25th Anniversary celebrations - 2009
The Club officially opened the Second Ground on the Bank Holiday Monday.
Alan Butcher (ex-Surrey, Glamorgan and England) opened the new ground and the celebrations included a cricket match between a representative side from the Beaumont Seymour East Essex Women's Cricket League and KFCC ladies team - won by KFCC ladies.
An excellent day was had. KFCC ladies winning the match against the League representatives XI. KFCC posted 166 in their 30 overs and bowled out the opposition just in time to avoid the heavy rain which would have prevented victory.
The anniversary celebrations went extremely well with around fifty members and guests in attendance along with all the players and general spectators. A lovely lunch was followed by the official opening of the second pitch by Alan Butcher - see pictures below.
Club photo Gallery
Chairman's 25th Anniversary speech
"First of all let me thank everyone for coming today and supporting the club and enjoying the lunch prepared for us by Anne. Today marks a significant milestone in the history of Kelvedon and Feering Cricket Club. Having moved from a pitch that the club had occupied for many a year off London Road, presumably to make way for the A12 improvements, the club is now enjoying a dual celebration: its silver wedding or in other words 25 years on it’s the site in Rye Mill Lane and the opening of its second pitch located just over the road in the adjacent field.
The club has made enormous strides since the move to this ground. Having been involved in the club now for quite a few years I can honestly say that it was only a short time ago when we struggled to get out two sides on a match day. We had to trawl round to find able bodied and some not so able bodied simply to make up an 11. Even I was asked on many occasions to make up the number in the first team simply because I had two legs and arms and could move them in the right direction and at a reasonable speed, and before anyone gets the chance to pose a witty retort to that remark, the answer is yes I do have an excellent memory. In common with most ageing sportsmen, and before you ask, I can officially call myself a sportsman having recently had a qualified physiotherapist describe an injury that I went to see him for as a sportsman’s hernia, I can safely say that it is the short term memory that gets most affected, we never fail to remember deeds in the past. This is probably because when you get to my age there are not many others around to dispute the facts. However, some things never change, these days we are still struggling to get out sides. Only the weekend before last the chairman of selectors sent me a distressed e-mail asking if we could review our match day policy as we were struggling to get out 5 sides on the Sunday, having already put out three sides on the Saturday. We had 3 colts matches and two adult games on the said day. What a headache. If someone had even suggested that this was a possibility 10 years ago we would have carted them off to join the "old boys" on the boundary and given them a drink with which to recover.
Yes we did struggle in the early days, however, there was a group of people who recognised that the future of the club lay in its ability to encourage younger people into the game. A policy was formed and we threw ourselves headlong into developing colts cricket at the club. As a result we have developed a steady stream of young talented cricketers into our adult sides. This has meant that we have had to increase our number of adult sides and also the number of colts teams that we put out, and what a success this policy has proved to be. Only yesterday I had the pleasure of watching an 18 and 20 year old who had come up through our colts sides demolish a team from Maldon with a near league record stand of 264, whilst on the same day an 18 and a 19 year old playing for our 1st team were demolishing Ardleigh. In this regard we have something in common with that great scientist of the past, Sir Isaac Newton. It was he who said that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In our case the action was to increase the numbers of players and teams and the reaction was that we outgrew our facilities. For the two previous seasons we have had to hire facilities at other clubs to allow us to accommodate everyone who wanted to enjoy a game of cricket under the banner of KFCC.
However, all that has now changed. A chance conversation I had with local farmer, Robert Crayston, at a mutual friends 70 birthday party, just over two short years ago, allowed us to enter into negotiations with the owners of the field opposite. As a result we managed to secure a favourable 24 year lease on the field and an interest free loan from the ECB which has enabled us to turn a redundant field into a second cricket pitch in a remarkable 18 months. It was perhaps something that our older players had always coveted and dreamed of but in their heart of hearts felt would never happen in their lifetime. Well ladies and gentlemen it has happened and this season has seen us being able to host simultaneous matches at our club. This is a remarkable testament to all those who have willingly given of their time and laboured long and hard. We must all thank our long suffering partners for bearing with us whilst we toiled away and neglected the many duties that awaited us domestically. I know for my part Helen was getting so frustrated she put a list of outstanding jobs up on the kitchen wall and kept adding to it. At the last count I think it reached 30. I can only say it was a good job I mis-laid my reading glasses and that she is extremely tolerant and understanding. We also need at this point to thank one of our sponsors, Boxtainer, who has provided us with a container for use as changing facilities. Without this facility I fear the local press might well have had a field day!
However, our progress does not stop there. We are awaiting the approval of planning permission for a new extension to the clubhouse that will enable us to provide the infrastructure to support both pitches. We have an excellent architect on board and have already had meetings with both Essex and the ECB who both support our intentions. Which I can assure you, are completely honourable. Hopefully, we will be inviting you all back again in a couple of years to celebrate the opening of our new clubhouse.
Another, major development for the club has been with girls and ladies cricket and it is through this that we have met our honoured guest today Mr. Alan Butcher. Alan brought his twin daughters Bryony and Ceri to the club as our involvement in grew in Girls cricket. Bryony is still very active, but her sister is now concentrating on gymnastics which is a loss to us but no doubt a gain to another sport. We are truly honoured and delighted that someone with Alan’s cricketing pedigree has agreed to officially open our second ground. Alan has had an incredibly successful cricketing career, first as a player with Surrey and then Glamorgan, in which the highlight must surely have been when he represented his Country and then secondly as a County coach.
I would now like to ask you all to make your way over to the second pitch where we will ask Alan to cut the tape around the square. After which we will return here and ask Alan to unveil a commemorative plaque and we will all toast the success and future of KFCC."
Chris Leftwich, Chairman [25th May 2009]
35 years remembered by Mick Warner
I have played for Kelvedon and Feering Cricket Club for 36 seasons in that time I have seen the club continuously improve on and off the pitch. Starting out on the old London Road ground, with the club putting out 2 sides over the weekend, to having six adult teams some weekends these days.
In the early days when I started playing we were only playing friendlies on both days over a weekend but with a good batch of promising young players pushing for more competive cricket the club joined the Greene King League (since named Lancaster / PDQ League). The side made good strides in its venture into league cricket, joining division one very quickly. After a couple of seasons we were forced to move to Rye Mill Lane. With club members building the majority of the club house with help from local traders. We had to play away games for a whole season.
The move to the new ground saw Bryan Page start up a colts section; this team was the start of our success story in the production line of youngsters we have today. Through the work of Simon Gibbs, Steve Baker, Martin Griffiths and the numerous number of coaches who have invested a great amount of time and effort we have continued to prosper.
The club soon joined the Two Counties League following success in the Lancaster league; division one runners up; league cup winners three times and losing finalists twice in five years. The club then started to expand (two teams each day) and now we are putting out three teams. The teams are now made up of good number of youngsters in each of the adult teams. The club also has a successful ladies team of which a number represent the county.
The club house and facilities are progressively being improved; excellent net facilities, veranda and now the second ground (needed because of the numbers of youngsters wanting to play for the club). The next step for the club is the proposed extension to the club house incorporating 5 changing rooms, scorer facilities and enlarged club house area for functions. All this does not come without the hard work of the committee and officers of the club: special mention to Arthur Savill (President) and Chris Leftwich (Chairman) and of course Simon Gibbs (does he do any other work other than at the club?) and the other long serving committee members.
Mick Warner
Longest serving player, 1974 - 2009 (not out)
35 years serving committe member
