The Beginning

Outside of school cricket in 1967 there was very little chance of playing unless it was for adult sides in the local leagues or in club cricket, which to many young people, especially those endowed with little confidence, was somewhat daunting. Derek Hopkins was one such person who, with support from a workmate, Alan Simpson, decided to form his own club and make up the numbers with his brothers, school friends, workmates and their friends and relations. Too soon he realised that they needed money [a rare commodity then], some kit and a name. The latter two were solved by the one man, the pastor of the United Reform Church in Sutton Road, Bournemouth. He allowed the young cricketers to forage around the church hall for some kit that had been used, pre war, by their now defunct cricket team. The hunt was successful, uncovering two pairs of small pads, a set of stumps, a couple of well used bats, four batting gloves complete with green rubber spikes and a lump of mildew within which was a ball. When cleaned, with the exception of the ball, these items did as our kit and, out of deference to the pastor, so too was our name, Suttoners.

Moving On

With help from Jim Godwin and Steve Young, two Bournemouth + District CA stalwarts, we joined the Junior League, a fifth division of the league proper, originally intended for second elevens, where we very gradually acclimatised and more by luck than design, and very much on the back of two excellent all-rounders, David Hopkins and Neil Hussey, we gained promotion, for the 1973 season, into the big boys league. The original intent, of giving anyone who wanted a game of cricket a chance, stayed and to this end, in 1978, we formed a second eleven and the first of our evening sides. By now we had a number of sets of brothers, fathers and sons, nephews and cousins, a peculiarity that is still, happily, with us today. In 1988 we formed a third Saturday side and a second evening team and in the early 1990's a fourth eleven which. In addition to these teams we, from the outset, entered the DeZoete Charity Cup, The Culmore Cup, The Rashleigh Bowl, the Indoor League and the Campbell Cup as well as entering, although not sustaining for longer than seven years on two occasions, the Dorset Sunday league. We entertained, and still do, touring sides and have played loads of friendlies including those when we have gone on our travels. Tours undertaken have included visits to Cornwall [3], Kent, Channel Islands [3], Home Counties and, with the help of Andy Kent and Peter Hargreaves, Denmark. The forming and running of all these extra sides took much work and we have been especially indebted to a number of past members of the club including, Steve Perry, Mike Feeley, Chris Grey and Clive Parsons. Dave Fox and Andy Fitzjohn, both sadly no longer with us, also did wonderful work in this regard.

Ethics and formation

We realised, early on, that to survive, we needed a regular injection of new players, specifically youngsters. We, therefore, decided to start an Under -14s side and were one of the founder sides of the first youth league in Dorset, played under the auspices of the BDCA. Other age-groups were added through the years although they were chopped and changed to suit the playing strength of opponents. Formed initially by Derek, the colts set-up grew in number and importance through approximately twenty years, or so, due to the massive effort put in by the late and much missed Andy Fitzjohn, supported, obviously, by a team of coaches, managers and helpers. We never won trophies in Colts cricket and, in fairness, didn't try very hard to, preferring, unlike many other clubs, to give everyone a game, keep all the players involved and interested and, therefore, hold on to the biggest possible percentage of them possible, at least until work, university or women took them away! 2013 saw us being somewhat let down and an unfortunate downturn in our youth cricket materialised. We did, however, hold on to some youngsters and still do.

Socialising and Improvements

We always have had an excellent social basis and following the taking in of the old Civil Service football section, along with two other clubs, the Suttoners has grown very quickly with year round activity at the Manor. We have, with support from the Council, without who's help in the early days we wouldn't have been at the Manor at all, changed the pavilion quite drastically from being , basically, a breeze block shell with showers, into a pavilion housing a large, expensively refurbished, comfortable club room with a bar, Sky tv and pool table, modernised ladies, disabled persons and gents toilets, reshaped and secure changing rooms and a loft area for storing whichever kit is not needed at the time. Further improvements are planned. An asphalt path has also been laid, from the car park to the pavilion, into which we intend placing lighting. This, we hope, will encourage the ladies to attend the various social functions we hold without ruining their 'heels'! All this takes a lot of work and organisation and we have a Management Committee, chaired by Richard Rigler, to oversee this and keep control of the bar and canteen. The cricket, football and social sections have their own committees and chairmen whilst Derek is honoured to be President of the Suttoners Sports and Social Club [Management].

Administration

Our club cricketwise, has always been involved administratively in whatever Association we have played in. From 1969 when our Chairman first sat on the BDCA Junior League committee, we have been heavily committed to doing our bit for the game locally. Members of our club have served on the BDCA [supplying two Chairmen and numerous other committeemen] for 40 years, DCA Board, Executive and League, Dorset CCC, WEL, East Dorset CA [as Chairman and others], Coaches Association [as Chairman], Youth Managers [as Chairman], CCLA {Cricket Centre}, Dorset Cricket Society, Youth Forum [as Chairman], NFYCC and the DeZoete Charity Cup, helped found the first youth league in Dorset, for 28 years produced the BDCA handbook, organised the BDCA Centenary week in 1996, helped to smoothly merge the BDCA into the DCA in 2003/2004 and amongst other things, organised, captained and were selected to play in numerous representative matches at all ages, ran the BDCA Sports quiz and instigated the Double Wicket Tournament [both of these latter two with help from Will Webb]. Not a bad record for one club.

Progression

When the BDCA merged with the DCA, Suttoners became, for a while, the only club with four teams in the new set-up, their golden-yellow banded sweaters and caps appearing all over Dorset rather than just the locality of Bournemouth and it's suburbs. Subsequently, we moved all of our remaining sides into the Hampshire League in an effort to widen the club's horizons, possibly to give us another challenge and a change of scenery. A gradual upward momentum was immediately witnessed although as the playing membership declined we were unable to maintain this. This arrangement also gave players from a wider area a better chance of playing on a Saturday without being caught in the ever increasing volume of traffic that snarled up across Dorset. [2012 was worse with the Olympic Sailing events being held in Weymouth] The A31 across the New Forest is no better but the direction in which we usually travelled to and from the matches in Hampshire is usually 'against the tide'. Still we have plenty of cricket, nicely varied, a number of regular friendlies and social events. Organised nets from February until the end of April in the cricket centre at Hurn Bridge each year give us all a chance to catch up with each others’ news and, of course, to loosen up.

Sponsorship

In 1998, after thirty years of being self-sufficient, the strains, mainly financial, had increased and were it not for a local firm of Turf Accountants, Parsport, becoming involved, initially through the relationship between Tony Parsons, the owner, and our own Clive Johns, we would not have been able to improve ourselves to the required standard and, consequently, we would not have achieved all that we have. We are still, to this day, very grateful to Tony and his family for their valuable support and to setting us properly on our way. Following the selling of their business to Corals, we became indebted to the company for whom our club Treasurer, Steve Warwick, worked, Merlo UK, with the kind understanding of their Chairman, John Iles. They sponsored the club, as a whole, and their input was invaluable to our progress. Since then, the cricket section has run without a dedicated sponsor and has had to manage it's accounts carefully. All help has been appreciated and we thank those companies and others, including donations from players past and present, who have assisted in the past. Loose change in your pocket? Please feel free to donate to a good cause!

Consolidation and those who drove it

Ever since our formation we have consolidated, grown, consolidated further, grown and so on but, it has been noticed, allied to modern day living, impatience is creeping in [allied to an increasing lowering of the level of commitment]......to win this, to win that, get him to play-he's really good, etcetera....quickly, quickly. We have done everything in our power to do as well as we possibly can but, what we won't do is ride roughshod over the regulars, oldies, willing youngsters or the fringe players who may already have had a go at the top level and but for that iota of luck/bad luck, could do it again. We are proud to have attracted the likes of Seb Courage, Darren Cowley, Neil Hussey, Sean Humphreys, Ashley Wallace and others to the club in the past and hope, that with the support of the rest of the players within the club we will strive to improve whilst keeping everyone happy as, whatever happens, our prime objective has been and will continue to be enjoyment. We have had a small number of club captains in those forty-odd years, Derek initially, skippering [the first team] for twenty one seasons, Andy Fitzjohn taking over for the next, very successful, ten, all in the BDCA, then Kenny Morgan leading us up into the Dorset Premiership through seven years and Chris Rawlings and Clive Johns taking on the mantle for two each. In 2012 Jonny Arnold became Club Captain with Wayne Murry taking over in 2016. Jimmy Straight, another retiree, has, in addition to being our treasurer for a while, given four good years to the thirds. Both Wayne and Jim have done brilliant jobs for the club's lower sides.The leadership within the club has remained stable with valuable experience keeping the club steady. In earlier years, Steve Perry, Jack Baveridge, Mike Feeley, Chris Grey, Clive Parsons and the late Dave Fox had good spells with the lower teams. In addition to those mentioned, Kenny, Jimmy , Garry Coffin, Lee Hopkins, Colin Brickell, Bill Nicholls, Richard Fagence, Jack Baveridge and Paul Rendell have been or were with Suttoners for well over twenty five years, some for more than thirty or forty and two, Derek and Jack, for over fifty! A number of those named started in the colts in the early 1980's which, we believe, goes to show how addictive it is being a Suttoner!

Kinson Manor and those who keep it going

Many people have been thanked in this history but it is impossible to mention everyone; needless to say that, each season, at our presentation evening we make mention of all those valuable people, be they scorers, helpers, drivers, managers, tea ladies, bar staff, scoreboard operators, committee persons or just 'good eggs'. Without them clubs will not survive and Suttoners, in this regard, are no different. The 2016 season was remarkable for the fact that we began maintaining our own pitches and ground, with initial help and advice from the council. This massive undertaking was possible, and successsful, solely through the efforts of Paul Dutton and Jack Baveridge and subsequently by Jack and Lee Johnson. Without their commitment we would not have been able to play any cricket at all. Additionally, their work enabled the first team to play at the Manor following the sad demise of the lovely Dean Park [which had been our first team’s home since 1997]. We continue to enhance the ground and the pavilion, work that never ceases. We now have a lovely clubroom and well stocked bar with a big screen, a meeting room, a disabled toilet, an umpire’s/referee’s changing room and modernised ladies and gents toilets, storage in the attic and various other additions. A completely revamped kitchen is next on the agenda. This work has been, in the main, carried out by members of both the cricket and football sections and organised by the Management Committee, ably chaired by Richard Rigler. Richard Coleman has been invaluable to us as his vast experience in Surveying has helped us through many a difficult situation.

Two difficult spells, 2011 and 2020/21

In November 2010, we were informed by the Council that cricket would have to cease at Kinson Manor due to their insurers, Zurich, ruling that, due to a ridiculous Risk Asssessment, it was deemed too dangerous, mainly we believe , to the adjoining properties. We, immediately, petitioned all our neighbours, well over a hundred, of which only three felt they weren't able to 'go with' us, gained support from local councillors and the local MP, Conor Burns and took the issue to the Daily Echo. Eventually, through the kind offices of the Dorset CA Development Officer, Keith Brewer, the ECB and SITA, we received funding to complement the hours and hours of leg work from our very own Steve Warwick, who found a company who were able to make some temporary fencing and extra high posts which, thankfully, sensibly and with great relief, enabled us to commence playing again at The Manor in 2012, following one of the most difficult years in our history. Two of our teams ended the 2012 season as Champion sides which helped, massively, to put an end to the misery and following this we had a good three year spell of winning various divisions.

A totally different scenario in 2020 introduced us to our second ‘annus miserable’. Firstly, it was found that some asbestos had been found above the club room and was in danger of being dislodged. This necessitated us vacating the premises entirely [throwing the football section into numerous rearrangements] and having to waste gallons of beer, lager etc and other stock. Whilst the asbestos was being checked, some of the wiring was found to be dangerous which would have delayed our re-entry had it not been for the Covid-19 global pandemic causing a shutdown of virtually everything in the country. The cricketers, eventually, were able to play nine friendlies all at other grounds whilst the footballers, later in the year, also had a difficult time. Just as the work on the pavilion was coming to a close, the governments’ restrictions were being lifted and we were about to repopulate the pavilion, some ‘travellers’ broke into the ground and did their usual disgusting destruction job whilst disallowing us to get on with our sporting lives. This over, we did start back, but just like every other similar club in the country, had to shut down again as the horrible virus caused another lockdown. This lasted until 2021 and will be added to this history when the outcome is known.

In the meantime, in one way or another, the Suttoners history continues.

Suttoners Cricket Club

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