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2003 year saw us playing
a handful of home fixtures
for the first time in three seasons on the new
strips, laid in Spring 2002. The outfield was also levelled
and re-sown, to the point that
it all looks
like Ground Force Deluxe has been at it!
More work has taken place over the winter of 2003/4 to improve the
surface again with plenty of necessary rolling: today it is looking very
healthy indeed. Membership increased during 2003 and the resultant
re-jigged line-up experienced a hugely enjoyable season with some good
performances. All in all, we can't wait for this season to begin! |
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| President's
Day 2000 at West End |
The
original West Endians, that's who! Diligent archive and library trawling has
uncovered evidence of the club's existence from at least 1877, so we're well
over a century and a quarter not out. That's the club of course and not
ourselves - although a few of us have games when we feel that old. (More here on area & club history.) Most
of the characters you'd expect to find are here in one form or another, including; the
huge bloke with a JCB-type bat; a spinner who pirouettes
more than the ball: the larger
than life batsman whose quick singles need an escape lane: he with the girly features:
the Umpire with the
"trigger" finger of death - the list goes on. But you'll have to work them out
for yourselves through the site, if you can, if you want(!). No clues to
be gotten here, however the members area and the Gallery are good places to start. |
Why
give up the habit of a century and a quarter's lifetime (says
Captain Howard "Beefy"
Turner, left)! We can't, that's just it. The whole experience is
more than just the sum of its parts, for example: we all enjoy the game;
the camaraderie and good-natured banter; the cool beer at the end; our
superb teas (even if we say so ourselves!); the quality of wide-ranging
opposition sides; the list goes on. The last point there is significant
in that we've picked up regular fixtures of appreciable quality such as Tilford, a picturesque village south of Farnham in Surrey. We understand
there is pretty much a waiting-list of teams wanting to play them!
Our vision to improve our lot has
also been very successful.
In resent times WECC has managed to evolve and develop while other teams
(long-standing fixtures included) sadly fade away at
an alarming rate. The club has changed location more than once since its
inception. The Old Cricket Green" was the original ground and can still be seen in Brentmoor road (read
more) opposite our usual meeting place, the "Hare And Hounds".
After the Second World War, heathland was cleared to make a new
Recreation Ground. We moved here, firstly on the freshly-cleared west side before settling on
our final placement
on the east side in the 1960's. Although the poor drainage meant
occasional flooding this didn't "dampen" our desire to develop and today
we boast quality grass wickets after
years of fundraising and planning. |
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