About Us
Great Horwood Cricket Club is a
typical village club which began in the 1950’s although no-one
seems certain of the exact year. Cricket was played first of all
on the other side of the crossroads/roundabout nearer Nash but
still on the Nash Road, before moving to its current site in
1962 adding changing facilities in 1964 which consisted of the
old Waiting Room from the now closed Swanbourne Railway Station.
The Club ground is situated at the roundabout which links the
A421 and B4033 and is on the outskirts of the village of Great
Horwood.
CLICK HERE for information on the history of the village.
The Club began by playing friendly fixtures and invitation or
informal cup and league competitions with the first recorded cup
success, for which records can be found, being the Loyal Western
Lodge Cup in 1964. A photograph of the successful team still
hangs today in the pavilion. In fact one of that team, Terry
McStraw, is still playing cricket.
League cricket began again in the early 1980’s with one side
playing in the League. After success in the lower divisions, the
Club finally gained promotion to the Premier Division after
winning Division 1 in 1986, a season which also saw the Club
winning the Stewkley Cup, thereby achieving our version of the
“Double”.
The pinnacle of success in this league came in 1992 when
Great Horwood won the Premier League and the Stewkley Cup
thus again doing the “Double”. By now the Club was also
playing in the Buckingham & District Midweek League and
fielding a Sunday XI.
In 1994, the playing strength was of sufficient numbers to
begin running a second team in the league on Saturdays.
Today we are not only running these sides but also have an
active youth coaching set-up which attracts in excess of 40
youths to the coaching sessions. Currently we have three
youth teams playing in the Bucks Cricket Board Cricket
League with plans to have teams in all age groups in the
future.
The Club moved from the Milton Keynes and District Cricket
League to the Ouse Valley League as a founder member in 1994
however we only stayed in this league for three years before
joining the larger Oxfordshire Cricket Association League in
1997 where the 1st XI won their Division at the first
attempt. The 2nd XI has also subsequently won its Division
in 2002 and has won the Osberton Radiators Cup on three
occasions in 2001, 2003 and 2007. The strength of the Club
has meant that in 2009 we entered a third team into the OCA
League. This team is playing it’s fixtures at Padbury
Sportsfield and we are indebted to Padbury Parish Council
for letting us use this facility.
A Ladies team was also playing occasional games from the
early 1980’s and in the late 80’s became a founder member of
the Milton Keynes & District Ladies League finishing
Runners-up in both the league and cup competitions on a
number of occasions. The Ladies team continues to operate
successfully up to the present time.
The Club is well known in the area for running its own
highly successful invitation Six-a-Side competitions which
began for the men in the early 1980’s and for the Ladies
shortly afterwards. In 2002 the Club managed to win both the
Men’s and the Ladies’ Trophies for the only time in the
Club’s history. In 2006 the men’s competition became a 20:20
competition to reflect trends at the time. In 2009 we
started an Under 15 Youth Six-Side competition for the first
time. In addition to these competitions we have the annual
George Ridgway Cup competition for which the Chairman’s XI
competes with the President’s XI.
As stated earlier, the Club moved to its current site in
1962 and had the former Swanbourne Railway Station Waiting
Room as its changing facilities with no electricity or
running water. A Tea Room was added and modified in the late
70’s before, in 1988, the Club constructed its own pavilion
from a Terrapin building which we were given and, for the
first time, we had electricity and running water which meant
we had separate changing facilities and showers. In 1999 the
Club was granted a Bar License and over the next few years a
new extension was built with a custom built bar area,
thereby improving the facilities considerably. In 2005,
following
the donation of a building by the Barton family, who are
residents of the village, new enlarged changing rooms with
improved shower and toilet facilities were officially
opened. Both the original construction in 1988 and the
extension in 2005 were grant aided by Aylesbury Vale
District Council and without their help we would not have
been able to achieve what we have.