Rhubarb

St Edward’s

when ‘a loyal member had torn his flannels

on barbed wire for the sake of the club!’ The

Chronicle

even got in on the act and in 1963

printed a column about their season just past,

including the idyllic description of the Baldon’s

ground: “trestle tables under a hot sun, and

struggling back somewhat reluctantly to resume

the contest, one felt that there could hardly

have been a more delightful end of the season.

Here is a ground typical of the English scene.

Deep mid-wicket, usually kept busy, enjoys the

bowling from one end a view of the ‘Seven

Stars’ and the old church behind it, and from the

other the hazards of the main highway between

his outpost and the centre of operations.”

By 1964 the club headquarters ‘have

moved to the Piggeries Pavilion’. A year later

traditional opponents of the Corfe Cricket

Club were included in Martyrs Week for the

first time who would ‘guarantee occupation

for those approaching or have already passed

senility!’ By 1966 tactics had come into play;

‘trying to field first whenever the toss was

won. How often does it turn out in these

circumstances that the opposing tea urn has

not quite come up to the boil, slowly working

up its pressure as we endure this first four

dangerous overs?’

Warden Frank Fisher’s first appearance

in the side in 1970 resulted in a personal half

century against Bedlow, but witnessed by

no-one as it clashed with the England versus

Argentina soccer match (the ‘Hand of God’

game) on television!

The club continued and thrived into the

1970s with a ‘full’ set of fixtures of around

12 matches per season including entry into the

Oxfordshire Cup competition - even reaching

the semi-finals in 1979, a season when seven

victories were achieved and necessitating the

‘talents of no less than thirty-three school

dignitaries’. The following season, and in direct

contrast to the fortunes of the school’s own

teams, they were almost unbeatable with only

one defeat in the whole season and that by

three runs - all achieved ‘with the usual mixture

of Common Room, miscellaneous boys and

other interested parties!’

The 1980s was a continued era of Corfe

CC activity, summer after summer, not

necessarily very successful on the pitch but

much enjoyed by those involved. ‘If we happen

to win it is a pleasant bonus’ was a statement

made in 1983. A year later the team again

reached the semi-finals of the Oxfordshire

Cup, no mean feat in a competition entered by

higher classes of opposition, with ten members

of the Common Room taking part during the

campaign. This was a welcome change at a

time when the school’s own cricketing success

was lacking and which was only really reversed

in 1986. The Corfe Cricket Club announced in

the

Chronicle

that ‘the club is still in action and

is a force to be reckoned with. The emphasis

is on participation and keeping everyone

interested in the game and that often includes

the opposition’! A trip to play the garrison in

Berlin was also on the cards - this match sadly

didn’t materialise.

The club was still active well into the 1990s

but with little mention in the archives of the

time - certainly in 1995 it celebrated its first

unbeaten season ever with an ‘unusual amount

of boys being kind enough to play’ which

‘added athleticism in the field’ and was thought

to be a key factor.

The club still exists today and since the

nineties has been in the capable hands of

various members of the Common Room

including Miles Peregrine, Edmund Hunt and

more recently James Gaunt. The pattern has

changed somewhat (usually involving local

schools’ Common Room groups these days

but also including a Jazz Musician group XI in

2006 for a 20/20 game!) and few away games

are now undertaken. However the spirit of

the club persists with Edmund Hunt recalling

that ‘we always tried to balance the game so

that it lasted until the final over, and provided

a good tea for our visitors and enjoyed the

Woodstock Arms afterwards’!

A series of statistics have survived up to

1977 noting every player, individual highest

score and bowling averages, catches held,

matches played, clubs contested with, record

partnerships and so on. It also lists that up to

that time 209 masters and senior boys had

participated ‘against local clubs and villages’.

The club had flourished under the Presidency

of Fran Prichard and another founder, Brian

Gale, who was quoted as having said that

qualification for Corfe was ‘To be a good chap

- you don’t have to be able to play cricket’.

Amen to that.

f e a t u r e s