Mollington Cricket Club
last updated 18 April 2018 - nothing will have changed!
The gentlemen from the villages of Mollington, Backford, Lea-by-Backford, Chorlton, Caughall and various surrounding points - even Saughall - often gather together on Summer days and evenings. These meetings are of a social nature but do tend to go under the guise of playing a game of cricket.
New members are often told that we are a very informal club. And with time, players realise that this is a contradictory term since no-one is ever in form! We are fondly known as the Mollington Maulers. Every summer we participate in a series of friendly fixtures against others clubs in Cheshire, the Wirral and even venturing abroad to North Wales. We used to enter the National Village Cricket competition. Stock phrases such as "lambs to the slaughter" are generally used in connection with this competition. Some of our lowest scores and scariest stories originate from this competition. We also participated in what was an annual event - the Ashton Hayes 6-a-side cricket tournament. This is the source of our only ever trophy. In 2001 we won the competition. One of those beautiful days when Pluto moved within the cusp of Jupiter and half a dozen Mollington cricketers simultaneously managed to play half-decent. |
There are rumoured to have been many Mollington cricket teams over the years. There is documentary evidence of a match against Ashton in 1903!
Despite numerous suggestions, there are no players from that match still in the team! The current team's reincarnation seems to have originated in the late 1980's. Memories suggest 1988 as a slightly more precise date. Many famous teams now go under a name that differs from the original club. For example, Manchester United started off as Newton Heath FC. Liverpool FC were indeed once known as Everton. And so it was that Pownall Transport's cricket team provided the foundations for our current team. This team challenged one of their customers to a game of cricket. Since Pownall Transport only employed six drivers, they had no alternative but to call on village residents to make up the numbers. The fixture took place on the Mollington school field. Although the word "cricket" may have been a very vague definition of the events that unfolded, the meeting proved to be a great success. |
Anthony McEntyre, the club's President, built on this new beginning. He organised a summer camp at Grove Farm, inviting old sand yachting friends for a sociable weekend. Cricket became part of this annual event, attracting players from as far away as Bristol and Lytham.
Locals started to hang over the railings to watch proceedings. Further interest was generated by Sue Pownall during collection time, at the end of the school days. Even the vicar, the Rev. Dennis Hardwick, was persuaded to leave the pulpit and played. And so the Mollington Cricket Club was re-born.
When a new Mollington village school was built on the site of our cricket pitch in 1997, the team moved to the nearby Dale Army Camp. A feature of this particular venue was the ever increasing overlap between cricket and football seasons. Mollington cricketers merged with Upton footballers. The marriage was never a happy one. Fast bowlers had to evade advancing defenders during their run up. And goalkeepers fielded in close catching positions.
Finding a home proved to be difficult. Whitby Sports ground - also known as the Shell Sports Club. proved to be a temporary arrangement, as were our fixtures at the Ashton Hayes bowl. Ideas were aired to suggest moving to a site off Gypsy Lane in Mollington but to no avail. The team has remained nomadic since 2012.
The age range of the team is from 11 years old to 70 (plus!). As cricket is a game making heavy use of statistics and its terminology, it may be useful to point out that the sample is heavily weighted more towards the seventy mark than eleven. This is often the only way that our "total" betters the opposition.
An important regular "fixture" was the annual Ladies' Night. The first one took place in 1996 in the Village Hall. About twenty people attended. The event evolved to adopt a theme for the evening. These included Italian, Indian, Irish, Euro, Exotic, Australian, Prison, Wild West, Horse Racing, Beijing Olympics and Seaside themes. The starring lights from the previous season were rewarded for their endeavours at these events. These days the awards are dispensed at an informal AGM and the main social events are the family bbq at Grove Farm. Golf tours still take place after a season's end.
Locals started to hang over the railings to watch proceedings. Further interest was generated by Sue Pownall during collection time, at the end of the school days. Even the vicar, the Rev. Dennis Hardwick, was persuaded to leave the pulpit and played. And so the Mollington Cricket Club was re-born.
When a new Mollington village school was built on the site of our cricket pitch in 1997, the team moved to the nearby Dale Army Camp. A feature of this particular venue was the ever increasing overlap between cricket and football seasons. Mollington cricketers merged with Upton footballers. The marriage was never a happy one. Fast bowlers had to evade advancing defenders during their run up. And goalkeepers fielded in close catching positions.
Finding a home proved to be difficult. Whitby Sports ground - also known as the Shell Sports Club. proved to be a temporary arrangement, as were our fixtures at the Ashton Hayes bowl. Ideas were aired to suggest moving to a site off Gypsy Lane in Mollington but to no avail. The team has remained nomadic since 2012.
The age range of the team is from 11 years old to 70 (plus!). As cricket is a game making heavy use of statistics and its terminology, it may be useful to point out that the sample is heavily weighted more towards the seventy mark than eleven. This is often the only way that our "total" betters the opposition.
An important regular "fixture" was the annual Ladies' Night. The first one took place in 1996 in the Village Hall. About twenty people attended. The event evolved to adopt a theme for the evening. These included Italian, Indian, Irish, Euro, Exotic, Australian, Prison, Wild West, Horse Racing, Beijing Olympics and Seaside themes. The starring lights from the previous season were rewarded for their endeavours at these events. These days the awards are dispensed at an informal AGM and the main social events are the family bbq at Grove Farm. Golf tours still take place after a season's end.