A Brief History Of Fylde Cricket Club - Written by James
Mitchell (Club President) in 2001
When the executive of the Palace Shield asked
us to provide some background of the member club’s histories I
offered my services on behalf of Fylde.
Little did I realise how comprehensive that background was.
My mind went back to 1939 and my first visits to Moorland
Road as a boy with my father.
The family had moved North from London and my father, a
cricket fanatic, sought out the local club.
Now over 60 years later, having been a happy and grateful
member of the Fylde family, here is a brief resume of that story.
The
Early Years
It is generally assumed that Fylde Cricket Club
was formed way back in Napoleonic times.
Despite exhaustive research no documentary evidence has been
found to substantiate the fact, but the date 1810 has been handed
down over the years from generation to generation.
Early minute books have survived and, from these, it is
certainly possible to trace back to the 1850’s and before.
The minute book provides some fascinating vignettes of a
Victorian cricket club:
committee meetings being held in the local pubs such as The Thatched
House and The Bull taverns; a minimum of bureaucracy - the minutes
amounting to half a page of foolscap and written in copperplate.
One item caught my eye from 1875 which I have reproduced here
- note the price of bats:
The roller which still stands behind the garage
was purchased in 1891.
Concern was expressed that it might prove too heavy for the club
donkey to pull. At the
next meeting the sale was confirmed, the donkey to be sold and a
horse to be purchased for not more than £10.
The horse was disposed of at the end of the season.
Incidentally we have had a few donkeys since - but all with
two legs.
At times the club engaged professionals, some
to double up as groundsman.
In 1888 the position was advertised and out of twenty one
applicants Bray of Ripon was appointed.
Sadly, Bray of Ripon absented himself and went ‘on the spree’
three times, was dismissed and given his fare back to Ripon.
Fylde played their cricket far and wide possibly of a
competitive nature as ‘friendly fixtures’ are mentioned.
Fylde Wanderers played a game at Crewe, Gorton in Manchester
(home and away,) and
East Lancashire and Little Lever crop up in the minutes.
Interestingly, there were fixtures against Garstang and
Thornton so these clubs existed before the dates mentioned in the
handbook. They were to
fold and re-form at a later date.
Games were played against other long established clubs like
Great Eccleston and Kirkham and there were fixtures against St
Michaels and several regimental clubs - officers only it seems.
Cricket in those far-off days being of a more pastoral nature
- works teams coming later in the story.
The
Middle Years
The Plant family were very much to the
forefront of club affairs from the turn of the century.
Charles Plant was interviewed by the Evening Gazette in 1984
when he was a ripe old age of 91.
He was able to furnish us with much detail of those years
particularly regarding the club’s three grounds.
He was one of three brothers who played for Fylde, he himself
being club captain on our entry to the Shield in 1922.
His father had been president of the club and the name
‘Plant’ appears four times on the club’s Roll of Honour presumably
because these lives were lost on active service.
Charles Plant also told of Harold Edge scoring the first
century at Moorland Road, of Billy Jackson the local blacksmith, who
was the club’s finest player of those years and of Jimmy Ashton who
was a major player between the wars both as a batsman and bowler.
The first star name of my time was Jack
Winchester, a fine all-round sportsman who had played first class
football in his youth and was an outstanding batsman for Fylde up to
the Second World War with more than one century to his name.
Jack (Pop) Winchester, later to be president of the club, was
headmaster of Poulton C of E primary school (Sheaf Street) during
the war years owing to the incumbent head teacher, Peter Vause,
being away in the services.
Vause, incidentally, was also a Fylde stalwart later to
captain Leyland then in the Ribblesdale League.
Jack instilled in his pupils a love of sport and was in his
glory bowling to the boys in the playground.
He controlled a top class of over fifty pupils without
raising his voice and had a formidable right arm when administering
the cane - I remember it well.
One story comes to mind regarding Jack, long after he had
retried from serious cricket, when he was called back to face
Fleetwood (then in the Palace Shield.)
The legendary Dick Boothman was bowling and dropped one
short. With his team
mates fearing the worst, Jack stepped inside the line and deposited
the ball into the hedge.
For the first sixty years with the Shield Fylde
did not achieve much success winning friends rather than trophies.
Runners up twice in the league and in the cup being the
highlights. Fylde, for
many years, had a strong connection with Baines Grammar School.
In the 1950’s when I started playing for the club there were
at least six or seven members of staff on the strength - many of us
were former pupils.
This had its disadvantages as, with the school holidays, a large
proportion of the best players would disappear.
With the chairman of the club, John Watson, and
the secretary, Jack Willacy, being Methodists drinking and Sunday
cricket were not on the agenda - times have changed.
John Watson was a member of the club for over sixty years and
a score box was erected in his honour on his retirement from office.
Jack was a devoted secretary for many years and, on his
retirement, he was made a life member - nobody more deservedly.
Fylde, for a long time, was regarded as a trifle remote - a
cricket club in Poulton rather than Poulton’s cricket club.
With the co-operation of the local schools this situation has
been resolved in the last few years.
Now, having strong junior sections, there are countless boys
(and parents) identifying with the club.
Modern Times
For the first few years after the War things
carried on much as before, some good years, some not so good.
Under the genial captaincy of John Leadbetter we enjoyed five
good seasons never out of the top five or six.
In 1963 Gordon Garlick arrived, an astute captain who had
taken teams to the top in other leagues, he gave the club ambition.
Gordon had played for both Lancashire and Northamptonshire
before going into league cricket.
Fylde scented glory but, on a sad day at Penwortham we lost
the vital match and ended up third.
A number of useful cricketers had joined Fylde with Gordon
but on his departure they left.
Two of our home-grown seam bowlers had already moved on to
better things at Blackpool and Fylde were left without most of the
first eleven. That fine
cricketer, John Noble, and we lesser mortals were left to pick up
the pieces.
John Noble was a commanding batsman and off
spin bowler whose speciality was to tear opening bowling apart.
He carried the team for a while and later won the Shield
averages by a distance.
This was the bleakest time at Fylde with an ageing group of players
and a tired committee losing heart.
Thankfully a refreshing new group of players arrived to pull
things round. Things
had become so dire there was talk of abandoning the second team.
John Finch and myself had many a row to prevent this
happening and, to us, the influx of new blood was the 7th Cavalry
arriving in the nick of time.
First and foremost among these new arrivals was Bill Robinson
who had joined us from Preston and became treasurer.
Others, like Tony Mayoh, Harry Allsop and Stuart Hodgkinson,
took the club by the scruff of the neck and things started to take
off but not without ruffling a few feathers of the old guard on the
way. Tony Mayoh, an
inspirational and committed captain, launched the junior section
with others and Bill showed us just what was possible financially.
Playing cricket at Fylde became a pleasure again.
By the late 70’s we had too many players to
accommodate in two teams so we entered a third eleven into the Fylde
League - later a fourth team as well.
In our first season we won promotion and so began a long and
rewarding association with the Fylde League.
Many of our future star players started senior cricket in
those teams bridging the gap from junior section to the Palace
Shield sides. We
resigned from the Fylde League when we entered teams in the ‘E’ and
‘F’ divisions of the Shield.
The
Golden Decade
The first trophy the club won was in the early
70’s when Bill Robinson’s second team carried off the Loxham Cup.
For the club in general the turning point came in 1985 with
the winning of the Meyler Cup in a thrilling match at Springfield.
Some fine new players had joined Fylde like Trevor Day, Jeff
Wilkins, Steve Burnage and that colourful character Frank Ingham
along with the return of Geoff Clarkson from a distinguished career
with Blackpool and Lancashire second eleven joining the home-grown
talent matured from the junior section.
Frank Ingham was without doubt the finest wicket keeper of my
time. No-one who saw it
will forget the leg side stumping of the Australian pro’ for Heaton
in the Lancashire knock-out off the fast-medium bowling of Tony
Poxon. Frank was a fine
batsman when he put his mind to it averaging over fifty in his first
season with the club.
This win was the first for the 1st team for one hundred and
seventy-five years but it was well worth the waiting.
That opened the flood gates and in the next few years Fylde
won the Palace Shield three years in succession, were runners up
twice and won the Meyler
Cup a further three times.
Under the bluff leadership of that Falstaffian figure,
Richard Borrows, the second eleven won the Barcroft and the Loxham
Cups several times.
Alas, all good things come to an end and towards the close of the
century we entered a period of decline in our results.
At present we are rebuilding from within and the results are
coming again.
The
Ground
As far as can be traced Fylde has played on
three home grounds.
Blackpool Old Road appears to be the first on record leased from a
Mr Hardman for £5 per annum.
This land was bought by a Mr Seed to accommodate a brick
building business. He
provided us with another ground in Elletson Street and a pavilion
where we played until 1901 when we moved to Moorland Road.
This plot of land is a history lesson in itself.
Geoffery and Vera Farnworth, our present secretary and his
wife, obtained the deeds recently and made copious notes which they
lent to me. The field
was leased by the crown (Queen Elizabeth the First in 1562) possibly
to the Fitzherbert Brockholes a distinguished local family and has
passed through various lease holders’ hands until 1946 when it was
donated to the National Playing Fields Association (NPFA.)
This state of affairs continued until 1976 when the ground
was transferred by the NPFA to four trustees appointed by the club
on the condition that the land could only be used for cricket.
When I first went on the playing strength of
the club back in the 50’s, the annual budget was somewhere in the
region of three or four hundred pounds with
minimal expenditure on the ground or pavilion.
Now it is in the thousands.
In the late 70’s the idea was mooted of a pavilion to replace
the old worm-ridden one in the corner and the tea room of happy
memory. We arranged to
buy an old barrack room from Kirkham army camp and, on a sunny day,
forty of us armed with a low-loader and high enthusiasm helped to
dismantle it and bring it back to Fylde.
Owing to planning objections we were denied the erection of
the building next to the road (as was originally intended) so it had
to be sited in its present position.
This incurred enormous additional expense for the services
but, with the financial wizardry of Bill Robinson, the monies were
raised and in 1978 Jack Simmons performed the opening ceremony.
Since then a brick shell, a tiled roof and a paved veranda
have been added - but that barrack room is still in there.
With the aid of lottery money all-weather nets and a new
score box have been installed.
In 2000 an old stalwart of Fylde, Duggie Hill, dropped in to
see us at the Meyler Cup final on a trip North.
He had not been on the ground for thirty years and could
scarcely believe his eyes at the changes - true of most of the
Palace Shield clubs these days.
He could not have chosen a better day with a good crowd, a
fine day and the field and square looking superb.
The
Ladies
Fylde has always been served well by the
ladies’ side of the club.
Like their neighbours at Thornton Cleveleys the teas at Fylde
have been a byword for excellence and variety.
Since the halcyon days of Myra Willacy’s chicken sandwiches
the standard has been maintained.
It is not only in the catering that our womenfolk have shone.
Their fund-raising efforts have raised literally thousands of
pounds and have played a major part in the club’s prosperity.
Some
Personalities
It is only possible to mention a small fraction
of those who have played their part in the story of Fylde but some,
by their character and personality, have left an indelible
impression on me. Jim
Paterson (Pat) introduced my family to Fylde.
He was a fine off spin bowler who relied on flight and guile
- rather like Andy Lowe of today.
He won the Palace Shield bowling prize on one occasion and,
on a great day, took all ten wickets against Pelham Mount.
This had a twist to the tale.
His captain, the local butcher Tom Hardisty, looked on all
slow bowlers with disdain like so many who followed.
On this day his locum had not arrived to run the shop.
Tom arrived at the ground, fuming, as Pat took his ninth
wicket. “What the hell
is he bowling for?” he shouted as he ran on to the field, grabbed
the ball, was hit for thirteen runs in his only over and Pat took
his tenth wicket in the next over.
Pat, happily, is still with us in his ninetieth year - here’s
to his century. The
best story regarding Tom Hardisty took place at Wrea Green when one
of his fast balls hit a batsman on his pocket containing his matches
and spontaneous combustion took place.
Walter Marsden, along with Trevor Day, was the
finest Fylde batsman of my time at Fylde.
The mind boggles at what he would have achieved in modern
times with the well prepared wickets instead of the corrugated
tracks of his time at Fylde.
Having played for Haslingden in the Lancashire League at the
tender age of fifteen he scored countless runs for the club.
Show him a good wicket and a slow left armer and he was in
clover.
John Leadbetter was not only a fine batsman but
a great servant of the club.
He always batted in the grand manner and was a delight when
on the kill - the quicker the bowling the fiercer the driving.
I recall opening with him on one occasion chasing a modest
sixty to win. We won by
ten wickets - my contribution being three singles and spending most
of the time avoiding John’s straight drives.
He scored a century against Fulwood when centuries were thin
on the ground and his proudest moment came when his son, John
junior, repeated the feat against Bradshaws and Loxhams some years
later. The following
week I sent them in to open against Penwortham and, happily, they
put on about eighty together.
This rare occurrence of father and son scoring centuries for
the club was to be repeated by Peter and Darren McKenzie - Peter
that tower of strength to the club particularly on the junior side.
Ken Cox joined Fylde from Blackpool and carried
all before him. Before
the advent of the new ball every innings, the home club provided a
ball which had to serve the whole match.
That wily old campaigner Brian Gill got wind of the new Fylde
‘phenomenon’, dug out the oldest, softest ball in Kirkham and
quenched Ken’s fires.
Brian still tells this story with great relish.
Ken was steaming towards his hundred wickets for the season
when the Reverend Jeff Yates joined us from Little Lever, took
fifteen wickets in the last three games and Ken was left high and
dry on ninety-six wickets.
Ken, whose language was always ripe, passed comments on the
Reverend which were far from evangelical.
Tony Mayoh was, without doubt, Fylde’s finest
captain of my time. A
captain for whom the team would go to Hell and back.
He had come to England after a working life in West Africa
and had acquired all the charm and good manners of a colonial
gentleman. But put him
on a cricket ground, a golf course or a basket ball court and he
breathed fire and competitiveness.
Tragically he died in his early forties and left a yawning
gap in the hearts of his friends.
Three genuine all-rounders were Stuart
Hodgkinson, Eric Green and John Tarbox.
All three were good enough to be chosen in either department.
Stuart was a grand fast bowler and batsman who came to us
from the Lancashire League.
Eric, who can still turn it on when needed, won the ‘C’
Division bowling prize on more than one occasion and later on,
taking over the captaincy of the fourth eleven, smashed all records
for the Fylde League scoring over one thousand runs including
several centuries. John
Tarbox, now playing for Settle, was the best of this trio.
Bowling, batting or fielding he had the lot.
All three were always the life and soul of the party on or
off the field.
Graham Lawton has served the club in every
capacity - cricketer and administrator.
He started his career as a tearaway fast bowler who could bat
a bit. His finest hour
came against Norcross taking eight wickets for next to nothing
including four in four and
adding a fifth wicket with his sixth ball.
After the coaches decided that his run-up was wrong he became
a fine batsman who couldn’t bowl at all.
He is now in charge of the square which is his pride and joy.
With his guitar at the ready he will sing the night away at
club functions.
Andrew Pilkington along with Steve Brown, Tony
Poxon, Jeremy Newman, James Muir and the current club captain Chris
Williams, was a product of our junior section, Fylde League
apprenticeship and second team. All of them were essential
components of the winning teams.
Some moved on to the Northern League but Andrew remained with
Fylde until the pressure of business claimed him.
A thrilling batsman he scored three of the most exciting
centuries for Fylde I have seen.
Allied to his good defence he could hit like thunder -
hitting some of the most enormous sixes seen at Moorland Road.
I fondly remember a stand of well over two hundred he shared
with Steve brown - both scoring centuries.
Brown, all athleticism, running the legs off Andrew who was
visibly losing pounds in weight.
Andrew Farnworth, Pilkington’s great friend,
served the same apprenticeship but at Thornton Cleveleys and we
reaped the benefit.
Andrew is still, thankfully, with us both as player and
administrator - another tower of strength.
Our genial treasurer, Alan Leeper, another who
came to us from Blackpool, was not only a cricketer of note but an
even better footballer.
In his days I believe he played what was called wing-half, a
wing-half who did not take prisoners.
His finest hour on the cricket field came when he scored over
eighty against Accrington whose attack was spearheaded by the
legendary Wes Hall - he will show you the score card at the drop of
a hat.
The
Family Connection
There have been so many families involved in
the Fylde story it would be impossible to mention them all but they
have proved an essential part in the smooth running of the club.
Husbands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters - each
family member contributing to Fylde in their own way.
One family for whom I have always a special spot in my heart
is the Wood family.
Alan Wood, a cheerful, outgoing man, made every newcomer welcome and
part of the gang. His
son, David, at the same time was making his way at Fylde.
His grandsons, Ian, Andrew and Richard are still turning out
for Fylde teams and I have had the good fortune to have been a team
mate of all of them.
Mention must be made also of fathers such as Bob Muir who has spent
most of his adult years mowing the outfield. Neither would it be
fair to forget the contributions made over the years by the wives,
girlfriends and mums for supporting the playing members of their
families by providing teas; clean kits or just plain old moral
support. Countless
youngsters over the years have done their bit by keeping the score
book so averages can be calculated and ‘doing the tins’ so everyone
on the field knows the state of play.
It’s not just the sons who’ve done this but, over the years,
many daughters have also done their bit in this particular task -
three of my own girls amongst them. These families, particularly
when they have hung up their boots, are the back-room boys and girls
that make Fylde tick.
The
Future
We should have organised something special for
the year 2001 to celebrate one hundred years at Moorland Road but,
in the hurly-burly of every day affairs, it has slipped by.
I’m sure we will push the boat out in 2010 when we celebrate
our possibly apocryphal double century.
I hope I am still involved or even around.
It is symptomatic of Fylde that we retain such friendships
with our opponents of times past.
For many years now we have played annual veterans matches
with South Shore.
Originally organised by the late and greatly missed Gordon Emery and
Ken Stafford, these matches have been a source of much pleasure
especially on the social side.
We have a splendid evening get-together when much ale and
nostalgia flows. The
younger element regard us with tolerance calling us ‘Dad’s Army’
among other less complimentary epithets, but it is quite strange as
time goes by when their turn comes to join our ranks when we seize
up or renew combat on the Ellysian Fields.
Finally, I recommend this to all clubs as this is what the
greatest of games is all about - playing and socialising and never
losing one’s sense of the magic of team sport.
James Mitchell,
President
Fylde Cricket Club 2001
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