Anyone For Cricket

The traditional summer game of cricket will be allowed once again from Saturday (July11) and there will be celebrations in villages around Bristol, although the game will now be played under strict Covid-19 guidelines from the England Cricket Board.

Nowhere will the return of the game be more welcome than Congresbury, just south of Bristol on the A370, where this will be the 176th year of village cricket.

In their first game back a Congresbury 1st XI will entertain a Weston-super-Mare CC team at the King George V Playing Field, the following weekend they will have a return fixture in Weston.

Last May the two teams opened the season with a similar friendly and the two skippers - Justin Yau (Cong) and Chris Davidson (pictured) studied a scorebook from May 17, 1919 when in the first match after World War 1 the two teams played each other.

Local historian and author Clive Burlton said: “There is the same feel about this weekend’s game. Cricket coming back after a time of great difficulty for everyone. It is another historic step in the history of village cricket.

Clive wrote a book celebrating 175 years of village cricket, which opened up a window on life in Somerset through the Victorian and Edwardian eras to the present day. The book, published by Congresbury Cricket Club in association with Congresbury History Group, tells much more than the story of cricket in the village over the generations.

“The more research I did, the more people I spoke to, the more I realised how the fabric of village life and the development of cricket were intertwined,” said Clive.

The book, with 112 pages, 60,000 words and 250 images draws on the archives held by both the cricket club and the history group as well as recounting the memories of villagers and players, past and present.

Clive, a club vice president, explained: “Among the many nuggets we’ve found is a photograph and an account of a 1907 men v women cricket match in the village with men batting left-handed with broomsticks!

“We also found recipes for all sorts of cakes and pies written by village ladies with known links to cricketers of the time.”

The oldest document uncovered is the scorebook from 1919. The book tells far more than the story of Congresbury CC, looking at the development of cricket in North Somerset from the middle of the 19th century with extensive use of newspaper archives since the 1850s.

175 Years of Village Cricket was designed and produced by Bristol Books and can also be obtained online at www.bristolbooks.org

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