A Review of the 1989 Season
In a year when the most notable achievements for the Club were off the field only a handful of points separated our 1st XI from the mid table League position we believed our cricket justified.
In a good summer weather-wise, once again Richard Alston was the cornerstone of our batting, amassing 1372 runs for the Club. In particular we were delighted with the form of opening batsman Peter Joslin who also passed the four figure mark with 1203 runs. However the real bonus was the development of Fraser Lawrence into a good all rounder with 854 runs and 67 wickets. Furthermore Phil Joslin, after many years of 2nd XI opening, took his chance in the senior side at number 5 and made some crucial scores often at times when they were desperately needed.
Our 2nd and 3rd elevens both disappointed in their League showings with the old chestnut – poor availability being the problem. On Sundays our strong fixture list saw plenty of good cricket but we struggled to bowl out sides on dry wickets until September when suddenly both A and B teams hit purple patches of victories. Frank Boys-Stones hit an amazing six sixes in nine balls in the Sunday A home game with Sawbridgeworth.
1989 saw the end of Chingford League careers for Steve Miell, Nigel Robinson, Dave Wilson and Michael Higgs who had all made substantial contributions over many years.
Nothing changes at Forest Side – despite the awful early Spring weather home Captain Jeff Runciman insisted on his Sunday B XI starting the season on time with the boundaries much reduced (much to the liking of “cry in “ Richard Alston). However, The Jeff Runciman Award for 1989 went to a certain other member who decided to play Indoor Cricket on the morning of his wedding!
A collector’s item occurred in the Sunday C away match at Abridge with “wicket keeper” Carey Harborne claiming a stumping off the bowling of James Runciman!
The beautiful weather forced us to fry in the field in Cricket Week as the opposition batsmen rattled up some huge scores, but our batsmen didn’t do so badly as two totals of 240+were successfully chased. Cows (that used to be allowed to roam free in Epping Forest) stopped play in the Wormcasts match whilst in the Stock Exchange fixture boundary fielder Derek Lacey “headed “ the ball for six and ended the match in a turban!
Off the field The Mayor opened our refurbished clubhouse in July , with state of the art blue and black carpet (which survived until 2006!)
The Chingford 100+ Club continued to thrive with chairman Terry Dennehy pulling his own ball out of the bag for the jackpot prize . Terry also put in countless hours supervising the Colts section.
The saddest news of the year came in the death of dear Basil Swaby following a long and serious illness.