King’s Stanley Cricket Club team from the mid 1890's'

Welcome to the history of King’s Stanley Cricket Club web page.  This section is currently under construction and will be available in early June.  During the course of the season it is hoped that it will be regularly updated and expanded as information and photographs are retrieved from the Stroud News archives, long forgotten albums, or from boxes stored in dusty attics.

Not many village teams have such a long and distinguished history, or have had the good fortune to have so many real characters play for them over the years. There are many classic, almost apocryphal stories of bizarre and humorous incidents events involving King’s Stanley teams and so it is intended that in addition to the historical information there will also be a ‘special memories section’ with the favourite anecdotes from past and present players. This is an area where everyone can contribute and I will be trying to collect stories along with old team photographs over the next few months. This is a developing site and so please feel free to send in suggestions.

Already some early research in the Stroud News and Journal archives, by Peter Griffin, has yielded some wonderful discoveries - match reports from 1870 and much-disputed umpiring decisions between KSCC and Stroud in 1890 – some things never change ! Did you know that famous feature film actors played at Marling Close and that Roy Bassett stumped both Kenneth Moore and Basil Rathbone? Old team photographs are also coming to light from the most unlikely places.  One wonderful photograph of an un-defeated King’s Stanley team from 1891 was found under a bed in Leonard Stanley, and another cup winning team photo was found behind the bar at the King’s Head during recent renovations!  The search for new material is fast becoming a fascinating detective story, as photographs appear from friends of friends, and distant relatives of old players! However, there are also reports of people moving away from the village and many old photographs and fixture lists being lost in the move … lets try and record those that remain for posterity before they too disappear. Please don’t throw anything away!

 If you have a bit of spare time, and would like to get involved building a website that will be the envy of the league, here’s how you can contribute;

-       Do you have any photographs of King’s Stanley teams or players?  Don’t worry, you don’t have to part with them as I can arrange to bring a small ‘scanner’ to your home and copy them on to the computer in a matter of seconds. This includes the famous ‘Firkins’ and King’s Stanley Baptists teams as well as the regular village team.

-       Do you have any leads for us to follow or know of anyone who may have photographs, old fixture lists, match reports, scorebooks, old cups, or the match ball from 1891?

-       Do you have any stories or anecdotes about memorable cricketing moments whilst playing or watching cricket at King’s Stanley that you would like to share with us?  Recently, Derek Vick kindly wrote about some of his wonderful experiences with KSCC, and they paint a lovely picture of what it was like to play, and be involved with the club, in the 50’s and 60’s. It is planned to interview more past players in the club during the coming season. These may be included in a special ‘voices from the past’ section.

-       Do you fancy undertaking a bit of detective work searching through the ‘Stroud News and Journal’, and ‘Citizen’ archives looking for old match reports and references to the club?  – There are so many questions we would like to answer;

-       When was cricket first played in King’s Stanley? We are currently looking into rumours of an away match at Selsley in the late 1820’s!

-       Where did King’s Stanley play cricket before the current ground at Marling Close?  Once again I’ve heard rumours that it was on Selsley Hill, before a short spell on a field near Lugg’s lane.

-       How many trophies and leagues have been won over the years.

-       Was the famous game against the cast of ‘Chance of a Lifetime’ film crew ever made into a news story?

-       Who has scored the highest score or taken the most wickets, or hit the biggest six. Did someone really hit a six over the old Red Lion?

As we hopefully build a more comprehensive collection of memorabilia, and it outgrows this website, it is hoped that our discoveries might be shown in the village hall as part of a wider exhibition looking at King’s Stanley in old photographs.  This will be advertised on the Sports club website and on the club notice board, and will hopefully take place later in the year. 

I’m sure there is much to be discovered, and a lot of fun to be had searching for it, and so if you have a bit of spare time and would like to help, please get in touch with Peter Bassett on 0781 6311164 or Peter.John.Bassett@Googlemail.com  

If enough people are interested I will organise a meeting to discuss how best to take things forward. I might even get the first round in!

Cheers

Peter Bassett

10^th May 2009