Badgers Cricket Club – News Archive Page – Season 2004
This page provides a repository of all the archived news items for 2004, in reverse chronological order. If you really have a desire for the older or newer entries, then the links below will get you access to all those that I’ve saved over the twenty-four and a half years that the site has been in existence.
A second visit to Betchworth Park Golf Club and a convivial evening all round brought the 2004 season to a suitable close. It has been another successful stanza on the field, with record breaking performances to add to the usual fun and games on the pitch, and both the good, the bad and the amusing were recorded for posterity in the Captain’s speech and the presentation of trophies. For the record the cups and shields fell to:
| Batting | Patrick Redding | 604 runs @ 151 |
| Bowling | Alan Tickner | 28 wickets @ 14.9 |
| Fielding | Mark Gordon | 25 catches |
| Captains | Mick Willmott | |
| Frank Butt | Graham Ward | |
| ‘Wang Fu’ | Graham Ward | |
| Jock Strap Award | Graham Ward |
In addition to a couple of record breaking partnerships, detailed in the news items below, this season also saw Mark break his own single season catching record by a remarkable margin, Alan Tickner win his third consecutive bowling award since announcing that he was packing in the bowling to concentrate on his batting, and Patrick notch up three unbeaten centuries to become the first Badger to score more than two tons in a season and the second to reach that figure five times overall.
Patrick’s feats with the bat were recognised with a cap already mounted in its own splendid display case, courtesy of Graham Davenport, which represents a fitting tribute to some extraordinary performances.
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The annual presentation dinner and dance will take place on Saturday 13th November. For the second year running the venue will be Betchworth Park Golf Club near Dorking, and the evening will start with drinks at 18:30. I’ve no definite details of when the meal will start or when proceedings are scheduled to finish, and there are also no firm price details as yet but it will be somewhere between £25 and £30 per head. More details will follow as soon as I have them.
View a map of the area around the golf club
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Mark and Dawn Gordon and family moved house again on 24th August 2004 – almost exactly four years since moving to Blindley Heath and just five days before this year’s fixture in that village!? – to move back to the Banstead area. This means that Mark has a new phone number – 01737 359927 – as well as a new address (which you can find on the club officers page) and that he’ll be a lot closer to parents Roy and Jill for all those babysitting requirements.
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27th June 2004: The previous eighth wicket record had stood for over forty-five years, dating back to the second game of the club’s existence, and was by far the oldest record (of any kind) on the books. Since it was my father Laurence and his brother Brian who compiled that unbeaten 61 run partnership to hold out for a draw that day, I had mixed emotions as Simon Fox (35) and my uncle Allan Butt (37) approached the milestone on Sunday against Milton. When Simon was eventually dismissed in the penultimate over of the game the record had been surpassed by six runs and there was a new entry in the record books. Sadly their effort turned out to be in vain, but the game would have been a lot poorer without it.
Full details of the best partnerships throughout club history can be found in the hall of fame.
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Less than a calendar year after smashing the previous record partnership with an unbeaten first wicket stand of 200 against Stoke D'Abernon, Alan Tickner and Patrick Redding have done it again, breaking the previous record by a single run. Yet again it was an unbeaten opening stand in a match winning performance, this time against Epsom Methodists on 29th May 2004. In another one of those odd coincidences, Graham Ward sat there waiting for his turn to bat at number three on both occasions. Good job he got a bowl in both games :)
Full details of the best partnerships throughout club history can be found in the hall of fame.
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This year’s indoor nets will, as ever, be held in the sports hall at Nescot College, Reigate Road, Ewell, Surrey (Tel no. 020 8394 3133). As usual a big thank you to Alan Tickner for arranging these, and for being ultra-efficient in doing so nice and early so that we know where we are. In fact, given the timings, I may even be able to make the odd session or two myself (not that it ever does me any good, but it’s the thought that counts!?)
Please note the changes to the time for the first session and the day of the week for all of the other sessions.
View a map of the area around the collegeThere will be five sessions, on the following dates:
| Thursday | 1st April | 9-10PM |
| Wednesday | 7th April | 8-9PM |
| Wednesday | 14th April | 8-9PM |
| Wednesday | 21st April | 8-9PM |
| Wednesday | 28th April | 8-9PM |
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This year’s AGM found thirteen Badgers nestling in a mostly quiet corner of Sutton & Epsom Rugby Club’s bar. The usual mixture of light-hearted banter and earnest discussion kept everyone ‘amused’ for the best part of two hours and this report represents a brief overview rather than an exhaustive account.
The Captain kept his report short and sweet, which was fairly easy after a season in which we’d performed well and very rarely struggled to put together a decent side. The latter fact also kept the team secretary’s report to a few choice words, and contributed to the (absent) Treasurer being able to declare yet another small profit on the season. As a result subscriptions and match fees will be unchanged yet again, with a tidy sum set aside for any new kit that might be required.
There was a brief discussion of the hosting of this website, following our outage in early January. I expressed the opinion that we were now too close to the start of the season to countenance changing providers, but was grateful for the proposed fiscal support should it prove beneficial to move at a later date.
Mick Willmott expressed a desire to stand down as Chairman, and proposed Simon Fox as his replacement. The meeting was unanimous in their support for Simon’s candidacy, as they were for all other nominations, including the appointment of Patrick Redding to the post of vice-captain. Patrick’s willingness to take the position allowed Alan Tickner to relinquish a role that he took on as a stop-gap three seasons ago!?
David Aldwinckle unveiled the new fixture list and the (pretty much unchanged) arrangements for this season’s tour, whilst also volunteering to take on the task of bringing the club rules into the twenty-first century, and in line with recent practice. Graham Ward agreed to assist Dave Tickner on the ‘Entertainments Committee’ and was promptly asked to arrange a pre-season social of some sort. The dinner and dance will almost certainly be at Betchworth Golf Club again, if they’ll have us back, and Ian Gregg also offered to arrange more golf evenings.
I’m sure there was more, but that’s all I can remember at four day’s remove, and no doubt if I’ve forgotten anything important you’ll all inundate me with emails to that effect.
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This year’s AGM will take place on Wednesday 10th March at 20:00 (that’s 8PM for those that don’t speak 24-hour clock). The venue, for the third year running, will be Sutton & Epsom Rugby Club, Cuddington Court, Rugby Lane, West Drive, Sutton, Surrey. All members should receive written notification shortly, along with the 2003 accounts, and probably have already seen the equivalent communication via their electronic mail. Please make every effort to attend as everybody’s views are valuable and welcome.
View a map of the area around the rugby clubFor those of you that have lost or not received the letter in whatever form, the agenda for the meeting will be:
| 1 | Apologies for absence | 7 | Election of Officers |
| 2 | Minutes of AGM/EGM 2003 | 8 | New members |
| 3 | Captain’s report season 2003 | 9 | Fixtures 2004 |
| 4 | Treasurer’s report season 2003 | 10 | Entertainment 2004 |
| 5 | Team Secretary’s report | 11 | Tour 2004 |
| 6 | Badgers’ website | 12 | Nets |
| 13 | Any other business |
| Back to index of season 2004 news items | View archived news items for season 2003 |