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History
Penned by Mike Mundy (Chairman, Bradley Stoke Cricket Club) for the programme of the official opening on Saturday April 11th 1992 by Gloucester and England wicket keeper Jack Russell. "Bradley
Stoke Cricket Club was formed initially in September 1990 and
applied to become founder users of the newly built pavilion in
Baileys Court Road, Bradley Stoke. It was however, to be another
nine months before, on June 12th 1991, that we heard that we had
been chosen by North Avon District Council, to be the first
cricket club to use the superb facilities. This was quite an
achievement as we had tough oppostion from other local clubs who
had also applied to be first past the post.
"It doesn’t seem like eleven years that I first saw the notice board where our clubhouse now stands. ""The message on that board early in 1991, detailed that new Bowls and Cricket facilities were to be built on that site. I contacted the Northavon District Council and made enquiries as to how the Cricket Club would evolve. I was told that applications would have to be made to the Council. I placed an advert in the local press, and I received interest from four other people, Paul McGregor, Steve Kendal, Paul Boulton, and a certain Sue Finney. We agreed to form a Club called Bradley Stoke Cricket Club and applied to the Council. We were then informed that three other established Clubs had also applied to use the facilities, Stoke Gifford, Winterbourne, and Carsons. We were also told that another application in the name of Bradley Stoke had been received. I obtained a name and phone number and gave the person a ring. We agreed to meet up and discuss our applications. History now shows the Club in question was Stoke Lodge CC who played at Patchway High School. We agreed to become one club, and for the 1991 season we played cricket as Stoke Lodge, and friendlies as Bradley Stoke. This liaison only lasted one season as the behaviour of our fellow partners left much to be desired, and their bad behaviour reputation was well documented and known. The five of us decided unanimously that we could not continue to be associated with Stoke Lodge, and we called an EGM to dissolve the Club. We offered Stoke Lodge over £700 that we had raised through various functions, in return for us being the only club bearing the name Bradley Stoke. They agreed. We then set about establishing the Club, and our first fund raising event was at a local fayre, and we had a tombola and a bowling competition. Funding this meant that initially we were £13 in debt, but ended the day in profit to the tune of £18, So we were off and away, and several new members joined our ranks. We then heard that the Clubhouse would be available from April onwards, although due to a poor square, we could not actually play on it until the middle of the summer. We embarked on a very ambitious project, namely to try and get Jack Russell to officially open the Club. Several meetings took place and eventually Jack agreed to do it, and in April 1992 we had an open day with an exhibition of Jack’s paintings, one of which we purchased and raised funds by selling a special programme. Since
those heady days we have been playing league cricket since 1992,
and during that time we have had over 100 players represent us in
the Bristol & District League. We worked our way through the
divisions from four to one. Unfortunately we haven’t been
able to sustain that, but we have the ability to get back if we
work together and apply our talent accordingly. Our youth policy
has given us many fine young players, and our future should be
secure." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Website design by Sue Jones - Site last updated 23 September 2008 |