say thank you and somehow I started doing teas together with Moley Stevens who used to run the Trout”. It wasn’t solely Pauline’s love of cricket that hooked her in. She did have “an ulterior motive”, for which today, the Club can be very grateful.

Pauline has had a long history with the club, and has done almost anything and everything except play - arranging social events, raising funds, putting junior fixtures together, creating policies, maintaining a safe environment and keeping the club going.

Pauline found the statistics from 1989, compiled for the end of season club dinner, showing batting averages, bowling figures as well as catches, wickets and partnerships.

Phil Figgins used to play cricket with the airforce all the time, but he said he got a bit bored with it, so when he came to RAF Brize Norton he was looking for a return to village cricket, “because there were more characters and more fun”. And characters, there were! Phil remembers Ed Ward, “a colourful guy”. He was very enthusiastic and extremely bright, though possibly you could say “prone to exaggeration”. Ed liked a drink after the match - the kind of cricket Phil enjoyed. That, I can say, is definitely the cricketing spirit the current team adheres to. Phil appreciated Ed’s dedication to the game. He used to do all the tasks that no one else wanted to be bothered with.

Ed used to roll the wicket and prepare it for each game, he was captain of the team and he scored a lot of runs. And it seems he provided stories. Pauline Smith remembers Ed borrowing John’s car to go off to an away game. She can’t remember why or how (or she’s not saying!) but when he eventually returned, it was with only the tax disc. But then one day, he just disappeared.

Phil tells me that Rupert Gooddy was a club stalwart and was a dab hand with the bat, but he said that even Rupert could score a lot of runs, or score nothing. That sounds familiar. Batting wasn’t Phil’s forte. He was a natural bowler and often opened the bowling, but he does recall that towards the end of his playing days he lost a bit of speed and handed over to some of the younger players who were coming through.

Phil remembers playing at Uffington - most likely their second team, he says, as Uffington were top of the league at the time. They also played at Buckland. In particular, he remembers a match they played at Morris Motors in Oxford. It must have been near the end of the season, he says, as it was getting dark. Phil took five wickets and was awarded “man of the match” - he thinks it was mostly because they couldn’t see! But a 5-fer’s a 5-fer and so Phil had to buy the beers. He bought a few jugs and was delighted at the prices of the clearly subsidised Morris Motors bar.

Phil described the ground at Bampton as a bit ramshackle and you could get a shower, although you’d probably get a better one stood in the middle of the field. But they were good days and it was fun. There was always a sense, though, that they were lacking a home.

It was in the late eighties that Pauline Smith (then Ruff) got involved in the club. Pauline has always loved cricket. From the age of 12 she used to watch her village team in Amport, Hampshire and when she moved to London, aged 19, she worked occasionally at the Lord’s Tavern pub. She met several of the Lords Nippers - the groundsmen there (including Ian Botham) and ended up scoring for them. When Pauline moved to Bampton she couldn’t fit all her things into the storage she’d 18

I like the handwritten addition: three ducks out of seven innings certainly deserves an award. I think that record might well have been broken since, though.

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Bampton’s Centenary Year By 1990 membership stood at 45 and John Lawrence was the club chairman, At this time there was an adult team and a junior section. The under 17s team got through to the semi-finals of the Oxfordshire Cricket Association knock-out cup. That was not the only highlight of the year, though. On 5th August 1990, the club arranged a Centenary Match to celebrate 100 years since the first recorded fixture between Bampton and Faringdon, played on 2nd August 1890.

It is well known that we folk in Bampton like to dress up. So this was the perfect opportunity for donning the costumes of the 1890s, complete with old flannels and ties used as belts and of course the addition of the ‘sideburns and tash’ popular in the day. Pauline and Moley did the makeup for the event.

Catches, wickets and partnerships Rupert Gooddy - before and after make-up

Martin Landray sporting his 19th Century sideburns

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In the 1890 match, Bampton lost by an innings and 12 runs. Faringdon scored 161 runs (H.F. Piggot 59) where as Bampton made 78 in their first innings and 71 in the second with E. Worley scoring 36 and 16. The Centenary re-match went Bampton’s way, with a 61 run victory over the visiting side. Have a read of the match report from the Bampton Beam in August 1990.

The spectators enjoyed a sunny day

We like it when the weather is nice!

The Centenary Match was held at the recreation ground, but it was before the days of our lovely pavilion, hence the big marquee, that served as the make-up room, tea tent and of course like all good Bampton events, the bar. Fortunately the weather was lovely.

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In make-up

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After the match

Receiving the cup

The Centenary of the Cricket Club made the front page of the Bampton Beam as well as the Witney Gazette.

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The flyer for the Centenary Match

This article appeared in the Witney Gazette.

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The New Field Project Following the success of the Centenary Match, cricket was looking to become very popular, and the club started work on finding a new home ... again.

The Club produced a brochure outlining the story of cricket in Bampton and putting forward their arguments as to why Bampton Cricket Club needed to expand and develop in order to cater for the needs of a growing club. A piece of land on Mount Owen Road was identified as a possible cricket ground and various people put their time and effort and expertise into researching how to turn agricultural land into a cricket pitch along with what it would cost. Plans for a pavilion were drawn up by Bampton Architect, Gilbert Marsh.

The proposed plan for the new cricket ground.

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Fundraising events included a 50-50 Auction, a car boot sale, “An evening with the reptile man” (head of the reptile house at Cotswold Wildlife Park) and a wine tasting evening. Martin Landray and Phil Figgins both remember a stall in the Market Square where they played French Cricket, partly to attract new members and partly to raise funds. There was also a brick sale offering people the opportunity to buy a brick to build the pavilion, as well as a sale of trustee shares at a cost of £1 a share. The highlight of these fundraising efforts must, however, be the 12 hour non-stop catches event. An amazing 22,782 catches were recorded.

Bampton-in-the-Bush Cricket Club In the late 1990s, the Parish Council wanted to develop a new sports facility for the village - our wonderful recreation ground on the Buckland Road. The land was previously farmland and the Parish Council had bought approximately 18 acres, gathering together information for all the existing and prospective sports clubs in the village, including “around 30 young people who wanted to learn to play cricket.” Martin Landray tells the story: “Bill Godfrey had a youth football team (Steve Godfrey et al) and was asked (by Jonathan Phillips) if he could convert them into a cricket team in the summer months. Hence there was a youth team with a clear need of a pitch to play on. I first came across Bill Godfrey’s team when I played a few friendly games for Brize Norton (then at the top of OCA Div 1). I remember playing at Brize for Brize vs Bill’s 15-16 year olds. They were fun, enthusiastic but thrashed. They were still happy afterwards as apparently they’d conceded well in excess of 300 runs the previous week!”

On 3rd January, 1997, Pauline and John Smith, Bill Godfrey, Jonathan Phillips and Alan Clarke held a meeting at The Horseshoe, to re-establish a cricket club. The Parish Council had agreed to the installation of an artificial wicket, generously funded by Jonathan Phillips, at the new recreation ground if a cricket club was formed. John Smith proposed the new cricket club and Alan Clarke became the chair of the committee. Bill Godfrey became Vice Chair, Pauline was secretary and Jonathan Phillips was treasurer. Bampton-in-the-Bush Cricket Club was born - the name carefully chosen to dissasociate it from the old team.

Many people in the village contributed to the fundraising efforts, taking part in the events, giving a donation to become a Life Vice President, a life member or an associate member. Sadly, however, the attempt at securing a new ground wasn’t succesful at that time. Funders were given their money back and the club remained homeless.

With nowhere to play cricket in Bampton the club sadly folded. Fortunately, for cricket today, Pauline Smith was determined not to let this last. Pauline remembers: “Alan Clarke had persuaded Morlands to sponsor the team and he was worried they would take the kit to help redeem their funds. So I bought all the kit they had – I think for £250.”

All that remained of the cricket club in 1993, other than Pauline Smith’s determination, was on this list. The kit went missing for a while but fortunately Pauline’s determination didn’t.

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The new committee agreed that the club would focus mainly on coaching and a few friendly games with a view to joining the league in the future when the new pavilion was built. The fees were set at £5 for the year for adults and £2 for juniors with a match fee of £2 or £1 for concessions.

In February 1997, Pauline Smith put together a new constitution for the Club and wrote to the Parish Council in support of the new pavilion project and all looked set for the artifical wicket to go ahead. By April that year the Committee had secured permission to have nets built at the far 31

end of the ground, which they were not entirely happy about, but they agreed to go ahead and put the nets up there on a temporary basis. The new wicket was installed, but it was proud from the ground, so the manufacturers needed to be called in to put the problem right. There was also a desperate need for some fertiliser on the outfield - some things never change! The Committee were concerned that no matches would actually get to be played on the new pitch that year. What they really needed was rain.

Cricket was on the up in Bampton until once again disaster stuck. In 2004, the first Bampton Fireworks display was organised by the Fire Brigade. It was a great success but a firework landed on the artificial wicket, burning a hole. There was no insurance in place to cover such damage and no one could decide what to do or who should or could pay for the repair. In 2005, the wicket was deemed too dangerous to play on so sadly, there was no play for the entire season on the home pitch.

Within less than a year, disaster struck, but it wasn’t a natural one. Someone drove a car over the new wicket and damaged it. It was following that incident that the small fence was put up all around the sports pitches, so that this couldn’t happen again. Repairs were undertaken and the wicket recovered from its trauma.

Martin remembers that at the AGM in 2005 only about 5 people turned up. He says “From memory, there was Alan, Bill, Jonathan Phillips, Pauline, and me. Bill was doubtful that there was still enough enthusiasm and support for a cricket team, I argued the opposite and particularly that having grown up in the 1970s and 1980s frustrated that there was no local team for me to play in, I felt it was important to give Bampton youngsters the opportunity to experience cricket. Next thing I knew, Alan had proposed me to take over from him as Chair of the Club.

However, there was still a discussion going on as to where to position the nets. Progress was being made, however, as the new pavilion was built and an open day was held on 3rd April 1999. The long-disputed siting of the nets then underwent renewed discussions and it took another year before their siting was eventually agreed.

“The next couple of years were very challenging. Pauline persuaded about 20 people to give £50£100 to become Honorary Vice Presidents and thus raised enough money for the replacement of the artificial strip. I started coaching a motley collection of youngsters (about 12 in all aged 4-14).

And our first few games had an equally motley collection of adults. I remember for our first game, I realised we had no club kit (and most of the players I’d dragged in were non-cricketers and so didn’t either). I rescued a few old sets of pads and bats from Bill’s garage together with some stumps. I bought two pairs of gloves and a ball at Giles and made the teas. We had no money so I paid for it all and just about broke even once we had a few match fees in.

“In one of those early games against London Erratics, Gerald Holford and I opened the bowling.

(Gerald had talked to me about cricket in the pub but I had never seen him play). I remember as we each ended our permitted 8 over opening spells looking round the field and thinking with horror that somehow we had to fill another 24 overs.”

Bill Godfrey managed the club with what he called his “cast of thousands”. There was a call for players in the Bampton Beam and that’s when Martin Landray joined. Martin remembers playing with Steve Godfrey and his mates, Les Burnham and his two sons, Andy James, and Andy Green was captain. And then along came Steve Sheppard, Julian Easterbrook and following an event to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002, Richard Pitt.

In 2004, Bampton-in-the-Bush Cricket Club formally set up its youth section. Once again lots of hard work was put in by Pauline Smith. The Club adopted the English Cricket Board’s newly formed “Safe Hands - Welfare of Young People in Cricket Policy” to which it still adheres today.

At this time, Mark Roach led the junior’s coaching with a team of ‘coaching’ volunteers including Martin Landray, Bill Godfrey, Pauline Smith, Andy Green, Mark Booty and John Smith.

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However, by 2007 there were lots of children playing cricket in Bampton, with under 9/10s playing Quick Cricket and U11s, U13s and U15s all playing matches. The Club was making a reasonable go of adult cricket too, playing 12 friendlies, winning 4, losing 7 and with one abandoned. There were also four cup games with one victory.

At this time, it was still not always easy to get an adult team out on a Sunday. When the team was short, a few visitors to the Pitt house on a Saturday night had their plans strangely upended for the Sunday. Protestations like “I haven’t got any whites” or “I haven’t played since school,” or even “I don’t know how to play cricket,” were rapidly dismissed and the game was on. One of these unsuspecting visitors, was Nick Pitt.

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2007 Statistics

In July 2007, the club organised a “Festival of Cricket” which included the junior’s presentation day on Saturday 21st July and a six-a-side tournament on Sunday 22nd. However, a few of us might remember none too fondly the events that unfolded on Friday 20th of July and the days that followed. Along came the Great Flood.

Martin Landray was coach for the Under 11s with assistance from Bill Godfrey, Gerald Holford and John Smith and with Wendy Jones as their scorer - not an easy task at this age group. The U11s won three out of their five matches. Ted Landray was the lead run scorer, with the best batting average as well as the highest individual run scorer. But wait! Ted was also the lead wicket taker with the best bowling average. And yes, history repeats itself. However, the best overall bowling performance of the season was from Kier Nicholson with 3-1-4-2.

Martin’s end of season report shows the skills of the other young players.

The team reports show the hard work put in by the volunteer coaches and the young people who benefitted from the sessions. There was talent coming through.

This was the first year that the club entered any Kwik Cricket competitions. The U10s played in 4 tournaments through the season, with the help of their team coach Lil (Mike Shuttleworth) and with the support of Mark Farmer, Grant Paintin and Josh Bardsley.

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Under 13s were run by Pauline Smith, with help from her team including Anne Baldwin, Roger Snow, Tom Allinson and Martin Landray, as well as Jeanette Ward, for driving and tea making and her helpers Alma, Debbie and Alison. Without the help of these people the juniors cricket wouldn’t be possible.

Jacob Booty was the leading run scorer with a total of 217 runs and took the highest individual run score with 53. Jacob hit 23 fours and 14 sixes in 6 innings. He also hit 34 off a single over!

Patrick Kelly had the best batting average that season with 29.5. Will Smith was the lead wicket taker with 8 wickets and Will also had the best bowling average with 5.4. The best individual bowling performance was Stefan Cottrell with 3-1-4-3.

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The Under 15s was managed by Dave Gardner with the assistance of Jacquie Gardner as well as Roger Snow in his Umpire’s jacket. They faced tough oposition from some teams that had been playing together a long time. This was Bampton Under 15s first season, and despite their “played 7, won 0, lost 7”, the team gradually showed improvement over the season. Jordan Day was the leading run scorer with the best batting average too, and Tom Thorpe and Jordan Day scored the equal highest score with 30. Matthew Williams was the leading wicket taker with 5 wickets and Chris Swingler had the best bowling average. The overal best bowling performance of the season was Jordan Day with 4-0-25-4.

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In 2008 one of the highlights of the season was the festival of cricket that did actually take place!

The six-a-side became one of our all important annual fundraising events.

By September 2007 thoughts were turning towards league cricket and the club approached the Parish Council with a proposal to put in a grass square. At an estimated cost of £20,000, this was a big project that was going to need some serious fundraising. Fortunately, we had the expertise of David Hearn as chief fundraiser.

It was in 2008 that Pauline started the club working towards accreditation with the Oxfordshire Cricket Board’s Clubmark programme. This involved checking of policies, making sure we had all the correct processes and plans in place to ensure that we offered the best possible environment we could for young people to play cricket. We had to document what we were doing, why we were doing it and what we were going to do next. There would be no more AGMs with “there was no formal report but...” and no more “muddling through”. Most importantly, we needed to provide trained coaches. Pauline started to find details of the training courses on offer and a steadily growing folder of paperwork was building up.

We celebrated all the hard work with a fantastic Club Dinner in the Village Hall prepared by Anne and Pauline and assisted by Gaynor on the evening. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was buzzing, the air in the kitchen was only ocasionally blue, someone remembered the 50 pence pieces for the meter and each group of guests brought their own cruets, bread baskets, cafetieres and milk jugs. Plus a few people supplied some of the junior members of their families to be the front of house staff for the evening - handsomely paid, of course. It was a huge amount of effort for some (mostly Anne and Pauline) but was hugely enjoyable for the rest of us and replenished the club coffers to the tune of just under £1000. Much needed funds to pay for the grass wicket.

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In February 2009, a highly organised junior section programme was announced with events and dates detailed through the year, culminating in the Annual Dinner in October. Ten years on and we are trying to get back to those highly organised days. One of the highlights of the social calendar was Dave Gardner’s Film and TV quiz, which was becoming firmly established as an annual favourite.

On to the cricket, for 2009 let’s start at the bottom and then things can only get better. The season saw 6 golden ducks - Nick Pitt scoring two of them! Joining him were Richard Pitt, James Beattie, Luke Fowler and Peter Bull. On the plus side, scoring a golden duck gives you the grand honour of being able to join the Primary Club, the cricketers’ charity that raises money to provide sports and recreational facilities for the visually impaired. Membership of this club is open to anybody who is dismissed first ball in any form of cricket. Bampton-in-the-Bush CC make a point of honouring all those who score a golden duck and encourage them to cough up some dosh to buy a Primary Club tie, cufflinks or brooch and to proudly wear them for Club events.

The Club was also celebrating better cricket, of course, each year awarding a batting award, for the player who scored the most runs over the season in all forms of the game and a bowling award, for taking the most wickets throughout the season. There was also a development award for the player who made most progress over their time as cricketers with Bampton, whether as a junior starting to make their mark in the Club or a cricket newbie or returnee showing the greatest improvement year on year.

In 2009 there was a good battle for the Batting Award with some consistent batting from Steve Sheppard – 454 runs in total. Nick Pitt made a late charge with 402 runs and Nick Fisher doubled his tally from the previous year with 323 runs. But all these were topped by Richard Pitt, scoring 518 runs at an average of nearly 30. For the Bowling Award there was some good competition too, with the winner from the previous two years Nick Pitt taking 17 wickets. Nick Fisher was beguiling opponents with his leg spin taking 18 wickets and Martin made an impressive career best of 20 wickets for the season. But there was only ever going to be one winner after his phenomenal efforts at Great Tew – his 7/41 there wasn’t a one off as could be seen from his 4-13 versus Charlbury and 3-20 against Buscot Park. With 29 wickets at an average of 12, the 2009 winner was Lewis Jenkins.

just couldn’t quite persuade the batsmen to edge the ball or miss it altogether and be bowled.”Then there was Adrian Harris who took on the mantle of wicketkeeper in 2009 having never done it before. He put in some excellent performances, taking 9 catches and making 2 stumpings over the season. He also scored 233 runs at a healthy average, including his maiden half century to set up the win against Great Tew. The 2009 Development Award winner, though, “bowling a heavy ball with control and surprising bounce” and taking 20 wickets (three times more than the previous season) was Martin Landray.

Martin Landray In addition to the cups awarded at the dinner, each year the Club remembers the season through a series of Champagne Moments, an idea unashamedly stolen from the BBC’s Test Match Special Team. Fortunately, this means that some of the most exciting games of the last ten years are documented for our amusement.

Peter Bull’s Champagne Moment nomination form 2009

Among the candidates for the Development Award was Matthew Williams. Club Captain, Richard Pitt noted: “Matt bowled with real pace and swing at the head of the bowling attack, but 40

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September 2009 was an exciting time for the Club, with the installation of the grass wicket.

What a contrast to that period 100 years ago when the field behind the cemetery was turned from farmland to cricket pitch, with just a heavey roller and lots of determination.

In 2011, Bampton-in-the-Bush Cricket Club joined Division 9 of the Oxfordshire Cricket Association League (there’s only one place to start and that’s at the bottom!). The first league game was on May 1st against Chinnor.

2010 saw a total of 28 games over the season with 15 wins and 37 players turning out. We scored 3419 runs and took 198 wickets. Several bowlers took 4 wickets in an innings and 4 times they were on the cusp of taking the first hat trick for the Club. Malcolm Lord surpassed all with his 5-fer against Harwell, only the second time anyone had taken 5 or more wickets in an innings.

Making their maiden half centuries that year were Gerald Holford with an amazing knock against Charlbury including a 6 to win the match, and Ted Landray with his first senior 50 against the touring team from Bugbrooke. The highest individual score to date, was Nick Pitt’s 121 not out from the last game of last season. This was overtaken by a not out score of 127 by Richard Pitt in the match against the Tews in May. The record was overtaken again by Nick scoring a remarkable 143 against Minster Lovell in August, the match that saw the highest runs total thus far at 281.

Across the season, Bampton played a total of 41 games and won 22 of them, with a mix of league and cup games, Sunday friendlies and midweek 20/20s.

A total of 39 players turned out, two more than the previous year. There were 11 players in all but one of the matches which is a remarkable improvement since 2007 when the average was 9.7. A total of 5684 runs were scored and 291 wickets taken. It won’t have escaped the notice of anyone who happened to be in or around the Morris Clown on Saturday 10th September 2011, that at the end of the first season of league cricket promotion from Division 9 was achieved, a fantastic performance to look back on with pride.

Nick Pitt The 2010 Champagne Moment was awarded for the supreme skill required under the most extreme of pressure. The scores were level at 244, the batting side had 9 wickets down and there was 1 ball of the match remaining. Matthew Williams ran in and bowled full and straight, the batsman defended it to mid-on and set off for the run to win the game. Lynxlike, Stewart Williams pounced and in one movement picked the ball up and threw it at the one stump he could see. Had it missed, the batsman would have been home and it would have resulted in an epic defeat. He hit and the Club recorded its first tied match.

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Over the season, four bowlers took 5 wickets or more in an innings with a further 5 of them taking 4 wickets in an innings. The first club hat-trick was still elusive, at this stage but with Julian Easterbrook and Matthew Williams both having 6-fers, and with Julian recording the best bowling figures of the season with 6 for 5 against Minster Lovell, the Club was hopeful that the hat-trick would come.

2011 saw Ted Landray and Grant Print score their maiden centuries for the club, Nick Pitt scored his customary century against Minster Lovell, making his fourth for the Club. On top of this, 24 scores of 50 or better were recorded, with Nick Fisher (twice), James Beattie (three), and Russell King and Julian Easterbrook getting past the half-century mark for the first time.

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Also, 12 players recorded golden ducks, two of them quacking at least twice.

2011 saw the addition of two new awards to recognise achievements in league and cup cricket. The “Most League and Cup Wickets” award went to Julian Easterbrook and the “Most League and Cup Runs” went to Nick Pitt. Ted Landray won the overall Batting Award with a huge total of 749 runs at an average of 39.42. The Bowling Award went to Julian Easterbrook.

teams had become so disenchanted with the weather that they couldn’t field teams, giving little or no notice so players were left twiddling their thumbs.

There were several candidates for the Development Award with mentions going to James Beattie for scoring runs on Sundays and leading the side in difficult circumstances and to several juniors who stepped up, in particular Ben King who was showing great promise for the future. The 2011 winner, though, had developed considerably since joining the club. Lively in the field, his batting came on in leaps and bounds, so much so that he scored 300 runs more in 2011 year than in 2010, and at a better average. This is alongside his wicketkeeping which, when captain, Richard Pitt, let him have a go, improved every match. The 2011 Development Award winner was, of course, Adrian Harris.

The Club was very grateful to Nick Fisher and his grounds team for turning what was a piece of outfield two years previously into “a very true and reliable square, a square which received plaudits from visiting league teams.” Given the very dry spring and very wet summer, this was a remarkable effort, so much so that we started the season by scoring more than 250 on the virgin wicket, and ended it by posting 211.

Having said that, it turned out to be another very successful season with 16 wins out of 32 games and contributions from 39 players. It did feel like a struggle to get full teams together for weekday and Sunday fixtures, probably as a result of the weather. However, every cloud has a silver lining.

With three players short for a Sunday match, Jen Pitt got to work and rustled up three of her school colleagues, and thus Josh Norris was introduced to the club, and would go on to make a telling contribution as the season continued.

Nick Fisher In 2012, following some beautiful weather in March and April, a hose pipe ban was announced.

At the OCA captain’s pre-season meeting the talk was of health and safety and how sports clubs could get around the ban. Phone calls were being made to water boards and notices posted at grounds to advise the public it was ok to water the square, even if they couldn’t water their lawns or take a bath.

How long did that last? The first game of the season was scheduled for Sunday 22nd April. Needless to say it started raining and it didn’t stop until mid May, by which time the first 6 games had been washed out. And this was to be the recurring theme of the so-called Summer, with games often taking place on puddling pitches and in the freezing cold, and one evening cup match actually being played in torrential rain, as the visiting team had travelled from near Banbury. Dogged determination meant only two games failed to complete once started, but 18 games were rained off. Frustratingly, as the season wore on there were actually some sunny Sundays but opposition 44

Josh Norris At the end of the second season of league cricket the Club was rightly proud to win the league. In true Bampton spirit it was left the last minute. Needing 29 points from the last match to secure the title, the team dismissed East Oxford for 109, thus securing 5 bowling points. Bampton could afford to lose 6 wickets, in scoring the 110 required for victory, and so with the score on 109 for 5, it looked like it was sewn it up, until the batsman (who will remain nameless) had a mighty swish and was bowled. No need to worry, though, as Russell King and Gerald Holford saw them across the line to the Club’s first Championship.

In addition to League success, the Club made it to the semi finals of the cup, knocked out by the eventual winners and strong Division 7 side, Faringdon.

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Three times bowlers took 5 or more wickets in an innings, and Nick Pitt became the first bowler to reach 100 career wickets. He also took a remarkable 7-fer in a skirmish with Steventon. Russell’s favourite team in 2012 was Chesterton and he showed it by taking both of his 5 wicket hauls against them. When they found their rhythm, Julian, Gerald and Matthew were formidable and if they couldn’t finish the job, Josh was there to step in and take 3-fers just for fun. Normally at this level you try and see off the opening bowlers knowing they’re the best, but it wasn’t working like that for the opposition as Bampton were blessed with a very strong bowling attack, and plenty more waiting in the wings too.

The overall Batting Award, Richard Pitt awarded to himself with just 2 runs short of a round 500 and Nick Pitt took the “Most League and Cup Runs”. The “Most League and Cup Wickets” award and the overall Bowling Award went to Russell King.

2012 was a year when the fielding was noticeably improved, with several candidates in contention for the new Fielding Award, but it was eventually awarded for “outstanding bravery and not crying too much when hit on the leg”, and won by Grant Print. It was a great year for the junior members coming through to play their part in adult cricket, and with the likes of Freddy Martin, Jack Holford, Jacob Booty, Jack Saunders and Josh Norris all contributing, the Club’s future was looking a lot brighter than the weather. With much competition from some upcoming stars, Ben King was awarded the Development Award.

Russel King Although a little less consistent with the bat, there were some excellent batting performances too.

Grant Print scored a superb 49 to see the team home against Hendred, including a marvellous 6 to win the match. Shep hit an excellent 50 away to Hendred followed up by Ben King’s destructive late order hitting in the same match, and Julian Easterbrook deserves a mention for taking the game away from Chadlington when Bampton was starting to wobble, as does Jack Holford for making a valiant attempt to get across the line against Ducklington. Nick Pitt was generally scoring well and freely, with 4 scores of more than 50 in the league, including a remarkable 114 not out versus Eynsham. Jacob Booty also showed immense promise as he bludgeoned 68 in this same match, and finished the season averaging over 50 from his six games. And then there was ‘The Holf”, who got better and better and must have been horrible to bowl at, never more so than at Chadlington where he hit 5 of the biggest 6s that have ever been hit, including 2 into the roof of the wicket keeper’s neighbouring house.

Ben King All this would not of course be possible without being able to provide umpires on a weekly basis and following a recruitment drive, the Club was fortunate to find Ian Bretherton and Martin Maybrey who have be turning out regularly since 2012 for the Bampton side everywhere but Bampton. (OCA umpires can’t umpire their home team.)

Gerald Holford 46

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In 2013, Bampton made it comfortably through to the semi-final of the cup, having blown away Marcham and Broughton on the way with very strong bowling performances, only to be beaten at that stage by a very strong Chipping Norton side.

In the league, the Club couldn’t quite make it three promotions in a row, but did manage to finish 4th, winning 8 league games, and finishing strongly, taking wins in three of the last four games.

Along the way, the Club posted its highest league score yet of 291 at East and West Hendred.

46 players turned out which was 7 more than the previous year, scoring 5439 runs and taking 291 wickets. Six times bowlers took 5-fers and Gerald Holford and Martin Landray joined the 100 career wickets club. Several defeated captains praised Bampton bowlers as the strongest unit in the league. Up front, Julian Easterbrook was generally luckless, and Gerald Holford was normally menacing. Adrian Brooksbank was a new find in the early part of the season, Ben King stepped up to take the new ball on a few occasions and Russell King could usually be relied on to bowl tightly and take important wickets when there were any left to take. Josh Norris continued to bamboozle the opposition, with very few exceptions, and took 3 of the aforementioned 5 wicket hauls, finishing the season with an amazing tally of 55 wickets across all 3 formats.

Callum Rossie

With the bat it was more of a struggle that year but Grant was a glimmer of sunshine, nearly completing his second century in the league match at Stonesfield, and scoring three more 50s to add to that. In total there were 18 individual scores of 50 or more, including maiden 50s for Callum Rossie and Jack Saunders. Nick Pitt claimed another hundred to take his career total to 6.

2013 saw the end of season awards organised slightly differently, so that more people would get a look-in. The Club decided to bring in a rule that a player could only win one award. The “Most League and Cup Wickets” award went to Josh Norris for 30 of his 55 wickets. Although Josh also took the most wickets in friendly matches the Bowling Award went to Gerald Holford who took 36 wickets in all forms of the game at an amazing average of 14.11.

Richard Pitt was still giving himself awards, taking the Most League and Cup Runs, as well as scoring the most runs across all formats with a season total of 697. But again, in the spirit of spreading out the silverware, the Batting Award went to Grant Print with his average of nearly 30 per innings.

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The team’s fielding was again improving, with the Fielding Award being won by Ben King and the Development Award for all round improvement went to Jack Saunders.

The following year became the most succesful competitive season yet. In the cup, Bampton went one better than the previous two years, overcoming Chipping Norton in the semi-final by the skin of their teeth to make it to the cup final, and finished second in the league to secure promotion to Division 6, the third promotion in four years.

The semi-final game of the cup was a nail biter, in fact the second close game in the same weekend.

Richard Pitt describes the drama: “The day before in the league, Bampton managed to overcome Ducklington to record a 1 wicket victory, with Gerald and Josh putting on 20 runs for the final wicket to see us home, after Simon Launder had at last recorded the Club’s first hat-trick. Sunday in the semi-final was looking bleak with the score on 11 for 3 after 8 overs but then Grant’s amazing unbeaten 103 (ably supported by a chanceless Adrian Harris and a stylish Jake Payne) took us to a defendable total of 180. Even then Chippy should have beaten us. They were cruising in reply before Julian, about to start his last over, suggested we should go on the attack, with immediate and devastating effects. And they still should have beaten us but needing 3 runs to win from 2 overs their captain slashed the first ball of Ben’s last over to Adrian Harris at deep backward point where he safely held on to spark riotous celebrations. This was a victory made all the sweeter as Chippy had beaten us in the previous year’s semi-final.”

Ady Harris Unfortunately the Club’s cup run came to an end in the Far East as, having travelled to Fringford, the team were undone by a mixture of a strong Hanborough side and a below par batting performance, albeit it on a wicket where to win the toss was probably to win the match – and, not for the only time in the season, Bampton didn’t win the toss.

Richard takes up the story: “In the league, we made it 3 promotions in 4 years, finishing, eventually, a convincing 2nd. But we wouldn’t be Bampton if we didn’t make it hard for ourselves. We contrived to lose twice to East and West Hendred and were somehow beaten by Tetsworth at their place. The lowest point was probably the humiliation at Kidlington. On a grey, wet day we arrived at Stratfield Brake to be confronted by a wicket that looked like it hadn’t been cut since 2006. Win the toss, win the match, but, yet again we didn’t win the toss. Dismissed for 38 in probably our least accomplished batting performance of the season, we frightened the life out of them in reply having them at 14-4 before they rallied and coolly finished us off. But this was a turning point in the season as we won the two close games the following weekend and went on an unbeaten run stretching up to the middle of August and the turnover at Tetsworth.”

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Over the whole season, the Club completed 39 matches and won 22 of them, with appearances by a total of 44 players, but that did include a couple of youngsters who were hauled out of the nets to make up the numbers at Letcombe Regis. They finished the season having scored 4860 runs and taking 272 wickets, including four 5-fers.

Russell joined the 100 career wickets club and Simon Launder terrorised batting line ups, usually with the ball…, and ended up taking 28 league and cup wickets at an average of 5.5, and of course, the there was aforementioned first ever hat-trick for the Club. Gerald also took 28, Russell 27 and Ady Brooksbank 22 - bowling to be proud of.

game including the one over the tree, just like Jim Pratt back in the fifties. Then there was Josh Norris’ bowling in an evening Swinbrook game when all the other bowlers were going for 10 an over. Paul Whelan’s boundary catch in a Sunday game had Shep drooling, his Achilles stop at point in the game against Letcombe had the Captain in pain just watching it, and his batting at Lower Swell was also nominated. There was Simon’s hat-trick, Julian’s 41, Shep’s 50, Ady’s 70 and so it went on, but there was one performance that really stood out, because of its strategic importance, and that was Ted’s brilliant 130 against Brill.

Richard sums up the season’s batting: “Notable knocks included Grant completing his second century in the cup semi and a good 70 in another match; Ady Harris produced several knocks of note, including a 70 odd against Stonesfield, in a match where Simon showed he can also bat, recording his maiden half century for us. Shep showed life again with a match winning 50 against Broughton and when James Beattie got in he normally went on to score quickly. Gerald bludgeoned a few bowling attacks and of course Ted saved the best ‘til last, destroying the Brill attack with a magnificent match winning and league confirming 130.”

The Club recorded two OCA centuries and five half centuries. In non OCA cricket a further 6 half centuries were scored, including a maiden effort by Ady Brooksbank at Langford, and 95 for Richard Pitt in a 20 over thrash.

Ted Landray

Onto the 2014 Silverware and Grant Print once again took Most League and Cup Runs with 325 at an average just below 30 and with 685 total runs. For the 7th year out of 8, and mostly because Ted didn’t play very often anymore, the Batting Award went to Richard Pitt. The Author was by this time seriously thinking about setting up a trophy shop.

The Most League and Cup Wickets award went to Simon Launder who took 28 wickets, the same number as Gerald (who had a great go at pipping him at the post with a last match-winning 6-fer) but Simon’s average was superior. The Bowling Award went to Russell King who took 33 wickets in total. The Fielding star of 2014 was an excellent fielder, Jake Payne.

Richard Pitt Finally on the 2014 stats, Lewis Jenkins and Martin Landray joined those who had played 100 times or more for the Club, and Richard took his 100th catch in Bampton colours.

Champagne Moments in 2014 included Will Smith’s three catches in one game – all taken with a look of surprise by him and teammates. Then there was Grant Print’s slip catch at Swinbrook where he was able to fall down just in time to take it before it hit the deck and there was Grant again for his match defining 103 in the cup semi-final, all the more definitive as he had run Steve out early doors. There was also Gerald Holford’s 6-fer against Brill, his massive sixes in the same 50

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2014 saw several stand-out candidates for the Development Award. Adrian Brooksbank was looking more and more threatening as a bowler and was becoming a reliable fielder and catcher, as well as spanking a very good 60 in the last game of the season. Callum Rossie had taken to the game with the minimum of fuss and was getting better every week, taking the catch which ultimately won us the league that year. Ben King was by now a regular in the first XI, handy in the batting line up and opening the bowling with pace and accuracy. But the one person who developed most in 2014, showing himself to be stylish with the bat, as well as competent and capable in difficult match situations, a very good fielder and captaining the Sunday side with a certain poise was Alex Booty.

The 2015 season continued the march up the leagues as, even though they only finished a comfortable third, this was enough to gain promotion to Division 5. The Captain’s end of year report said: “Third was a fair reflection. We probably should have beaten the eventual division winners Westbury at our place, having had them 8 down and still 20 or so runs short of the target. We could only travel with 10 to second placed Great Horwood, so did well to take them to the 43rd over in their reply; and we should have beaten Chippy and Brill away, but I wasn’t brave enough at that stage of the season to deploy our slow left arm option in the first case, and we collapsed as soon as Grant took his first sip of cider at Brill.

Over the whole season, the Club completed 43 matches and won 24 of them, scoring 5456 runs and taking 299 wickets. A total of only 31 players contributed, including the first female player, as Rachel turned out 9 times, in the cup as well as the league.

Russell and Julian both had 6-fers, Ben Brown had a 5-fer and four 4-fers, and James Beattie got a 5-fer. Simon Launder bowled a 5-fer at Hanney, where he finally found a pitch worthy of his pace.

Twice he took a wicket with the first ball of the innings.

The captain noted that “With Ben King showing himself to be a worthy new ball bowler, I’m going to have a headache next season giving them enough overs each, especially as Ben Brown is now cleaning up opposition tails for fun. At Kidlington he took 4 – 11 in about 3 overs to turn the match back in our direction, and in the final league match of the season, he took a hat trick with the last three balls.”

2015 saw the “Most League and Cup Wickets” award go to Russell King who took 28 wickets at a rate of 13.7. The year’s Bowling Award, based on the most wickets across friendly and competitive cricket by somebody who isn’t winning another award, went to Ady Brooksbank who took 31 wickets in all forms of the game, and bowled the most overs of anybody in the season, 176.1

“At home the aforementioned Westbury game was our only reverse, away sides unable to cope with our strength and depth, and familiarity with our own conditions. Our square was one of the better ones we played on this season, and credit must go to Terry’s hard work and Gerald for managing the process. Our outfield was often a bit slow but that left us plenty of scope to improve over the coming years.

“Our game of the season was probably the match at Faringdon. In my absence, James as captain lost the toss and we were inserted. It’s probably fair to say that Faringdon regretted that decision very quickly as Ted and Grant amassed 253 before the fall of the first wicket, when Ted was eventually dismissed for 125. Grant finished unbeaten on 140, Jake Payne, coming in at 3, and the team finishing on 293-1. This match was also notable for the terrible injury to Gerald which was to see him miss the rest of the season but on a more positive note, Ben Brown’s first league wickets, as Russell ran through Faringdon’s line up in a record victory by 212 runs. All this meant the team could get to Lizzi Pitt’s 21st birthday party nice and early, but doesn’t explain how some of them were still up when the sun rose on Sunday morning.”

Ady Brooksbank For batting perormance, Grant Print found his touch as the season wore on, and became ever more consistent, and it was good to see Jake Payne deliver on the promise that he had been showing over recent years, to become a fixture in the middle order. Julian Easterbrook provided useful runs, and is probably the only player in the division to have scored a fifty and taken a 5-fer (except for maybe Andy Wynd at Brill). Ted Landray scored more than 900 runs across all formats, and had the highest average in the division at 51.5 from his 618 league runs, making him a worthy recipient of the year’s award for the “Most League and Cup Runs”. Grant Print had the second highest league average at 43.3 and knocked up 597 runs and because of the rule that nobody can win two awards at the same event, this secured him the Batting Award for the season. The Fielding Award for 2015 went once again to Jake Payne, who proved versatile whether fielding with the close catchers, in the ring, or on the boundary, and was (mostly) able to throw the ball in with pace and accuracy.

The year saw 10 players recording golden ducks so congratulations, if that’s the right word, to them. Ted, Grant, Jake, James Beattie, Gerald, Simon, Ady Harris, Ben Brown, Paul Whelan, and Callum.

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Steve Sheppard continued in the role of umpire’s secretary for league fixtures, and arranging the comprehensive fixture list during the winter, and during the weekend once the season started to fill the holes created by the late pull outs. Shep also provided weekly entertainment with his Fantasy League (more on that later).

The year was, however, in some respects the end of an era as Pauline Smith and Martin Landray both stepped down from the Bampton-in-the-Bush Cricket Club committee after many years in their roles. Martin had been junior team manager and Chair for over a decade and Pauline was Secretary then Club Welfare Officer and Junior Team Manager, as well as organising so many of the club events for nearing 20 years. The Club thought it was appropriate to honour their long service by awarding them the role of Hororary Life Vice President. (It was a struggle to find a title Pauline didn’t already have!)

“Having said that we did make it exciting for spectators in most of the games, conspiring to lose wickets at the wrong times leading to some very nervy run chases or score defences. The standout run defence was almost certainly at Hook Norton where we squeezed home by 4 runs. Grant and Ted set us up with a brilliant opening stand of 98 putting us in control of the game, but, despite good partnership between Ben King and Jake Payne, wickets tumbled to leave us defending 181.

Some great opening bowling again put us back in charge but their skipper, seemingly riled by something, counter attacked strongly, taking 19 from one memorable over. Ben Brown came on to secure some crucial wickets amid the onslaught before Julian redeemed himself finishing the match off with 2 wickets in an over.”

Jake Payne

Some of the Bampton-in-the-Bush cricket team in 2015 Back row L-R Ady Brooksbank, James Beattie, Simon Launder, Gerald Holford, Ted Landray, Steve Sheppard.

Front row L-R: Ben King, Grant Print, Julian Easterbrook, Richard Pitt (Captain), Russel King.

In 2016, with James Beattie as the new Chair, and Richard Pitt continuing as Club Captain for his final year, Bampton were playing in Division 5 of the OCA league and had another successful season.

Richard Pitt said: “It was our strongest performance yet as we romped to the Division 5 title with 1 game in hand, albeit nervously waiting overnight when our last match of the season was rained off, to find out that top rivals, Brill, had their game also fall victim to the weather. It was sad that the season ended with rain interrupting the last few games not least because Shep was robbed of a well-deserved guard of honour to mark, what we were led to believe was, the end of his long and illustrious cricket career.

“Our first place was thoroughly deserved as we suffered only two league defeats all season. One surprisingly to bottom of the table Britwell Salome – who used their victory as a springboard to climb the league - and one to nearest rivals Brill, who managed on their sponge wet pitch to just beat us at their place in a rain shortened game.

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The Sunday matches that actually happened were fun, and there were even some wins, notably at Cold Ash, Harwell and Langford. And the midweek team almost went unbeaten, just losing out to a very strong Swinbrook twice, and managing to tie two matches, including against James Bray’s university medicine team again.

A total of 42 players turned out which was up on the previous year. This included the second lady player, as a somewhat reluctant Jen Pitt turned out against Letcombe Regis, although she was delighted when rain came at tea time and she didn’t need to bat. Rachel Morris played 7 matches, as well as scoring for the league fixtures. And it was great to see young Edward Norris make his debut in Sunday cricket. The 32 games saw 3342 runs and 249 wickets.

Only one 5-fer for the bowlers this year, Russell with 5-30 at home against Brill. There were at least 10 4-fers though – Ben Brown and Julian twice. This probably has something to do with the strength of the bowling attack with all bowlers taking wickets, or it could be because the Captain is a mean bugger and withdraws bowlers before they can reach the milestone (he was in Dublin when Russ managed it). It could also be because crucial catches were dropped, eh Ben? Six individuals took 20 or more wickets in the season, while 27 individuals took at least 1 wicket.

Martin still lays claim to the most extravagant, or downright peculiar, celebration – something of a cross between Alan Shearer and a Morris Dance.

The Captain reports: “With the bat Ted Landray started very strongly with an unbeaten 96 against Cold Ash, and went on to pass 50 in six of his first seven innings, and 40 in three more of his ten appearances. Jake Payne played some match winning innings, showing the importance of being patient and occupying the crease. James Bray delivered the runs that we hoped he would, 55

including the only league century of the season, while Grant flickered enough to remind us what we will miss in future years. Ady Brooksbank was a revelation, both playing for and against us, and as soon as Shep announced his retirement he started to bat like, well, Shep, scoring a 50 worth 80 on the sponge at Brill, probably because he’d had the advantage of playing a significant amount of his cricket before covers were invented.”

The Development Award went to Jake Payne, who by 2016 had become one of the Club’s most reliable top four batsmen, as well as best fielder and, when allowed, a more than capable bowler.

The other big news for 2016 was that Julian Easterbrook became the official “level 2” coach, something that had eluded the Club for years and was the biggest block to expanding the offer to junior cricketers and gaining Clubmark accredition.

In 2016, the Champagne Moments were for some reason down-graded to Prosecco Moments. The nominations went like this: Ady Brooksbank’s first ball dismissal of the dangerous West Witney batsman in what proved to be the last game of the season due to unceasing rain. Then also, any of Ady Brooksbank’s amazing hip pulls for six. Ted had many glorious on drives, forward defensives or top spin smashes to the boundary and there was also Julian’s comeback over to win the match at Hook Norton. Not forgetting James Bray’s unbeaten 101 at Kennington, or maybe the drop at point early in his innings. Worthy of applause were also Shep’s 50 at Brill, Tom Eagle’s remarkable spell of fast bowling at Kilkenny, Ady Harris’s four catches in the same match. But despite all this awe and wonder the Prosecco Moment was in fact Shep’s dramatic catch while keeping wicket at Enstone to bring up the 500th catch of his career.

Steve Sheppard Russell King recorded his first Golden Duck, but on the plus side, he did bag the award for Most League Wickets taking a total of 28 at a rate of 13.7.

The overall Bowling Award, whilst being cruelly denied for Russell’s magnificent 36 wickets in the year, was equally well deserved by Ady Brooksbank who took 29 wickets in all forms of the game, and bowled the most overs of anybody in the season, 126.4 (for the second season running).

Onto 2017 and once again it was another excellent season, capped by sealing promotion from OCA Division 4. The team was now being led by Simon Launder.

The 2016 award for Most League Runs went to James Bray with 321 at an average of 40.13 and the overall Batting Award for a total of 570 runs at an astonishing average of 81.43 went to Ted Landray, who was finally playing enough matches to deprive Richard.

The Club welcomed some new players Tom Jones, Ryan Tinson, Andy and Jacob Dennis and Toby Bardsley onto the senior teams and it was great to see several former club juniors now regularly enjoying their cricket as young adults: Matthew Williams, Josh Norris, Lucas Harrison, and the

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younger Holford generation. The club’s Junior section continued to develop at great pace led by Julian and Karen Easterbrook. Some very good players were starting to come through from the Juniors. It was vital to make sure enough cricket was on offer to keep them and the younger adults in the Club and thus ensure its future. The demise of cricket in Bampton in the seventies shows us just how important it is to have a regular new intake and younger members taking over the reins of running the Club and all that it entails. With Sunday cricket continuing to be a bit of a struggle it was necessary to look at the options. Not enough young people were getting a game of cricket and there was a danger of history repeating itself. In the words of Club Chair, James Beattie, “The Club simply will not survive without an alternative team to the 1st XI”.

committee standing down every three years and therefore losing all continuity, possibly even the feel of the club or worse, losing the Club altogether for lack of people to run it. So new committee members who find themsleves loving what they do for the Club and willing and able to give further years can, with the agreement of the Committee, choose to do so. Besides, the Club didn’t want to risk losing Ady Harris as Club Secretary, a position that he had ably filled for the previous five years, keeping the Committee in order and dragging it into the 21st Century.

With our new rules in place, Matt Williams stepped up and became the Club’s new Treasurer and Tom Eagle became Fixtures Secretary. Other young members joined the Committee too and there was a signification improvement in the age profile of the club management, making the future look very bright.

By October of 2017 it was confirmed that the Second XI would be accepted into the OCA league.

Onwards to 2018 with a lot of cricket to look forward to. Through the winter, members kept themsleves entertained with Christmas Drinks at The Morris, a Winter Curry Night and of course the highlight of the winter calendar, the Cricket Club Quiz, now ably run by Julian Easterbrook and his “glamorous assistant”. Then of course there were the Junior nets at the Windrush Leisure Centre, again thanks to Julian and Karen, and a small pool of helpers, and the Sunday evening net sessions for those who weren’t cooking roast dinner for the family. The Club was looking forward to a great season with new blood on the committee, lots of talent coming through from the junior section, the ECB’s new All Stars Cricket for the 5 to 8 year olds and two league teams offering a varied programme for a mixture of abilities. It was exciting, to say the least!

Then it rained. And it rained and it rained. Was it ever going to stop?

A group of the younger players got together to canvass support and develop a plan to deliver more cricket in Bampton in 2018 and beyond, namely through the formation of a 2nd XI to play in the league structure. This was a way to guarantee at least 16 fixtures and offer the opportunity for everybody to play more cricket. This would mark yet another huge step and would probably be the biggest change and challenge since installing the grass square and entering the league with one team all those years ago. A small team of Club members starting looking into whether this would even be possible, given that the deadline for entry into the league had already passed.

It was April, and the square was under water. Richard and Anna did their best to push the water off with squeegy mops, conveniently “won” by Richard at an OCB meeting - won mainly for still being there at the end when the raffle was drawn. But as fast as they pushed the water up and over the “hill” (did you even know there was a hill on the outfield?), it raced them back again. The days were counting down quickly until the first match, with no chance to get a roller or a mower anywhere near that square.

Off the field, there was another issue to resolve and that was having to say goodbye to another of the Club’s absolute stalwarts, Anne Baldwin, who had put in a decade of support for the cricket club, not just in her role as Treasurer, but at events too. Anne had cooked annual club dinners with Pauline, she’d made huge vats of chilli to warm us up for the six-a-sides that would otherwise be a little bleak, she’d organised teams of people to help at events, she’d coached junior teams. Who would fill her shoes?

It it is not uncommon that when a club has been run by a small team of key people who have put in many years of service it becomes a daunting prospect to take over what they have been doing.

With Pauline Smith putting in nearly 20 years of service to the Club, Martin as Club Chair, Richard as Club Captain, Anne Baldwin as Treasurer and Steve Sheppard as Fixtures Secretary putting in a decade or more, it was bound to feel like you’d be signing your life away if you offered to take on a specific position on such a committee. So it was decided to take a look at the Club Constitution and put a limit on the expected years of service in any one position. Three years seemed like a reasonable amount of time. However, it was also important not to have an entire 58

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However, Bampton was not alone. The first Saturday of the 2018 season was an Oxfordshire washout and neither of the teams played. The Second XI would have to wait for its debut. And so it was that after the disappointment of the false dawn, Bampton II’s set off a week later to Faringdon.

Second XI Skipper, Gerald takes up the story: “What a difference a week makes as the sun kept shining and the temperature kept climbing. There were various reports stating records were likely to be broken over the course of the weekend. How true that was...

“Hours of planning and discussions of tactics about bowling first went out the window when we lost the toss. Helpfully (or so we thought) the Faringdon Skipper said, ‘I think we will have a bat’.

Ryan chose the Pavilion end to open from and the Skipper went and hid at Third Man to avoid the danger of fielding in the slips at Faringdon. The first ball was a gentle range finder from Ryan and got despatched for 4. That was a big clue as to what was going to happen next. The run rate continued at a steady pace with loose balls going to the boundary or into the gaps in the huge Faringdon outfield.

“Faringdon were looking comfortable until one of the openers played all around a full and straight delivery from the Skipper. The bowlers were rotated after 4 overs each and both Tom and Callum took us through to first drinks at 15 overs in. Both batsmen were looking comfortable against the pace on offer and with a change of bowler and pace from Josh, we got the break through. Nick Read was fielding at square leg and an inspired piece of captaincy saw him move further round behind square and the very next ball the batsmen middled it straight at Nick’s throat. Nick calmly reached up and snaffled a great catch - we’d scored our first bowling point!

“The Faringdon opener was set and with his new batting partner they steadily punished the bowlers toiling away in the heat. The run rate climbed and they were on target for 250 plus. Ben Ross began his Bampton bowling career nervously, but then found his length and sent a couple past the outside edge of the bat, before drawing a thick top edge that was unfortunately dropped.

At 30 overs Ryan and Skipper Trig came back on. Ryan bowled with great aggression and despite the heat got quicker and was unlucky not to pick up 3 or 4 wickets. He finally struck via an edge that was caught by Tom Eagle. At the other end the Skipper got slower and more erratic, before being removed from the attack with 1 ball left in his spell, for his second no ball! Super sub Ady Harris stepped up to finish the spell, before Richard came out of the bowling wasteland to finish off the bowling innings.

feeling the love for much running or the thought of any quick singles. Trig and Rich were looking comfortable and the chat in the field was definitely waning (unlike the sun). It was shaping up for a close finish, if these two could just stick around. Unfortunately Richard was bowled out for an impressive 82. This bought Josh in and despite them bringing back the opening bowlers, Josh made a useful 6 runs, before being bowled. In came Callum and after a quick chat about the climbing run rate, he promptly decided to run a 3 and then smashed a quickfire 14. This brought in Ben Ross and the required rate was 16 off the last 2 overs. There were some scrambled singles and then Ben was bowled for 2.

“That brought Nick to the crease for the last 3 balls and Bampton needing 7 to win. Nick and Trig had a long chat that went something like: ‘Nick, just get some bat on the ball and be prepared to run, whatever happens.’ Nick nodded his head. The bowler pitched it on Nick’s toes and he dinked the ball to point. Trig was 3/4’s of the way down the pitch shouting: ‘Yes! Run.’ The bowler was stood by the stumps, the fielder at point (their Skipper) sent a looping underarm throw towards the bowler and Nick set off for the run. The bowler had injured his hand in the field earlier and promptly dropped the ball and Nick scampered home for 1 (and I have just realised there is one of our missing runs!). That left 2 balls to get 6 runs and the small problem of the left armer bowling.

His next ball he pitched outside off stump and no run was scored, so just 6 to win off the last ball.

Faringdon had somehow managed to work out where to place the fielders for the Bampton skipper and placed two fielders in the cow corner area. The last ball was pitched up on the stumps and Trig smashed it towards cow corner, where their fielder helpfully pushed it over for 6.

“Game over, or so we thought. The umpires clearly were on a promise and took off at the speed of light. One of the Faringdon players then began dissecting the Bampton score book and noticed that it didn’t add up either. After much chuntering their Skipper came out and shook hands saying he was happy that Bampton won. The spirit of cricket was alive and well and Bampton II had got of to a flyer!”

“Faringdon had amassed several totals (it was somewhere between 229 and 223) depending on which part of the scorebook you read. So they decided that the target should be 227 to win.

“Bampton were definitely struggling at tea, having toiled in the heat and looking at a massive run chase. Luckily Richard was there and reminded us all what a batting track Faringdon was and that Bampton had posted a massive total last time they were here.

“The opening pair of Rich and John Deakin walked out to the middle, to face the nemesis of all Bampton batsmen, a left armer. (There really should be a law against them!) Rich took a single first ball and John was bowled out 2 balls later. This brought Ady into bat and they were scoring freely and were comfortably up with the run rate of 5 an over. Meanwhile Tom was trying to find some shade to counteract sunstroke. Ady was next out, caught on 29, bringing Tom into the middle where he failed to trouble the scorers and swiftly returned for a cold shower. This brought the next Bampton debutant, Will Enever, into the middle. Will hung around and played some lovely shots for a handy 20 runs, before being bowled. Next in was Ryan who played a couple of nice drives before being caught for 3. In came the Skipper and after his spell of 11.5 overs was not 60

The Club welcomed some new faces who turned out for the 2nds, including John Deakin, Ben Ross, Guy Mettrick, Roland Foster, Barry Debenham, Will Enever, Robbie Chatwell, Hussain, Gow as well as utilising the player pool. 32 different players contributed over the course of the season and of those 24 bowled - in Adrian Harris‘s case just 1 ball.

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When the bank holidays and the school holidays arrived it became a struggle getting two full teams out. The Second XI lost players to the First XI as they were short and this meant often not having enough players until late in the week. The chance of playing 4 Holford’s in one side very nearly became a reality, as Mrs. Holford had agreed to play if she was really needed! However the opposition conceded, so she is safe until next year.

There were the standard excuses of “I can’t play this weekend because I am at a wedding” or “I am on holiday”. However the most bizarre excuse of the season was from Mrs Landray: “Martin is unavailable this week. He fell off his chariot”.

The First XI meanwhile continued their winning ways (mostly), setting more new records, including posting a mammoth 339 away at Marcham. Ted Landray continued to pummel opposition bowlers, ending with 626 league runs at a phenomenal average of 89.43 for the season.

James Bray joined the party with two centuries to finish with 410 runs; and Ben Ives became only the seventh Bampton centurion, scoring his maiden century to see Bampton home to a thrilling 4-run victory against West Ilsley. An even more thrilling climax followed at Kidlington, where both teams finished with 201 runs after 45 overs to tie the match. So with 10 wins and a tie, these results were enough for Bampton to finish the season a narrow second in the league, a finish that should see the team competing in Division 2 in 2019, so recording a remarkable 7th promotion in 8 years.

By the end of the season, however, the Club could proudly say that it managed to put a second team out when needed for all bar one game.

The Second XI finished up 6th in Division 7 South, having played 16 games, winning 8 and losing 6 with 2 rained off. The highlights of the season include Harry and Tom’s 5 wickets each at Kennington, Josh Norris’ best sea otter impression at 2nd slip, when somehow he dived under the ball, lay on his back with it clasped to his chest. Josh took a 6-fer against Steventon and Callum took a 7-fer at Sunningwell (7 for 32 off 10 overs), which is the club’s all time record.

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Cricket Tea In the 50s and 60s a lady called Lucy Slatter used to make the cricket tea. She was the wife of cricket regular Jim Slatter, and according to the writings of Lloyd Hughes Owens, she reigned over the kitchens of Bampton School for many years. Graham Taylor, thought that they maybe had a tea rota back then, but he remembers Lucy Slatter as the “Queen of Teas”.

Vernon Cannons and Tom Papworth remember teas made by Mrs Timms of Church View and Mrs Rodwell. Vernon said that one time these two ladies saved all the tea money and donated it to the club.

In 2013 I had an attempt at giving everyone a chance to have a go at making the tea, with a ‘make it or donate £15 to the club coffers” scheme. I set up an online booking system, for people to choose a date when they wanted to make their tea, or instead of making a tea at all, they could donate £15 for me to make the tea. This meant that I could still make tea on a regular basis, and the club earned about £90 more than it would normally do, Even better, the cricketers were able to sample fantastic teas from other houses. I knew if people were only doing one tea and only one, they would feel like putting on a good show, and they did. Bampton are regularly complimented by the opposition and the umpires for the astonishing quality of the tea we provide. Richard’s mantra is always: “No fish finger sandwiches here…”

I’m not sure why, I didn’t manage to sort out the booking system a second year running, so to date it remains a “one-hit wonder”, though with the frequent calls of “what happed to that?” You never know, maybe I’ll manage to pull it out of the bag again one day.

Now I make the teas whenever I can, mostly with the help of Queen of Baking, Lindsey Norris mum of demon bowler, Josh.

Lindsey’s spread from when she first joined the club in 2013 Even earlier than that, Vernon spoke about the the first match he played before the war. It was in Clanfield, and he remembers the tea better than he remembers the match. At that time, the home team would go home and tea was served just for the visitors.

In the late eighties and early nineties Pauline Smith and Moley were the Queens of Tea. Hearing Pauline recount what it was like, shows how lucky we are to have the wonderful facilities we have today. Pauline remembers a tin shed and a Burco boiler that used to die every time they tried to use it. When they managed to coax it to the boil, they’d tell Ed, the team captain, that tea was ready, and he’d always say they’d just play another over. She said, they had to practically drag them off to have tea. Today there’s a fixed tea time of 20 minutes between innings - which is generally around 4.15pm. We have a full kitchen, a boiler that works, a lovely bar area where we serve the tea and an enormous tea pot. It is only when there’s been an occasional batting collapse that the tea team have had to send the cricketers back out for a few more overs.

For two years now, we have been fortunate to have delicious ham, scrumptious pork pies and sausage rolls, donated by our wonderful Bampton butcher, Ollie Weaver.

In 2018, Jeanette Deakin also joined the regualr tea makers, with her popluar addition of chicken drumsticks and fruit salad. We also have to thank the many other people who have made teas, of whom there are so many there’s not room to name everyone. But there’s no doubt that making cricket tea is not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’. It takes all day to make and then woof! It’s gone in under 20 minutes. Then it’s time for the washing up, and if I’m lucky (or have lots of helpers) I just about walk out to watch before Richard walks in.

During the last 12 years I’ve loved making cricket tea and it has really been a family thing. The first time I made the tea must have been in 2007 and I’ve made many, many teas since. For several years, I had the help of both my daughters, Lizzi and Jen, and my two grandmothers, Iris and Nancy, who were both sprightly back then in their 80s, plus my dad who has quietly been the club’s chief bottle washer for more than a decade (oh and quality control, of course). After Iris died and Lizzi and Jen were mostly away, the “tea factory” moved to Calais Dene, as Nancy found she needed to sit down whilst buttering. “When is our next cricket tea, Anna?” she’d ask me throughout the summer. Nancy loved making cricket teas.

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The Fantasy League The Fantasy League first started in 2010 as an idea to raise a few quid, have a bit of fun and to give an idea of what was going on in the cricket for those who weren’t able to play, watch or make it to The Morris for the aftergame analysis.

The rules are adjusted slightly each year and published at the beginning of the season. Here is an example from 2011.

For many a year, the Fantasist, was Steve Sheppard, whose ‘penmanshep’ will probably never be rivalled. For the absoulte bargain of £5 you could get a weekly missive straight to your inbox, that was guaranteed to make you laugh and cry.

As with all good fantasy leagues, each player and umpire in the club is assigned a player value and your £5 league entry fee buys you 100 points to spend on your chosen players. Teams must contain 11 players, and the total value of your team must not exceed 100. (It does not have to be exactly 100.). Here’s an example of the player values from 2016.

Each week of the season the Fantasy League missive tells the story of the week’s cricket and gives the team scores.

You can enter as many teams as you like. Anyone (or anything) can enter - I’m pretty sure a cat has won a prize. There are prizes throughout the season for the top of each division and prizes for the eventual winners. The prizes are generously sponsored by Mark Farmer. Points are awarded to players each week for their cricket performance and just turning out for a game counts as a performance.

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There are various transfer windows throughout the season, and those on the ball take the opportunity to hone their teams. Here, hard work usually pays, but it’s probably not a very good hourly rate.

There are others who clearly adopt the ‘never change queues at the check-out’ policy for their team management. There are a numer of divisions, with the “Premier-Shep”, the “Champion-shep”, the “Gamesman-shep” and the “Get-Down-Shep”, so the Kung Fu Pandas can’t win everything.

Midweek Cricket Midweek cricket has always been a part of Bampton’s cricket offering, as mentioned by Vernon Cannons and Graham Taylor when recounting the early history of the Club.

Richard Pitt tells the story of midweek cricket in recent years: “For the Bampton-in-the-Bush era, it was the gateway, in many respects, to competitive cricket. In 2007, 3 of the 5 fixtures played were in the Ernie Clack Cup, with 1 victory and 2 reversals, but these were the first experiences of playing matches that had a consequence beyond the pure joy of taking part.

“These matches also gave Bampton the opportunity to imagine life with James Bray, as he was, at this stage, and for several more seasons, travelling back to the Welsh borders for his league cricket.

In the 9 seasons leading up to 2015, when James only played midweek cricket for the Club, he amassed 1,132 runs in 40 innings at an average of 63, remarkable statistics when considering the playing conditions usually insisted on retirement after reaching 25. Clearly, the midweek batting award would have been James’s, had there been one.

“In 2011, Adrian (Ady) Harris officially took on the mantle of Skipper for the midweek side, releasing some of the burden from Club Captain Richard Pitt. Ady was to lead the side for the next 7 seasons, overseeing the development from a handful of matches each year to a full 12 week programme. Ady brought his own free flowing style to midweek encounters, encouraging the batsmen to be positive from the outset. This attitude meant that Bampton won more games than they lost under his stewardship. In his valedictory speech to the 2018 Dinner, Ady commented: ‘Having captained the midweek team for 7 years I am very grateful for all those players who have turned out for the team during this period, especially those whose arms I’ve been able to twist to play when they had other commitments in order to get a full team out. I know in Tom (Eagle) they have an equally enthusiastic and capable individual to carry forward the success.’

“As alluded to in the speech, midweek cricket gives the Club the opportunity to offer cricket to players who might not have the time at the weekend, or who are new or returning to the game and want to try it out in a shorter format. It is also an excellent platform to bridge between youth and adult cricket. As the Club looks to the next ten years, it is the experiences gained playing midweek cricket by youngsters such as Padraig, Edgar and Elias, which will stand it in good stead, in much the same way that ten years previously the likes of Ted, Jake and Ben cut their teeth.”

The Erstwhile Fantasist, Steve Sheppard

After six years of regaling his readers on a regular basis, fantasist Shep, decided the well was running dry and he hung up his fantasist’s hat. Fortunately, Simon Launder stepped into the fantasy breach to continue the great work. The fantasy episodes are now available on a Bush Telegraph facebook page for “Team Managers” to peruse at their leisure.

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Sponsors This seems like a good opportunity to acknowledge our sponsors. In addition to the shirt sponsors who feature in photographs throughout this booklet, we would like to acknowledge the very generous support that the Club has received from the following individuals and organisations: Steve Mace @ The Morris Clown for donating a barrel of beer for our six-a-side festivals, as well as providing a safe place for post-match post mortems The Bampton Community Shop for helping us purchase cricket balls and various grounds equipment West Oxfordshire District Council for their support with buying covers, sightscreens and other equipment Sport England for helping us reach the target necessary to lay the grass square Anne Baldwin @ S & MA Wilson for donating the equipment shed, and other support over the years

Moments from the popular Six-a-side tournament

Cala Homes for the concrete base enabling the erection of said equipment shed by the nets Mark Farmer for sponsoring the Fantasy League prizes, six-a-side silverware, and all his other support over the years Ollie Weaver @ Patrick Strainge Butchers for the aforementioned meat goods for teas

Six-a-side Plate Winners of 2010

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