1946-1991

After the Second World War

   One of the great attractions of cricket is that there are certain basic truths to cling to. Don Wilkins writes of his experiences for Poulton when play resumed after the Second World War and his words strike a chord with all village players before and after him.

    "I can remember we had a bag of very tatty pre-war kit and very little money in the kitty", he writes. "Pad straps were always breaking and gloves were awful. In those days only 'gentlemen' players had their own kit. It was usually a job to muster an eleven and quite a few of them would have no cricketing whites."

Then he talked of the people who made up the Poulton squad.

    Stalwarts of the club in those days were - "Bert Ayres who was captain, Reg Adams who bowled fast and straight, W Cooper who I think was vice captain, Norman Swinford who played and in addition prepared the wickets, repaired the kit and was a marvellous enthusiast."

    Younger members were - "Myself (very junior although aged about 25 at the time), Philip Edwards, who also bowled fast, and his brother Billy, Barney Kane, Dennis Pottinger, Eric Jobbins, Jimmy Herbert. When Norman Hutchings gave up wicket keeping, it was taken on by Billy Ash. To show his keenness, he lived at Shrivenham and worked at Purton. On a Saturday he would cycle to his morning work at Purton, then to Poulton cricket and after the match would visit his sister Queenie and then ride back to Shrivenham. A very full day, he was a very fit man."

    "Pitches were not very good, as at quite a few places there was not a specific cricket ground but only a freshly cut pitch in a convenient field. Outfields were usually bad, with occasional cowpats, etc. We always looked forward to fixtures played at villages with decent grounds - Bibury, Rodmarton and Williamstrip come to mind."

    "The match teas were always a very important thing. Ours at Poulton were always admirable and I can remember the Bibury tea being particularly nice."

    The quality of the Poulton teas was due for many years to Mrs Swinford and Mrs Adams, who were familiar figures on Saturday afternoons preparing the tea at a cottage on the Butts and pushing it on a trolley up to the Priory, the tea urn gleaming in the sun!

    It wasn't just the food though. Those who luxuriate in Poulton's showers after an undistinguished day should think back to their predecessors.....

    "Another hard-fought fixture used to be played against Cherington. I can remember the very first time we played against them. I rode there on my motor cycle and had to change in the vicarage garden shed and we had tea on the vicarage lawn. We managed to win, I remember."

    How useful is memory. Cricketers never ask if it is selective!

    It took a little time to get the club together again after the War. Twenty-two fixtures were arranged, for Saturdays and Bank Holidays only, and Major A B Mitchell provided a ground next to the farmyard at the Priory. At the start of the 1950's he gave the club a new field on what was once his private polo ground. It was to prove one of the best in the district for many years.

First recorded photograph during 1950's at Cirencester Park v Bathurst Estate

    Alan Ayres recalls: "By 1950-51 things were beginning to be more organised but I remember that it caused quite a stir with the locals when Major Mitchell told them they would have to share the pitch with a new team formed by farmers in the area. It was called the VWH so one weekend the pitch would have a dozen or so bicycles and the odd car when Poulton were at home and the following week all cars and vans when the posh VWH were using the pitch. There was to remain a very keen local rivalry between the two sides right up to the time when the VWH disbanded."

Alan Ayers and Mike Smith guide Poulton to victory over a Bert Ayers XI

    The ground saw the historic first Sunday game organised by the club. It was on April 27th 1958 and finished in a draw. Poulton's opponents were the Old Patesians from Cheltenham. A contemporary account explains the draw: "It was mainly because the Old Pats were very late turning up following a serious drinking session on the way. This was to prove to be their usual pattern and finally led to Poulton dropping them from the fixture list."

    In 1961 Poulton scored the highest total since the club's formation. They batted first at Williamstrip and scored 208-7 declared. The home side were all out for 206 in the last over, but when the scorers re-checked they found an error and Williamstrip's total was found to be 209 - victory by one run. This game was also the last for Bert Ayres, long a club stalwart, who retired at the age of 55 because of arthritis. In his last game he got 6-99 and his son, opening the batting, was one short of his century.

    By 1962 many of the old hands had retired and Poulton had one of the youngest teams in the district. The results showed it and the village youngsters didn't win their first game until the last day of June. But in May yhere was a game which will surely never be equalled. Alan Ayres took part and reports:
    "Saturday May 12th at Bibury. Poulton batted first and were all out for 72. Bibury replied and reached 72-9, Pat Shaw having taken all nine. Gordon Paine then bowled a maiden and Fred Mander, the number 11, was left to face Pat. Fred was trembling with nerves."

    Don Wilkins takes up the story: "I took a high catch in the gully to clinch the game. The batsman said to me '**** you, I thought I got that well wide of you'. But I was very tall and lanky with long arms. There were headlines in the Standard that week about Pat's feat and I kept the paper for years."

    The young team gradually welded together and the following seasons showed a steady improvement in the club's performances. In 1968 Poulton won the Oaksey Bowl for the first time after victories over Cherington, Ranwick, Avening and, in the final, neighbours South Hill.

The first Poulton team to win the Oaksey Bowl.

   At the start of the 1969 season the weather quickly brought the celebrating players down to earth. Of the first eleven matches, Poulton won one, rain stopped play in two and the other eight were completely rained off.

    But there was a more cheerful side as the village welcomed the first visit of a touring team from London, the C.A.T.S, at the start of an association which was to last until the end of the 1980's.

    The improvement continued as the Seventies dawned and in 1972 Poulton had its best season to date. The Standard reports: "Poulton's record was one of the best in the district. Of 29 matches they won 22, drew 5 and lost only 2. All round consistency was obviously the key to so many victories and it is notable that five players scored 130 runs or more as well as taking over 20 wickets each.

    "Top batsman was again Charles Ash whose 607 runs beat his last year's total by over 150 from only four extra innings. His nearest rival in the run stakes was Pat Shaw way back on the 316 mark. Pat, however, also weighed in with 57 wickets, took 17 catches, bowled the most overs and hit the highest individual score - 71.

    Dave Morrison topped the bowling figures, his 37 wickets costing under four-and-a-half runs apiece. But Eddie Packer bagged the biggest wicket haul with 68."

    Morrison played for Poulton only on Sundays and achieved the unusual feat of topping the batting and bowling averages for his other local club, Daglingworth, who unfortunately went out of existence at the end of the season after losing their ground. Poulton were soon to experience a similar crisis.

Farewell to the Priory

   In 1972 Major Mitchell died. Two years later Poulton Priory was sold and the cricket club had to move. The club was more than up to the challenge. Farmor's School at Fairford played Fairy Godmother and Poulton CC was based a few miles east of its real home for the next four years.

    There was a brighter side, as usual. Possibly inspired by having what was only a temporary home, the club decided to seek solace elsewhere and in 1974 embarked on their first tour of Devon. In one of the games, batting was not at its best. Beaford were all out for 13 off 21 overs and Poulton lost 7 wickets in making the 14 they needed. An early season tour has been part of the fixture list ever since and although the clubs and the area have not always been the same, the battle with players and pitches over the normal horizons has continued.

    In the Centenary year, Poulton's cricketers flew to the Channel Islands to do battle with the natives. Not quite as ambitious as Fairford's occasional jaunts to the West Indies (from where they return with impressive stickers), but just as enjoyable.

    The outstanding individual performance during Poulton's time at Farmor's happened, strangely enough, just down the road at Fairford Cricket Club. On Sunday August 28th 1977 Dave Morrison equalled Pat Shaw's feat of 15 years before by taking all 10 wickets.

    The Standard Times and Echo carried the following account: "Dave's all-ten seemed far from possible when the Fairford openers, Mike Peyman and Fred Bayliss, put on 77 and when Morrison joined the attack Bayliss promptly heaved one of his first-over balls into the adjoining allotments!

"Two overs later the Poulton skipper bowled the Fairford opener, however, and he was on his way. With the second ball of his 17th over Grant Stratford - at 15 the youngest player on the field - caught number 10 Staples and 41-year old Dave had done it.

"Morrison's full analysis was: 16.2 overs, 3 maidens, 53 runs, 10 wickets."

    But no tie in thsi game, unlike that against Bibury when Pat Shaw took all ten. Fairford were all out for 174 and Poulton couldn't quite manage a victory, finishing on 170 for 5.

ENGLANDS

   On May 20th 1979 Poulton's cricketers returned to the village to a home they had created by years of hard work and determined fund raising. The villagers had shown their enthusiasm too, raising over £3500 to pay for the building which was already in place. It had been a telephone exchange at Tetbury but when the Post Office didn't need it any more the cricketers dismantled it on a Saturday during the winter of 1978/79 and put it up at Poulton the following day.

    But the weatherwas unkind, a poor reward for all the effort that had gone into preparing the new ground behind the church. The Standard reported: "Rain washed out any hope of the new sports field at Poulton being officially opened with a cricket match.

    "It had been intended that the new field would be officially opened with a match between the village side and their President's team and the match would have been the ideal way to launch the new field as the club used to play at Poulton Priory, home of the late Major A B Mitchell. He was the father of the club's president Mr Ian Mitchell.

    "Everyone in the village interested in cricket and football has raised money and they have built a pavilion", said Mr Mitchell. "It's been a very good village effort. It's an outstanding development thanks to everyone in the village helping out."

    "Before the field was officially opened there was a church service to mark the occasion. The vicar, the Rev. Robert Nesham, said the field was a memorial to Major Mitchell. Afterwards, villagers were entertained to lunch and tea."

    The quality of the new ground quickly received official recognition when it was chosen in June 1981 as the venue for the final of the Cirencester Under-13 competition and the following year it staged the Gloucestershire v Oxfordshire Under-13 match.

    And the quality of Poulton's cricket thrived in its new home as it continues to thrive 100 years after the club's foundation. The club won the Oaksey Bowl in 1981 and 1984. When the Cirencester and District League was founded in 1987, Poulton were the first winners of the title and when a second division was started in 1988, Poulton 2nds came top and were promoted so that the village in 1989 had two teams in the first division.

    But trophies and honours are only part of Poulton's cricket. The game is always played competitively, but friendship and companionship are as important as a result.

    Gordon Paine used to while away the hours writing verse and an extract from one of his musings sums up the way Poulton plays cricket.

"Cricket - now what's in a name
To some it's just a silly game
But not to those who like to watch and play
Nothing could be nicer on a summer's day
Than to hear the crack of ball on bat
Now what could sound nicer than that...
Cricket - now what's in a name
I hope you'll agree, a very fine game
And how lucky we are to play for a club
That always ends up in the local pub."

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