The early 80's saw an influx of new members many of which were recruited directly by "the Corporal" to maintain a healthy level of players from which to draw two league sides on Saturdays and two friendly sides on most Sundays. Pete was largely instrumental in obtaining several players from the disbanded Gloucester Bohemians CC.
A great character of this period was Max Wilkins otherwise
known as "Mad Max" for reasons that were extremely easy to
understand once you had met this irrepressible character.
Whatever has been said about this cricketer, (and an awful
lot has been voiced over the years) there is no doubt that
he was a very enthusiastic cricketer but his ability to talk
about the game considerably out-stripped his playing
ability, this by his own admission. This is not to say
however that he had no cricketing skills, just ask those
very competent batsmen whose scalp he has taken with his
extremely high-flighted late dropping deliveries which
tempted many but which often resulted in a complete miss and
a "bowled Wilkins" in the book. Otherwise a frustrated
cow-shot would often result in holing out at deep mid-wicket
by a reliable pair of hands. I also clearly remember a
delightful cover drive by Max in a Sunday Friendly Match
against Redmarley in a cameo innings of ten. He celebrated
later by entertaining the cricketers and all the other
customers at the Rose and Crown Public House by singing
numerous excerpts from the "last night of the Proms"
including a rendition of Jerusalem which everyone present
will remember to this day.
By 1985 the Club experienced a general problem that many
other Club's were finding at that stage, this a lowering of
the number of players who were able to perform on a regular
basis and during the 1986 season the Second XI was wound up,
so concentrating all efforts on the Saturday League and
Sunday Friendly XI's as well as the tour matches referred to
later.
Some of the reservations that Club members during the late 60's had about joining the Gloucester League were now expressed by the current members about continuation within the League. Many players were not enthusiastic about playing on Corporation pitches and so it was decided to apply for membership of the Country Cricket League then sponsored by 3-D Sports which had been set up in 1982, then comprising one Division. A Second Division was formed in 1986 when Woodpeckers comprised one of the teams in this Division's first year. I think most would agree that the move to this League has been a great success with cricket played in a competitive but friendly atmosphere on generally attractive grounds.
There were some notable events during the 1980's which
cannot go unrecorded here. Firstly on 15th September 1983 a
dawn to dusk sponsored charity cricket match was played by
Club members in order to raise money for the Cheltenham
Cobalt Unit Appeal Fund. As the photograph shows it was an
extremely tiring event with play commencing at 6.20 a.m. and
going on to 7.30 p.m. on a continuous basis. Notable
achievements during the day included Steve Gabb's century
before breakfast and the author's hat-trick (the first and
probably the only one of his career) in the afternoon. The
score at the end of the day was 915 runs for 37 wickets off
197 overs.
Much more importantly the sum of £854.07 was
raised for the Appeal Fund and this was presented at a
special presentation evening at the Club in December 1983.
On Saturday 16th September 1989 we held a second dawn to
dusk charity match, this time challenging another team,
Corse and Staunton Cricket Club, who kindly accepted the
offer and together the two Clubs raised an even bigger sum
for the "Scoo B Doo" Children's Unit at Gloucester Hospital.
After a few hours of dry weather in the morning continuous
moderate to heavy rain fell throughout the day making
playing conditions extremely difficult to impossible but
both teams, to their immense credit, completed the day
without a break with batsmen running up and down a strip of
coconut matting .
Back to the more serious cricketing performances the latter years of the 80's saw the Club entering the indoor six-a-side contests firstly at Gloucester Leisure Centre in the Gloucester Knock-out and then the Cheltenham & District Cricket Association indoor competition at Pittville Cheltenham. In most of the Cheltenham competitions, these run on a League basis initially, the Club has got through to the quarter finals and in 1988 succeeded in getting through to the semi-finals before being knocked out by the eventual
A good level of success has also been achieved in the
outdoor six-a-side competition run by the Cheltenham and
District Cricket Association. In 1988 the Club got through
to the final at the Victoria Ground, Cheltenham and were
narrowly beaten by Cheltenham Nomads.
The Club also reached the finals stage in 1990 and 1991 and has certainly established a reputation for doing well in this type of competition.
