Hidden amongst trees in Manor Park is a smart pavilion and rather nicely kept green. Surely you know that this is the home of Shepperton Cricket Club?
The club has just signed a new lease which will keep it at Manor Park until 2032. That will make it over 100 years from the date of moving to the park, and almost 150 years from when the club was formed. The original correspondence from the committee when they were agreeing to originally lease the land, dated 1929, can be seen here on headed paper of the Shepperton-on-Thames Cricket Club. (was that ever officially the place name? Does anyone know?)
The club is run by volunteers and is self funding. The old club house, seen opposite in the 1940’s, was eventually replaced with a smart new pavilion. Money was borrowed interest free from the ECB (English Cricket Board) and is being paid back over 10 years. The result is a modern and attractive building with good facilities. In addition to welcoming games during the summer, it is available to hire for parties and has a bar and excellent sized hall.
But enough about the venue. How about the cricket? Club Chairman John Stabler has been with the club for over 30 years, says we have 88 junior members aged from 8 to 17; the juniors all play in teams in local leagues and each team has a Team Manager and qualified coach assigned to them. We also run a cricket crèche for the under 8s. Several of the junior members played senior cricket last season for the mens and ladies teams.
We run three mens teams on a Saturday all of whom play in The Surrey Fullers League. Traditionally the club has had one mens side playing friendly fixtures on a Sunday. However from next year the club will have two mens sides playing on a Sunday as we have entered a side into the Surrey Development League which enables young cricketers to move safely from Junior to Senior Cricket in a structured manner.
The Ladies cricket team is one of the oldest and longest standing ladies teams in the country. We run two teams on a Sunday, one team in the Women’s Cricket South League one in the Surrey Development League.
Every day during the summer there is cricket played at Manor Park, be it Juniors practicing or playing matches, seniors training or a the weekends playing matches or on a Wednesday evening the more social cricket played by the local pubs in the pub league.
Come down in the summer, sign up to play cricket or have a drink and sample the atmosphere for yourself!