Deando in the 1970s

The following was written by Neville Rainford:

The new decade commenced with Deando CC merging with Robert McHew CC, gaining 4 new members.

By the winter of 1972/3, Deando were already attending winter nets at Surbiton Lagoon from Friday 26th January to Friday 13th April inclusive, although the Club was complaining about the Friday booking instead of the usual Monday slot.

Club General Committee Meetings were now being held in The Three Tuns Hotel, London Road, Kingston.

In 1973 the Club was holding its annual President’s Match, normally an internal Club match featuring the President’s X1 v. the Club side, with invitations sent out to  MPs, the Mayor, local Councillors, former Club Members and friends of the Club. This match comprised a normal Saturday afternoon fixture followed by a social event in the evening, on this occasion at The North Star, Hook.

Around this time the Club arranged a fixture in Hastings and hired a coach. Sadly, this had to be cancelled due to lack of members’ availability (and interest).

In 1974, due to a change of management at The Three Tuns Hotel, Deando were to be levied £1 for each General Committee Meeting. The Club also paid its £1 subscription to the Surrey Cricket Association, who supplied two free tickets to Surrey CCC Home matches, and also chose to go with the National Cricket Association Insurance scheme with comprehensive cricket insurance cover at a fraction of the cost from the existing Brokers.

The Club also subscribed to, and used, the local Club Cricket Conference (CCC). They ran an Emergency Fixtures Bureau and where the Fixture Secretary had been unable to find a fixture or had been let down by an opposition crying off the CCC would match Home and Away teams, based on strength, for a nominal cost.

The May General Committee Meeting reported that on application to the Council, and on a request from King George’s groundsman, the hot water was turned back on in the showers. The hot water had been turned off during the winter in response to a Government decree forbidding hot water in showers in Council changing facilities.

On the cricket side, Pete Stevenson took 10-16 v. Confederation, not surprisingly a Club Record that was never beaten. That season he also achieved a top score of 113*. Interestingly, Dave Kaill that season managed a 99*.

The 1975 Grand Dance took place in January and 129 attended. This led to preliminary discussions in Committee about an annual Dinner & Dance. Venues, including The Worcester Rooms, were explored but this one was rejected as it needed 200+ attendees to fill the hall. Sir Nigel Fisher indicated his wish to donate the Nigel Fisher Cup. The Committee decided that this trophy would be awarded, by the Club Members, for the player who has done most to make the season enjoyable by his attitude and example on the field of play.

Poor weather at the start of the season made King George’s waterlogged and unfit for play so Home games were rescheduled to Beverley Park (2) and Manor Park (1). Outdoor nets were booked through the Council, on Wednesday evenings, at Norbiton Sports Ground.

The General Secretary reported on a personal battle that he had been having with Kingston Borough News who ran a weekly competition for a ‘Top Bowling Award’ which Peter Stevenson had won in the previous season with his 10-16 v. Confederation. Kingston Borough News finally produced an engraved cup.

Again, on the cricket field, Pete Stevenson took 9-13 v. Sutton Common. Graham Lees held 32 catches, again a Club Record for catches in a season by an outfielder.  Pete Stevenson and Graham Lees were also selected for the Kingston Mayor’s X1 in the annual match v. NALGO, the Local Government Trade Union.

Arrangements were put in place to hold a Club Disco on Friday 10th October in Surbiton Sports and Social Club.

Deando CC applied to The Slazenger League. At the same time, the playing membership was circulated with the details of the League playing conditions and asked to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The result of the ballot was 11 in favour of applying to join The Slazenger League, 9 against. With this in mind, it was further agreed to make every effort to field two X1s on Saturdays.

When the application form for 1976 season pitch bookings came out in early October 1975, the General Secretary took the opportunity to compose a letter complaining about how the wickets at King George’s have deteriorated mainly due to the lack of materials and attention during the winter months and suggesting that the front square needs re-turfing. This led to a detailed response from the Council’s Borough Engineer that equipment and maintenance supplies have been adequate, the front cricket table does need some levelling and re-turfing works, which have already commenced, and that the heavy rainfall of the previous winter caused water-logging which hampered the groundsman’s renovation work.

Allied to the conditions of the cricket facilities at King George’s Field, from 1968 Deando CC had maintained an interest in the possibility of a move to King Edward’s, Hook Road, should it become available. While the present incumbents, Hook & Southborough CC, were also in a project with Kingston Rugby Club to develop sports facilities to the rear of King Edward’s, the Council were clear, in extensive correspondence, that Deando would not be high in the current ranking order for residency as a cricket club at KIng Edward’s. This was further compounded in 1976 when Jack Hesketh found that Hook & Southborough CC, in addition to their Home fixtures,  were sub-letting King Edward’s to LESSA CC.

By 1976, due to a hire charge, Deando chose to move their General Committee Meetings to The Rose and Crown Hotel in Hampton Wick.

Another cricket innovation was the playing of a Ladies of Deando v. Gentlemen of Deando match on the evening of Wednesday 7th July at Beverley Park. While few details or records remain, it was deemed a success. 5 fixtures had been arranged for the Saturday 2nd X1 but this was clearly a fine balance and the General Secretary, who also acted as Fixture Secretary was very concerned not to arrange fixtures only to subsequently cancel them (and the Club membership had been closed for a period).

However, in showing how vagaries of weather could adversely affect King George’s Field, later that season the hot, dry summer of 1976 took its toll, water was forbidden from Council sports pitches and Home matches and summer net practice (which had been held this year at King George’s) were cancelled.

By August, The Rose and Crown were no longer able to host Deando’s monthly General Committee Meetings so the Club returned to The Three Tuns, presumably then picking up the £3 hire charge. At this time Jack Hesketh also read a statement at Committee why he would not be seeking re-election as General Secretary after 18 years in that post (plus 12 as Match/Fixture Secretary). Jack would remain as the Club’s only Life Member which he had been awarded in 1973. Other discussions at the time related to players playing who had not paid their subs, some players had repeatedly let the Team Secretary down by crying off very late in the week while other players on more than one occasion helped out sometimes at very short notice.

In 1977, at the AGM, Councillor Frank Gaisford took over from Commander John Reed as President, Graham Lees was elected as General Secretary and Dave Kaill as Fixture Secretary.

The Club’s first Dinner & Dance at The Drift Bridge Hotel on Saturday 13th November was very successful with 96 attendees.

Following on from Jack Hesketh’s statement to the General Committee, there arose a most curious, and some would say controversial, episode in Deando’s history. An article appeared in the 13th November Surrey Comet announcing the formation of Staunton CC. It named various Officers, including Jack as General Secretary, all of whom were connected with Deando CC. Following its November Committee Meeting, Deando put out a Newsletter with general Club news - Player Awards from the Dinner & Dance, upcoming events - but also making clear to Club members that Deando is not breaking up and that Staunton CC is in no way connected with Deando CC.

Jack followed this up with his own letter to Deando Club members dated January 1977 in which he reports this minute from the inaugural meeting of Staunton CC, after dealing with ‘malicious rumours and unkind remarks . . . directed at me’,

‘To consider the formation of a Saturday Cricket Club, Mr.Hesketh fully explained his reasons for convening the meeting to form a Saturday Cricket Club, he strongly emphasised that this was a meeting, not to cause a break within the Deando Cricket Club, to which all members present were in fact members, but to help the Deando Cricket Club in times to come with the possibility of forming a second team, he also strongly emphasised that it was not his intention whatsoever to poach players from the Deando Cricket Club. He felt that the two Clubs during the 1977 season could help each other by providing, when short, extra players, he emphasised that in his personal opinion the Deando Cricket Club had little chance of forming a 2nd X1, without help from outside the Club.’

Staunton CC’s first game, v. Southern Rail Croydon was reported in the Surrey Comet alongside a recruitment ad. The game was rain-affected with Staunton CC falling 2 runs short with wickets in hand. At least 4 Deando members were in the team. From their 1977 Fixture List, there were 19 Saturday games with 2 Home games at Beverley Park.

While Deando CC was still allocated its pitches in King George’s Field, spare pitches at King Edward’s were allocated to Hook Venturers CC as they had correspondence with the Council noting their interest as far back as 1965. By September the Club was writing to the Council after a proposal tabled at a General Committee Meeting that

‘DEANDO Cricket Club should investigate the possibility of erecting a club-house with bar facilities on their home ground at King George’s Field, Tolworth.’

The Council Director of Education Services responded promptly offering a meeting. The correspondence was also forwarded to GP Squires, Chairman of Kingston’s Sports Council introducing the Club to the National Playing Fields Association and the Greater London Playing Fields Association which Deando promptly joined. Enclosing a paper that he had written 2 years previously, Mr Squire said Council grants or loans were unlikely and suggested that it would have more chance of success if it were a joint venture with other users of King George’s Field.

Deando also applied to join the South West London Cricket League and the Slazenger Surrey League. The latter replied, had discussed the application at their Committee meeting but because their decision was not unanimous they are referring it to all the member clubs at the 14th November League AGM. There are ten applications for five vacancies though there is no obligation to fill all the positions. In a New Year’s Day letter, Deando is notified that its application to join the Slazenger League has been rejected. The vacancies were for the League’s 3rd Division but Deando should consider reapplying because the League may set up a 4th Division for 1979. Deando now also supply details - General & Fixture Secretaries’ contact details plus ground location - for the Club Cricket Conference Handbook.

Also for the 1977/8 winter, Deando joined the Elmbridge Leisure Centre (Walton on Thames) Indoor Cricket League for the first time. Run by the Surrey Cricket Association the competition is called the Wrigley Trophyand comprises 2 Leagues of 7 Teams, including Chertsey, Malden Wanderers, Olinda Vandals, Staines & Laleham and Weybridge. Deando’s League consisted of Farncombe Wanderers, Hersham, NPL, Ockham, Shepperton and Worplesdon. The format is 6-a-side on an area of 4 basketball courts with local rules for scoring runs, and getting out. It is clear that Deando will be meeting very highly rated cricket opposition. The competition was played on Sunday evenings.

The Annual Dance still took place, this time at Malden Wanderers CC and winter nets again take place at Surbiton Lagoon. And to generate revenues to help defray the running costs and even increase the bank balance, the Club decided to start a 100 Club, open to subscription by members and friends, for 2 periods of 20 weeks pa with weekly prizes plus good prizes (from £400+ down, in value) at each 100 Club Grand Draw.

Moving on into 1978, the Club also decided that, in a further attempt to extend cricket activities, if the Fixture Secretary was unable to obtain a Home fixture for any of our normal dates, the date would be kept for a Club Single Wicket Competition. In the Indoor Cricket, Deando finished comfortably mid-table. The group winners & runners-up headed to semi-finals and final then on to represent Elmbridge Leisure Centre in the Surrey Finals. Two new teams were added and a local competition - 4 Leagues of 4 - ran from the end of February to mid April. Deando won its group but lost to Weybridge in the semi-final.

At this point the Surrey Cricket Association (SCA) were engaging much more closely with Surrey cricket clubs at all levels. They held a seminar on Pitch Preparation and Maintenance at The Oval with Head Groundsman Harry Brind the main lecturer. Deando asked the Council if it could also arrange the attendance of the King George’s Field groundsman at the seminar. The SCA were also offering a free subscription for 3 years, underwritten by Surrey CCC, to try to get full membership of all the Surrey cricket clubs. And the SCA were introducing a Grand Draw of raffle tickets - top prizes included a car, a colour TV and holidays - and clubs retained 60% of their sales. The Club received its 2 free tickets to the Taverners Stand.

At this same time (April 1978) discussions were opened with Staunton CC about a possible merger. A meeting between representatives of the 2 clubs did take place on 12th April reaching broad agreement on conditions and a transition period subject to ratification by the Clubs’ memberships. This finally foundered as the Staunton CC membership wanted to run for another year before considering such a move and the wording in Deando’s April Newsletter referred to a takeover by Deando instead of a merger.

At that time, one of the Vice Presidents, Bert Linturn, who had managed The Three Tuns, now moved on and the proposal from The Three Tuns was to levy the Club £2 per Committee Meeting. As a result, from May that year, the General Committee Meetings moved to The Cambridge Arms Hotel, 42 Cambridge Road, Kingston.

After 3 Deando players represented Kingston Mayor’s X1 v. Kingston Methodists CC at their home ground, the Fairfield, as part of their celebrations, the General Secretary wrote to the Council contrasting the good condition of the Fairfield with the very poor condition, wickets and outfield, on the King George’s Field pitches. At this time Deando were actively seeking alternative grounds approaching Seeboard in Thames Ditton, Northcliffe and Westcott (Dorking) but, for various reasons, discussions came to nought. In the Decca Cup matches v. Malden Wanderers and Surbiton Hill Methodists, the team received ‘sound thrashings’ but beat Surbiton Town when they couldn’t raise a team. With a tweak on the ‘Ladies Match’, it was agreed to play the fixture between two mixed teams but from comments received post match this was not considered such a success

While the AGM agreed to re-apply for The Slazenger League plus the South West London League, the Club also sought opportunities to further expand its cricket activities by applying to enter the Decca Cup, a local midweek evening competition leading eventually to County Finals and the Wrigley Cup, a national Indoor 6-a-side Cricket Competition starting locally at Elmbridge Leisure Centre, Walton-on-Thames on Sunday evenings throughout the winter. Additionally, the Club approached Kingston Council’s Director of Education and Leisure to explore the possibility of its own Clubhouse at King George’s though this would quickly prove to be beyond Deando’s means and was not pursued. It was further suggested Club members should offer to help with cricket square preparation to try to get use of the ‘front’ square out of the 3 squares. Winter nets continued at Surbiton Lagoon on Wednesday evenings.

The second Annual Dinner & Dance again took place at The Drift Bridge but the Club was then informed that they could not hold the event so Committee Members started looking for alternatives. Deando also moved its winter nets from Surbiton Lagoon to Gover’s, West Hill, Wandsworth (1978/9)

By the turn of the year, The Slazenger League had already turned down the Membership Application and Deando agreed to reapply for 1979. The Indoor Cricket League was moving on apace with Deando in 4th place in the table, Pete Francis had sourced Sandown Park Racecourse as a suitable Dinner & Dance venue and had booked for 25th November and the Surrey Cricket Association (SCA) were running a Ground Care Course and Deando applied for two tickets hoping that the King George’s Groundsman could be approached to attend. Another entitlement of SCA Membership was two free tickets to the Taverners’ Stand at The Oval for Surrey CCC games.

In early 1978, the Committee were concerned about apathy within the Club along with falling membership. In an interesting twist, one of the options to explore was possible amalgamation with another Club and Staunton CC were approached but their members did not support amalgamation with Deando and an article for new members was placed in the Surrey Comet.

For the next few years Deando subscribed to the Surrey Cricket Association Grand Draw: a County-wide lottery with substantial prizes, valuable holidays and the like, where tickets were sold throughout Surrey cricket clubs and the clubs retained 60% of the proceeds.  The Fixture Secretary, Dave Kaill, was asked to look into arranging two fixtures on the south coast for a weekend cricket tour in 1979. This did prove problematic due to most areas playing local League Cricket on Saturday. From the Committee, the General Secretary wrote to the Borough Surveyor to express concern about the condition and safety of the front cricket square and requested use of ‘windy ridge’, the most easterly of King George’s three cricket pitches.

On Sunday 16th July, Deando CC 2nd X1 played its first fixture against Gold Leaf Sports. Some additional kit was purchased to support the 2nd X1 and the General Secretary was asked, as Chair of the Selection Committee, to give consideration to the composition and balance of the two teams when it was putting out two X1s on the same day. This did, however, lead to discussions, sometimes quite heated, about selection ‘policies’, ie strongest 6, strongest 8, etc., in future years plus allegations that some members would only play for the team they wanted to play for. The first 2nd X1 game was clearly a success as Gold Leaf asked for another fixture in August. The Single-Wicket Competition did take place and was won by Pete Stevenson.

On other matters, the AGM agreed to increase the size of the General Committee to 12 to include 4 Committee Members (non-Office Holders). Pete Munday was appointed Indoor Cricket Captain and the Dinner & Dance, with 116 attendees, made a small profit. Gover’s Cricket School was booked for winter nets. Finally, our application to join The Slazenger League had again been rejected.

In trying to improve their playing facilities, Deando now put an ad in the Surrey Comet seeking the lease of a private ground or an amalgamation with another club with good facilities. Neither of these approaches came to anything. At this time, Deando first found out that the proceeds of the Kingston Lottery will be used to provide a pavilion on the Fairfield. At this point Deando’s angle was whether any spare lottery money could be diverted towards King George’s facilities in general and sightscreens there in particular. In his response, John Woodland, Head of Recreation Services at Kingston Council, stated that he had been asked to submit a number of projects which could be considered for an allocation from the profits of the Borough Lottery and he would make sure King George’s sightscreens were on that list. Deando also placed their pre-season recruitment advertisement in the Surrey Comet pushing their Second X1.

It has been hard to trace Deando CC Fixture Cards from the early years but the Club did publish a list of away grounds. In 1979, amongst other cricket clubs, Deando had fixtures at Bradbank, Brockham Green, Brook, Chertsey Recreation, Ewell Ruxley, GLC, Hawkers, Hindhead, Hogsmill, Kingston Methodist, Kingswood, Meadowbank, Midland Bank (Beckenham), Morden, Murray, North Croydon Conservatives, Oakwood Hill, Reigate Manor, Sirius, South Godstone, Southern Rail Croydon, St Lawrence Hospital, Sutton Common, Tolworth and West End Esher.

An interesting idea developed under the auspices of the Cambridge Arms around this time was a loose association of very local sports clubs including Albion, Cambridge, Clarion & Norbiton, the main idea being to enable each clubs’ social activities to be better supported by all. This group could further lead to knowledge of the best local halls plus information around bands or discos and even best deals on sports equipment. It had been noted that up to four local clubs had held events on the same date and this might avoid such clashes and might even enable local club members to support each others’ events.

On the cricket side, Deando CC had a very successful season, Pete Stevenson doing the double again - 1,085 runs (incl 116* & 8 other 50s) and 105 wickets (incl 8 5+ wicket hauls) - and Graham Lees also achieving 105 wickets (incl 8 5+ wicket hauls). The Sunday 2nd X1 played 17 fixtures with 1 abandoned.

The 1979 Dinner & Dance had 160 attendees. The 1970s rounded off with a poorly attended (74) Christmas Disco but it still ran at a profit.