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The Story of Hanslope Cricket Club
Part 4 - New City, New Focus : 1975-1984 |
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The resignation from the County league in 1975 highlights a dilemma that faces all village competitive clubs, whether they be cricket, football, or any other sport. A successful side is a stable side; it will feed off its own success and self-confidence. Therefore it can be difficult for other members, those who don’t have a regular place in the side, to achieve the same level of satisfaction from their chosen sport. In the case of cricket, with a successful league side it could mean the lesser players rarely getting a satisfactory bat or bowl – a quick swish for the last over and a half, and two and a half hours on the third man boundary can be pretty soul-destroying for anyone when it’s happening quite often. And then, when the performances start to diminish, what do you do? In a perfect situation you would have new, younger players to take the place of those whose commitment, understandably, was waning. But they’ve fallen by the wayside too, as they couldn’t get much of a game, and they’ve lost interest. In some cases, the only way to continue is to bring in players from outside the natural catchment area. This way the high standard that has been achieved can be maintained, but at what cost? Outside players will not have the same natural loyalty as someone who was born in, or lives in, the village. When pressures come they fade away, leaving the club with nothing, no one to fill the team sheet, as there hasn’t needed to be much local recruitment of late. With no one to call on, games get cancelled, fixtures get lost, officials and officers resign and the club folds. This has been the pattern all over the country with village cricket and football clubs. It didn’t happen in Hanslope, not yet anyway. Why not? One reason is geographical. At the same time as Hanslope CC.’s northern horizons were fading, on Saturdays at least, the new city of Milton Keynes was developing apace a few miles to the south. Fixture secretary Barry Stimson had to find a whole new set of Saturday fixtures and this was an obvious way to go. Below are printed fixture lists for 1975 and 76 – the last year in the County league and the first one out of it. 17 league fixtures to the north have been replaced with 12 friendly fixtures mainly to the south.
A quick scan of these two fixture cards, only a year apart, shows the complete sea -change that took place with the Saturday fixtures. In contrast, the Sunday fixtures remain almost the same. Notice the fixture with the Royal Household. For about ten years, up to 1980, this was an annual trip to Windsor, playing in the grounds of the castle. It was a day trip for players and their families, with the young children hoping they could see the Queen. Apparently the teas weren’t particularly good, so perhaps there were already austerity measures taking place.
The early 70s was a time of change for the village of Hanslope. With the new city being built barely ten miles to the south, it was no longer a rural backwater in the outer reaches of North Bucks. Now it was becoming a desirable oasis between two growing urban areas, for Northampton was expanding too. In fairly quick succession, from the late 60s onwards, new housing estates were being built and the village was expanding to a size undreamed of back in 1946. First the St. James’ Close houses sprang up, with some of them perfectly positioned for cricketers, overlooking the Rec. Next the club’s original ground behind the Watts Arms was swallowed up by the Western Drive development. The Eastfield Drive estate and, finally the smaller group of large detached houses at Weavers’ End completed the transformation. By 1976, in not more than ten years, the village had been doubled in size. Many of the new houses were occupied by people working in the new city, so, with major expansion also taking place at Hanslope Park, the roads to Wolverton and Stony Stratford became much busier in the rush hours. The cricket club, meanwhile, had settled into its new pattern of friendly matches. With a stable group of officers it quietly but efficiently was seen as a well established part of village life by all, both long-term residents or relative newcomers. Bob Baird was still captain, Fred Brown was well into his long stint as chairman and Ted Ansell had been treasurer since 1955 and was to continue until 1992. Tony James took over the secretary’s post from Barry Stimson in the early 70s and also was to continue for the next twenty years. The club continued to enter the mid week knockout competitions. A newspaper photo from this era is shown below, with Trevor McLean somehow re-christened “Tim”.
It was from this time onwards that many local village cricket clubs began to flounder and fall by the wayside. Of our near neighbours, only Castlethorpe still has a team, with Ashton, Hartwell, Potterspury, Great Linford and even Roade now all gone. We can look at the late seventies/ early eighties period as one where this decline began to set in, and also as a time when Hanslope took decisions that enabled them to survive and continue. It had always been a club rule that members should have some connection with the village, either by birth or residence at some time. It was during the eighties that the club relaxed this rule, but, importantly, only slightly. A fixed, small number of ’non-village’ players would be allowed – enough to reinforce the playing strength, but not too many to take the whole club away from being a village club, as opposed to just a club that played in the village. Also at this time, in 1980, the club entered a team into the newly formed Hair Moda Youth League, based in and around Milton Keynes. It may not have seemed a particularly important move at the time, but from this small decision there came a whole generation of regular senior players.
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