Hunningham CC is situated in idyllic rural Warwickshire, just north east of Leamington. It’s a thriving village cricket club with some great stories to tell. Pete Harrison (Club Vice Chair and 2nd team captain) and Jon Pettifer (Committee member) met with WCB on a sunny spring day for an interesting and entertaining Q&A session about the development of this unique village cricket club. Read on to find answers to the following questions?
- How did players negotiate the outfield when it was used as pasture for cows during the week?
- Why are the home-made sight screens reminiscent of Trigger’s broom?
- What is the famous Hunningham CC spoon?
Pete and Jon: “Historically, the land belonged to the Wright family, local landowners. It was given to the club in 1985 on the condition sport was played here. Up until relatively recently, the outfield was used for cattle grazing during the week. The square was fenced off with four panels of barbed wire fencing that required lifting out before a fixture. Obviously, the cows were moved elsewhere in advance of matches, but they left plenty of cow pats behind them for the players to pick up before the game.”
Jon: “Basically, the speed of the ball in the outfield was measured by how hungry the cows had been during the week.
Only the square was mown before the match, but in order to reach the square the mower left a single line from the clubhouse to the wicket. Unless you hit a six, your only hope of scoring a boundary was to hit a late cut shot along the mower strip from the wicket to the clubhouse.”
What about the club house? How did that develop?
Pete and Jon: “The original club house was quite basic. It was rebuilt in two stages between 2003 and 2008 to give us the great facilities we have now – nice changing rooms and shower facilities, a full kitchen, and a large club room with a great view and a door onto a wooden deck.
Everyone pitched in with the redevelopment and we made good use of the skillsets available to us within the club. The project was managed by a player - Brian O’Brien, who is also an electrician – you can see that from the huge number of lights in the clubhouse ceiling. We both remember working hard at the weekend during the building work, turning a hand to everything from digging trenches to laying concrete blocks on the floor.”
Pete: “Lifting the joists into place required the whole cricket team to hold them up while they were secured in place. It was a moment of sheer terror for us all – anything could have gone wrong!”
The net facilities look wonderful. How were they developed?
Pete and Jon: “Our two excellent nets are three years old. Youth Chairman at the time, John King, and his wife Sarah took ownership of that project. They organised the fundraising and grant applications (including from the ECB) to raise the money required to redevelop the nets. John King has been part of and has supported the club for many years, initially as a player, but then returning to the club and taking on a management role when his children played here. The King family is a great example of parents and children all taking an active role in most aspects of the club, including team management, fundraising and playing.”
The sightscreens seem pretty unique. Is there a story behind them?
Pete: “The sightscreens are actually home-made. I made them a number of years ago with a few club member volunteers. They have been broken (often off Jon’s bowling) and repaired more times than I can remember. They remind me of Trigger’s broom in ‘Only Fools & Horses’ – he had the same broom for 20 years but it had 17 new heads and 14 new handles over the years!”
Jon: “The sight screens often need repairing, and we’re not sure how long they will last. Meanwhile, there is something satisfying about mending them and thinking ‘that’ll do for another year and save the club some money.’”
Are there any plans to develop the ground any further?
Pete and Jon: The next logical step would be to develop some hardstanding car parking. This would enable greater community use of the ground, particularly during the winter. There is a lot of HS2 related work happening locally, so we were hopeful of getting a grant to help with the parking situation. Unfortunately, our first bid was rejected, but we are hoping to reapply more successfully. The Committee is also keen to develop environmentally. The club already has solar panels and we would like to add a heat pump to our green resources at some stage.
The score box is still a traditional scorebox, operated manually. We had a club scorer for many years (he was a former statistician) but he is 92 years old now and the position is vacant at the moment. It might be time to move to an electronic scorebox, particularly after the pandemic when scorers don’t really want to be cooped up in a wooden box all day.”
With the cricket season underway now, tell us more about the cricket at Hunningham CC?
Adult teams
Jon: “We have two adult teams in the Warwickshire League and we also play friendlies on Sundays. There are 6-7 of us still playing who are approaching 60. We are looking for a new cohort of players (and Committee members) to ensure the future of the club. Our current players have understandably got other demands on their time so can’t play every week and some live a considerable distance away. If we had a bigger pool of players, then it would make things easier.
This is very much a village club and we are looking to attract players who enjoy being around a group of people from a great variety of backgrounds – those who want to play cricket in a lovely spot but also take their cricket seriously. We are competitive, but realistically none of us will be playing at Lords anytime soon.
The youngsters who come to the club are well supported and encouraged in the adult teams. They will also get to bat ahead of the old guard! It’s really great to see their personalities emerge over the course of the season; they start off by being quite shy, make new friends of their own age, and by the end of the season they’re making the most noise and really making their presence felt.”
Junior section
Pete and Jon: “We run All Stars and Dynamos cricket on Friday nights, in addition to our junior U13 and U15 teams. The club tends to be busy then as we usually have around 50 children. Our first team captain Lewis Mundy has run both All Stars and Dynamos in the past, but with numbers increasing he now has more support. Also, every year we host the annual U13 boys fixture between Warwickshire and Middlesex, so that is a regular feature on our calendar. From a local youth perspective, we also host Chance to Shine festivals annually where local primary schools play against each other.
In our junior section, we produce the odd superstar who has represented Warwickshire at both District and County level. There is fierce competition for the best youngsters and the superstars will, in most cases, end up going to the big local clubs. There is a perception that we are a feeder club for the bigger cricket clubs, but that isn’t good for our own player retention or the future of the club.”
Tell us more about this splendid wooden spoon on the club house wall?
Pete: “The wooden spoon is given to the player with the most ducks in the season and is awarded on presentation night. It has been funny over the years to watch players come dressed up and full of expectation for presentation night, only to come away with the wooden spoon. Each recipient of the spoon has a silver plaque with their name on it stuck to the spoon. In fact, we are now on our second club spoon. I carved both of them myself from mahogany.”
Jon: “Looking at it now, I can’t believe my name is on the spoon four times!”
It’s been an interesting and entertaining visit to Hunningham CC - plus a great insight into village cricket. There has been significant development at the club over the years, and the momentum is there to keep going. The club faces the same challenges as many other village cricket clubs in the current environment. There is something about Hunningham CC that suggests the resourcefulness within the ranks will continue to serve the club well.
For more information about Hunningham CC, particularly enquiries about playing, please contact [email protected] or via the club’s social media.
