CLUB PROFILE
-
TEDDINGTON C.C. copied from "Cricket World" - April 1988
By Richard Campion
The achievements
of
Teddington C.C. in the 1987 season will be familiar to followers of Club Cricket in the London area, for indeed the last few seasons have seen the club constantly challenging for League and Cup titles. Whilst the oldest club minute book is dated 1863 there is evidence that the club played as early as 1827. This comes to us in the form of a report in Bell's Life in the issue of 12th August, 1827, which contains a report of a game between Teddington and Hampton Court. During that early period it appears that the club used a playing area on either side of Waldegrave Road near to Elmfield
House. This ground was very rudimentary and indeed other areas in the locality were used when possible.
When the railway was being built in the early 1860's the club was forced to move and had the good fortune to be granted permission to make a ground in Bushey
Park, which is Crown Property. This work was carried out in 1863 and games were played that year, including one against Hampton Wick who had also been
granted permission to play in the park. Teddington's ground was at first very small by modern standards, but was gradually enlarged. In 1893, after previous refusals, permission was obtained to erect a pavilion, there having been no facilities for washing and changing previously. The pavilion was a thatched structure and was erected by one of the Club's members.
The outstanding player for Teddington at that time was P. Slade Lucas, an all rounder. In 1890 he scored 450 runs, average 75 and captured 21 wickets at 15 apiece. In other seasons he registered a number of big scores, with a remarkable 280 not out against Kensington Park in 1896 being the highest. This innings continued no less than 40 hours and only lasted a little over
3
hours. At one stage that year he scored 518 runs in three consecutive innings for once out, and finished the season with an average of 84.40. The degree to which opposition bowlers suffered can be gauged by the fact that H.S. Goodwin averaged
72.30
for Teddington that year.
Dire straits
The early part
of the
1900's saw the club in dire straits financially
yet a canteen was installed in the pavilion, although there was opposition, re-corded in the minutes to the idea of "canvassing from outside subscribers" as it was felt that if the club were "to lose its existing status as a Gentleman's Club, and were thrown
open to everybody, the whole aspect
of
sport in Teddington would change". The pattern
of high scores continued and in 1914, a
sadly shortened season,
in 15 games Teddington exceeded 300 on four occasions.Cricket could not restart until 1921, and the club barely survived this hiatus. Then in 1925
Teddington were confronted by a proposal
by
the Office of Works to greatly increase the rent for the ground to a daunting level but as a
campaign by the local clubs and help from the local M.P., Colonel F.S. Jackson solved the problem. In that same year
of 1925 Stanley Squires emerged, at the age of 16, as a rising star and in the following year Squires
came close
to being the first
player other than Slade Lucas to reach
1,000 runs in a season. In his Surrey career Squires played in 402 matches between 1928 and 1949 and hit three double centuries.
Players
of note
in the 1930's were Ernest Covington,
a good all-rounder, who went
on to
play for Middlesex, and bowler Oscar Chilcott.
Generally however, the Club
was not in a good state with the minutes of the
club recording
games
being cancelled
due to
lack
of
players
and other games being spoiled by late starts and
"unduly extended
tea
intervals". An interesting feature
of the 1939 was that Teddington
opted
to
experiment with an eight-ball over, the choice
having been offered
to
clubs. Some cricket was played in 1940 and 1941 but then no cricket
was
played until 1948.
Pavilion burned down
During World War II the ground was badly
affected by
allotments
being created as part of
the 'Dig for Victory' campaign and also the
digging
of slit
trenches. Oscar Chilcott
was
mainly responsible for maintaining
what was left of the ground
and evidently in 1945 the ground
was
still recognisable. Sadly, in May 1945, the pavilion burned down,
and there were
considerable delays before permission was granted to
build another. Notable amongst
the
immediate post-war generation
of
players
was Ian
Scott-Browne, later
to
become Secretary
of
Surrey
County Cricket Club.
The
1950's and 1960's
saw
fluctuating fortunes for the club
as
regards playing performances,
but a steady improvement in club facilities,
culminating in the erection
of a new
pavilion in
1969. Then in 1970 Teddington decided to join the Middlesex Cricket League and in addition
the club obtained permission to extend their
use of the
park to include a second ground to be
used by the 3rd XI. In addition approval was also given for fencing to be erected to prevent
incursions by cattle, which had been
a
problem
for some years.
Transformed since 1983
The
entry into League Cricket meant
a
drastic
change to the fixture list and Teddington's record in the league for some years was rather
poor, despite the availability
of
players
of the
class
of
Dudley Owen-Thomas.
At the end of the
1982 season
the 1st Xl's
best position ever in the Middlesex League
was 6th
place, but an influx
of talented
players from 1983 onwards has trans-formed the club. In 1983 Teddington won the
Middlesex Knock-Out Cup and finished
as
runners-up in the Middlesex County League.
Then in 1984
and
1985 Teddington won the
League, and in 1985 also won the Knock-Out Cup.
1986
saw
Teddington runners-up in the Middlesex League and they occupied this position in 1987, when, in an exhausting season, they also won the Middlesex Knock-Out Cup and reached
the Final
of the
Cockspur National Club Championship only to be narrowly beaten by Old Hill.
The Club therefore has enjoyed five
seasons of
remarkable success and are naturally optimistic
about the 1988
season, with players
of the
calibre
of
Gordon Morgan, 'Buzzard' McNamara,
Richard Luddington and Willie Donald once more available.
Ramblers had 15 known fixtures against Teddington. Details exist for 9 only to
date. We search for records of fixtures in 1979/80/81/82/83/84.
Year
Venue
Result
Ramblers Teddington
Best bat/bowl
|
1970 |
30-Aug |
Bushey Park |
Lost - 94 runs |
125 |
219-9dec |
NJ |
Harper |
35 |
DMT |
Gauntlett |
5-28 |
|
1971 |
29-Aug |
Bushey Park |
Lost - 81 runs |
114 |
195-7dec |
DMT |
Gauntlett |
27 |
R |
Turrell |
3-26 |
|
1972 |
03-Sep |
Bushey Park |
Drawn |
225-6dec |
220-8 |
AK |
Wood |
88 |
CAP |
Terry |
4-34 |
|
1973 |
02-Sep |
Bushey Park |
Won - 43 runs |
152 |
109 |
D |
Childs |
51 |
CAP |
Terry |
7-44 |
|
1975 |
31-Aug |
Bushey Park |
Won - 5 wkts |
204-5 |
200-9dec |
AK |
Wood |
74 |
N |
Gay |
4-51 |
|
1976 |
29-Aug |
Bushey Park |
Won - 5 wkts |
219-5 |
218-5dec |
NJ |
Harper |
94 |
CAP |
Terry |
2-41 |
|
1990 |
24-Sep |
Bushey Park |
Drawn |
162-9dec |
101-6 |
M |
Charter |
30 |
M |
Charter |
4-31 |
|
1991 |
22-Sep |
Bushey Park |
Won - 58 runs |
179-6dec |
121-3dec |
J |
Hamilton |
79 |
J |
Rogers |
1-20 |
|
1992 |
20-Sep |
Bushey Park |
Cancelled |
|
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