INTRODUCTION

By

Nobby Timpson

To commemorate the Great Kingshill Cricket Club's centenary year, the Club Committee has invited, or rather cajoled, me into writing the history of the Club since 1890.

The centenary year has probably long gone as cricket has been played on the present recreation ground, or 'the common' as some of the older generation still know it, as long ago as 1864 and before. However, for some mysterious reason the club's letter headings since 1962 or thereabouts have proclaimed that the cricket club was formed in 1890 and I would not be surprised if this date had been conjured up by an energetic and at times over-enthusiastic secretary of the club in the early sixties.

Of course, it may well be that, although cricket was played on the common under the name of Great Kingshill or Brands Fee in the middle of the last century, the Great Kingshill Cricket Club with officials and possibly some club rules was not formed until 1890.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the main reason for my accepting this somewhat daunting task was the fact that not many of the present generation have read or are even aware of the short history 'Sixty Years of village cricket at Great Kingshill 1891-1951' written by my brother Ted to celebrate the winning of the First Division of the old Wycombe League in 1951. This booklet is now very hard to come by and, in answer to many requests, it has been decided to reprint it as Part II of this current publication.

I would like to make it clear from the outset that it has been my aim to record the facts as I see them and that any views expressed in Parts I and III are entirely my own and not those of the Cricket Club Committee. The intention is to have this publication produced in time for the annual dinner, or I should say, the centenary dinner, and I wish to apologise in advance for any mistakes or omissions.

With regard to Part I, I am indebted to the staff of both the County Reference Library and Records Office in Aylesbury and to the Wycombe Reference Library, who have been both helpful and patient. The MCC Library at Lord's has also provided useful information which is not generally available. So far as Part III is concerned, this is written largely from memory with the help of one or two senior members and from information provided by old score-books, fixture cards, photographs and various other documents which I have hoarded or had given me over the years. Since the cricket club records, minute books, etc from 1951 onwards are a bit thin on the ground, I hope that Part III of this history will help to fill the gaps.

I would like to record my thanks to Messrs. G. Free, W. Humphrey and Mrs. F. Hall for kindly lending various photographs and documents and to Tom Wilks for his assistance and access to the Hughenden Parish Council Minutes. Also to Buttery and Watson, Planning Consultants for the free use of their facilities, to Lesley Timpson for deciphering my handwriting and converting it into type and finally to my better half, Doreen, for putting up with the chaos, tantrums and frequent disappearances over the past few months.

When setting out on this project it was not my original intention to include all the team photographs taken since 1951 but I have been persuaded to include as many as possible to provide at least a more comprehensive pictorial record of the club's history. Accordingly, for the frontispiece, I have chosen a club photograph of 1907 when Kingshill won Division II of the old Wycombe and District Cricket League. The photograph is taken in the grounds of Springfields the home of the President W. Weller, but unfortunately one or two names are missing and I would be interested to know if anyone could fill the gaps.

In conclusion, I recently came across a book entitled "Famous Cricket Grounds' written by Laurence Meynell, one of the more distinguished residents of Great Kingshill before and after the last war who lived in Lime Tree Cottage some years before it was demolished to make way for the more modern houses in Lime Tree Close.

He was a well-known writer and broadcaster in his day and, like many others of his profession, was passionately fond of cricket and its history. He did not, however, have a very good opinion of cricket books in general and thought there were too many. In the preface to his book, which is well worth a read, he wrote, 'A large number of them (cricket books) are indifferently written and of little interest; the truth being that in the majority of cases good players make bad writers.'

It is with that sobering thought that I have launched into this particular project.

N.G.T.