Welcome To Bedfordshire County Cricket Club

A WELCOME FROM THE CHAIRMAN
Thank you for showing an interest in Bedfordshire County Cricket Club and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the club website, which Ian Smith, our hard-working Vice Chairman, has devised.
On this site we intend to keep you up to date with all the news from the Club. That will include regular match reports during the cricket season.
It promises to be an exciting year and we will be hoping to at least match our success in the MCCA one-day competition which last year saw us reach the semi finals where we were beaten by Staffordshire at Knypersley.
The early rounds of the competition are played on a Group basis with the top two teams going through to the quarter finals. This season we have been drawn with Herefordshire (at Ampthill on April 25), Dorset (at Dorchester, May 2), Oxfordshire (at Bedford Modern School, May 9) and Hertfordshire (Welwyn Garden City, May 16). If we get through, we have a home draw in the quarter final and that will be played at Flitwick on June 13.
Our championship games are against Buckinghamshire (at Luton June 6-8), Staffordshire (Luton ,June 20-22), Northumberland (Benwell Hill, July 4-6), Hertfordshire (Bedford School, July 18-20 which incorporates President’s Day and Corporate Day), Cambridgeshire (March, August 1-3) and Lincolnshire (Grantham, August 15-17).
I took over as Chairman in sad circumstances in 2002 following the sudden death of David Hoare, who had been appointed only a few weeks earlier.
David was a stalwart of the club having been a player and then serving as committee member, secretary, treasurer and vice chairman.
I was, therefore, rather thrown into the job, although I have been on the committee since 1976 and a selector since 1982. Let me say, though, that I have thoroughly enjoyed being chairman and I am confident that, despite all the changes being forced upon us by the gameıs governing body, Bedfordshire has a bright future.
We do, of course, rely heavily for financial support on members so, if you are not already a member, I hope that the interest you have shown in viewing this website will lead you to join.
For those of you who donıt know, the Minor Counties Championship is split into two divisions of east and west with the winners of each playing-off in September. Bedfordshire play in the Eastern Division along with
Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cumberland, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Staffordshire and Suffolk.
Because of cost and insufficient time, each county plays only six matches in a season which means that each season you do not play three of the sides in your division on a rota basis. Obviously this is unsatisfactory, but no solution is apparent to anyone.
There is also a one-day knock-out competition in which you can be drawn against a county from either division.
Bedfordshire has won the championship twice, in 1970 and 1972.We shared the title in 2004 after a rain effected final against Devon . We won the Eastern Division in 1997 but were beaten in the play-off by Devon.
Bedfordshire won the knock-out competition in 1999, beating Cumberland by eight wickets in the final at Lordıs, and reached the final in 1983 and 1996, losing on both occasions to Cheshire.
MIKE GREEN

FORMER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
A former players association was founded in 2002 and the club would like to hear from as many old players as possible. The annual subscription is £15, free if you are already a member of the county club itself.
For further information contact either Pip August at 35 Amberley Gardens, Bedford,MK40 3BT or Mike Green at 15 Riverside Towers,St Mary's Street, Bedford, MK42 0AU; e-mail mike.green.riverside@btinternet.com
We would like to hear from you whether you played only one match or one hundred.

Incidentally the eleven chosen to make up the best Bedfordshire side of the 20th century was: George August, Wayne Larkins, Brian Disbury, Roger Cox, Norman Cooley, Glyn Owen, John Oliver (captain), Arthur Coomb, Trevor Morley, Graham Jarrett, Martin Ashenden.

The side chosen to represent the Nineties was: Wayne Larkins, Neil Stanley, David Clarke, Andy Roberts, Richard Dalton, David Mercer, Phillip Hoare (captain), Chris Bullen, Bobby Sher, Matthew White, Gary Sandford.

My team for the last three decades is Wayne Larkins, Alan Fordham, Ray Swann, David Clarke, James Knott, Richard Dalton, Andy Roberts, Graeme Swann, Keith Jones, Shaun Rashind and Matthew White
MIKE GREEN

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