31/01/2018

I know its not Leisure, but a little anecdote from the days when I played for Surrey... SCCC, (Surrey County Council Cricket)... The summer of '88 I found myself playing mid week 20 over cricket for the County Treasurers team in the County Council inter-departmental cricket league. For a few years all the games were at Wray Park, the Fire Brigade HQ in Reigate That year we played Architects, Information Services, Trading Standards, Social Services, Transport Planning Unit and the Fire Brigade. It was all well organised back then, the league administrator producing regular newsletters and league tables.

Other teams joined the league; Reigate Police, Runnymede BC, Manor (Heartlands) Hospital, Youth Services, and we were playing various grounds around; Gibraltar Rec, Court Rec, and Manor Hospital in Ewell/ Epsom, Reigate Priory Park, Worcester Parks Wandgas, Tattenham Way, Chertsey Park, Whiteley Village and some pitch in Laleham.

We did ok in 1990, beating the champions

I was soon skippering and did so right up until our last ever game in August '98. We knew it was time to call it a day, people were moving on, and new players were hard to find. Plus we hadn't won a game in maybe 3 years. But as it happens, we did win that last game, v Social Services, down on Kingswood Rec, I cant really remember how we did it, but it was big news back in the office the next day. I'm not sure the league lasted much longer, maybe only another season or two after we dropped out.



'96 wasn't such a great year for the team

Didn't like losing to IT. Manor hit big and bowled fast. Transport were good but quite serious. A couple of Runnymede got well pssd off when we picked up some guy in the park just before the game and he ended up beating them more or less single handed. Social Services had a few characters, and I was always a bit nervous when playing Reigate Police. Fire Brigade were strong and took us for 200+ one time, back in the day when often 100 was a winning score. Carting the team kit bag around with the pads with buckles, communal boxes and bats with no middle was always a drag but had to be done. The score books are long gone, so no stats, just the odd newsletter for reference. Anyway, a minor bit of history. Happy days, and good games played with some great mates. And 30 years later, still doing it...


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