History
The following history of Caythorpe Cricket Club was written by our former Honorary Secretary, Gerard Sharp, and first appeared in a village publication called “Not Forgetting Caythorpe”. It is probably fair to say that after 30 years as Club Secretary, “G” has become a major part of our history. He is seen below enjoying a well earned pint after yet another mammoth committee meeting!

The cricket commentator, Don Mosey, lived in Caythorpe for a short while in the 1950’s. He once wrote that while cricket was played in the village, football was more popular. It was indeed true that there was a football club in the village and for a few years in the 1950’s, the Boxing Day match between married and single men, with it’s prize a barrel of beer donated by the landlady of the Black Horse, was the most popular sporting event. However, although cricket may have been at a low ebb in the early 1950’s, Caythorpe, like many other Nottinghamshire villages, has a proud tradition of cricket which remains a very important part of the village today.

July 25, 1850 Caythorpe vs East Bridgford

An 1851 entry in the Nottinghamshire Guardian recorded something of a fracas in a game between ‘Caythorpites’ and Burton (presumably Burton Joyce.)
No Nottinghamshire village was complete in the nineteenth century without it’s own cricket team and Caythorpe was no exception. It is unclear when the Caythorpe Club started but it is known that clubs commonly existed in the surrounding villages from the mid 1800’s or even earlier.

A game between Caythorpe and Thurgarton, September 10th 1957

The first record of a game game post 1880, played at Caythorpe against he Cross Keys at Arnold
The modern Caythorpe Cricket Club had the confidence to earmark 1980 as it’s centenary year when the club was not only Champions of the South Nottinghamshire Village League for the second consecutive year but also opened a fine new clubhouse.

The first recorded match was at home against Lowdham on the 6th July 1901 when the visitors scored 68 with J. Foster being the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets for 12 runs in his 6.4 overs. However, Caythorpe’s reply was a paltry 25 with Jack Branston top scoring with 6 not out, having come in as the No. 11 batsman. As the scorecard below shows, J. Glazebook posted the remarkable figures of 5 for 7 off his 6.2 overs for the visitors.

During the years that led up to the First World War, the opposition was mainly provided from the neighbouring villages of Lowdham, Hoveringham, Thurgarton, East Bridgford, Oxton, Gunthorpe, Epperstone and Gedling. Games were generally played every Saturday from early May until the end of August, never on a Sunday, but always on the Whit Monday and August Bank Holiday Monday. Many of these matches were against Nottingham lace manufacturers’ clubs such as A B Oliver’s XI, T Markham’s XI, Mallet’s XI, T J Birkin’s XI and Simon May and Company, the last of which continues to manufacture in the Nottingham Lace Market. In these early years a winning total was 60 or 70 runs in most matches and not a great number of fours was scored. This is perhaps not surprising as the outfield was shared with horses, cattle and sheep and “mowing” was left to their devices rather than the machinery which now manicures the outfield surface, leaving no obstructions for the ball to reach the boundary apace.

In a match played on 22nd July 1916, Caythorpe could only muster 12 runs, but this proved to be ample for the Hoveringham reply of just 3, with none of their first five batsmen troubling the scorers at all. The first known team photograph was taken at a match against Woodborough in 1904 when the Caythorpe team must have become camera shy, scoring only 27 in reply to a commendable 94 by the opposition.

George Haddon-White pictured in the front row would later be killed in the Great War.
In 1906 the talents of one of Caythorpe’s players, William Branston, were recognised by the County Club. A letter received from W Marshall, the Nottinghamshire County Club Secretary dated 29th September 1906 reads:
“Can you come to Trent Bridge Ground on Wednesday next, October 3rd at 2 p.m. to bowl at Mr A C Jones – several of Notts Committee will be present. Bring your cricket bag. Expenses will be paid.”

Could it have been this performance in September of 1906 the led to the callup?
William was invited to play with the Colts at Trent Bridge on 22/23rd July the following year. “Third class rail fare and teas will be provided” noted the postcard invitation. Another letter reflects the pre-telephone age when William was invited to play in Mr J Potter’s XI at Radcliffe-on-Trent when it ended:
“It is necessary that I do know definitely whether you are able to take part in the match so I shall be glad if you will meet me at Lowdham station this Saturday evening at 6.20 p.m. where I will look out for you.”

In 1925 a Caythorpe CC entry in the Nottingham Evening Post report contained an entry for Caythorpe.
Mr Willoughby: Chairman, Mr D Justice: Hon Treasurer, Mr W Branston: Captain, Mr G Daykin: Vice-captain, Keating: Committee member, JW Foster: committee member, S Foster: committee member, F Lawson: committee member, WH Antcliffe committee member.

In 1933 one E. Jackson was called up to play for the “East” against the “South” in a Local Test.

This paragraph from 14th May 1936 shows that having to cancel games due to lack of players is nothing new.
As war broke out in 1939 Caythorpe were advertising for games.

Caythorpe was not without its war casualties during WW2, in 1942 the Nottingham Evening Post recorded the death of a former captain. Marine Henry Arthur Mallett.

Another who was killed on active service was Thomas Spencer Kell who was secretary of the cricket club when his father was captain.

The death of a club member, William Isaac Willoughby, is recorded on Monday October 7th 1946, noting that he was one of the founding members of the Memorial Hall which was often used to host meetings.

Between the wars cricket was mainly played on rented land close to the riverbank in Hards Meadow but in 1959 they lost the ground. Not deterred they immediately set out to raise money to buy land and develop a new ground. Over a three year period, £1,400 was raised including a £400 grant from the National Playing Fields Association so that by the early 1960’s the club owned one of the best village grounds in the Midlands.

Raising so much money in a small village in such a short time was no mean achievement and owed much to dedicated hard work. No sooner had the cricket field been purchased that the club turned it’s attention to raising funds to erect a pavilion. The main fund-raising event was a Fete held on August Bank Holiday Monday 1963. Charles Cappendale wrote an account of the day:
“Ron Shipman and I gave up a whole week of our holidays, the sunniest week on record, to spend a full 45 hours in mowing every piece of grassed area on the Paddock’s estate so that the Fete would be the brilliant success we hoped.

There were dozens of highly organised stalls, a pig as a prize for skittling, games and competitions but the most wonderful attraction was to be Mr Monk’s unique passenger carrying model railway system at the Paddocks which was the envy of the country and a sure attraction for people from miles around. The 10.25″ gauge track led from the engine shed which housed four magnificent steam locomotives and a steam traction engine formed a grand circuit on which the locomotives hauled ten or more open coaches each able to seat six children or four adults. There was a railway station, signals along the track, a level crossing complete with gates and keeper. It was a glorious system with much rolling stock – wagons, guard’s van, coaches each one completely authentic – but the locomotives themselves in their immaculate livery of LMS LNER and GWR were the real showpieces. The whole of this wonderful system was controlled by Mr Monk’s employees. Profits would go to the Fete.

The Bank Holiday Monday arrived and I had requested that personnel excluding the railway operators to arrive at 9 a.m. for a dress rehearsal. A scale drawing of the entire layout had been prepared so that all know exactly where their stall was to be erected. The marquee, stalls and games were in place and the helpers arrived. But it began to rain heavily, and so it continued throughout the whole morning. Everything was awash. Fortunately the helpers were able to keep dry under a large marquee but I recall as if only yesterday sitting entirely alone in the corner of this huge structure with utterly indescribable abject feelings.

Then suddenly exactly on the stroke of one o’clock, the rain stopped and the sun shone more brilliantly than ever before in the history of the world. Steam rose from the ground outside; everyone leapt out and activity raced ahead. By 2 p.m. a lengthy queue had formed waiting for opening time. Crowds flooded in all afternoon. By 6 p.m. the helpers were totally exhausted but the Treasurer went home to count the day’s takings of £3,000 of which £600 profit was used to purchase the cricket pavilion and which now stands as a symbol of the efforts of a small village with a wonderful heart and to Mr S A Monk, a superb engineer.”

The superb facilities offered by the modern club have in recent years attracted such players as Sir Richard Hadlee, Clive Rice and Derek Randall.

Many representative games are played on the ground including Nottinghamshire. We have also hosted county Second XI 3-day matches; recently one of these was umpired by the well known Dickie Bird. This ground sharing is not just a current day arrangement; in 1937 the 37th annual cricket match between Nottingham Guardian and London Daily Telegraph was played at Caythorpe on 17th July 1937. The Guardian Committee met the Telegraph party at the Midland Station before attending a combined party lunch at the Anchor Inn, Gunthorpe. The match began at 1 p.m. and was followed by dinner at the Flying Horse in Nottingham, with the visitors returning to London on the 6.45 p.m. express. The dinner included grapefruit cocktail (sherry flavoured ), iced clear soup, fried river trout, lamb cutlets, roast chicken and York ham. This was followed by souffle omelette mixture ( iced ) and coffee. Not much reporting was done that day!

Cricket has been much alive in Caythorpe over the past century or more and the modern club with it’s own magnificent facilties has much to thank it’s predecessors for and much to look forward to in the future.

N.B. Since G’s article was written the following reference to Caythorpe cricket has been found in the Nottingham archives in 2005:

Nottingham Review November 24th 1814: “On Monday last Caythorpe 69 and 59 for 4 (R. Harewood, E. Hardy, J. Tomlinson, J. Ragsdale, J. Foster, J. Hall, J. Biggs, T. Ragsdale, J. Martin, G. Reddish, W. Harewood) beat Lowdham 83 and 44 (Ben Parr, Geo Beecroft, W. Blatherwick, C. Reddish, John Rockby, J. Reddish, J. Clayton, T. Dabell, F. Harding, W. Foster, J. Smith) by six wickets.”

Unfortunately our archives record no details of how the club was formed a century ago, but older members can remember the club being reformed after the Second World War.

During the summers of 1946-1948 a number of villagers played for Hoveringham C.C. and amongst them were M. Archer, R. Baker and R. Lambert, all of whom were later to take a prominent part in reforming the club.

In 1948 the Derbys. and Notts. Power Co. obtained the use of the pre-war Caythorpe C.C. ground and played most Saturdays with a team augmented by one or two from the village. Thus several Caythorpe cricketers were playing at that time either with Hoveringham or the D.& N.P.Co.

The village had a flourishing youth club and early in 1949 Mr. M. Archer invited P. Antcliffe, the youth club leader, together with would be cricketers to an “at home” social evening at which it became clear that there was a distinct possibility of re-forming Caythorpe C.C. with a blend of experienced players and interested youth club members. Included at this meeting were A. Branston and G. Reddish from the pre-war team together with R. Baker, B. Dolman and V. Condon.

Interest was stimulated within the village for the re-forming of Caythorpe C.C.. An unofficial approach to the D.& N.P.Co. regarding the possibility of sharing their ground proved positive. The pre-war Treasurer, Mr. Griffiths was contacted about the monies held by him on the Club’s behalf and candidates for a fund raising committee were sounded out.

Meanwhile more enthusiasm was created by two very successful matches played under the name of a “Black Horse XI” against a Notts Casuals XI and a Hoveringham Reindeer XI.

As a result a public meeting was convened on 19th August 1949 at which Caythorpe Cricket Club was re-formed on a proposal put forward by Mr. D. Justice and seconded by Mr. M. Archer. The following officials were duly elected: President: Mr. J. Foster, Chairman: Mr. S. Wood, Secretary: Mr. B. Dolman, Treasurer: Mr. F. Smee, Committee: Mr. P. Antcliffe, Mr. M. Archer, Mr. A. Beely and Mr. R. Birch.

Annual subscriptions were fixed at 10/- (50 pence), Vice-Presidents were appointed, a Ladies Committee was formed by the Women’s Institute and a fund raising dance was arranged to be held in the Memorial Hall (tickets 1/6 (7.5 pence)). Shortly afterwards a practice match was arranged and every member of both teams together with both umpires and the scorer all lived in the village of Caythorpe.

Caythorpe Cricket Club had indeed been re-formed.