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Dee
Valley Water cricket team (or Wrexham Water as it was then), sprouted
from humble beginnings, initiated by Charlie Gibson who, quite rightly
concluded that we were all too old to play football! |
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There
had been a team formed in the late 1950,s and several games after
that, including a friendly against a farmer’s side from Cymau
in 1975, played in his field. The first recorded fixture was played
in 1987 against archrivals, Chester Water. Due solely to the fact
that they beat us we took them over some years later! |
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The
team that evening included Dave Bull, myself, Bryn Bellis, Mickey
Steen, Rob Steen, Glyn Davies, Pete Roberts and Bill Dean. These
players, along with Charlie, Steve Hesketh, Terry McAllister and
Nigel Dee formed the backbone of this early team. |
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I
foolishly agreed to captain for the full first season in 1988 and
am still at the helm! Our fixtures included Binnies, Chester Water,
Gobowen Hospital, Bersham C.C. and East Worcester Water. We had
to wait until the penultimate fixture for our first victory, beating
Rowlands the chemist by five runs at Plas Coch on what is now Sainsbury’s
car park. Prior to owning our own ground all our home fixtures were
played at Chirk, with whom we developed an excellent working relationship,
particularly Tim Flack and the grounds-man John Bishop. |
Back
Row:- S Hesketh, W Dean, G Davies, M Steen,T McAllister, B Bellis,
R Steen
Front
Row:- P Roberts, D Bull, C Gibson, M Plant, D Gibson
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In
1989 we fared slightly better by winning three fixtures but still
managed to maintain our standard score at 73 all out! This season
saw the first of our many touring fixtures to play Bristol Water
at Barrow Gurney but on this occasion we did not stay overnight
which made it a very long day. |
1989 - Wrexham Water,
taken pior to the fixture with Bristol Water
Back
Row:- T Cooper, M Steen, G Davies, R Steen, W Dutton, W Dean
Front
Row:- N Dee, P Roberts, M Plant, C Gibson, S Hesketh
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During
that season Peter and myself were contacted by Brian Hall who ran
the team at Dennis’s in Ruabon. He had thought of forming
a league for companies to play midweek cricket and had already approached
Eifion at MANWEB, Tom Pierce at Telecom along with a few other companies.
After a meeting at Dennis offices the Wrexham Midweek Companies
Cricket League was established with all the above teams along with
Royal Mail and Continental Can. |
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Our
first fixture of the 1990 season saw us travel to Llay to play Con.
Can. To say our first game in the league was disappointing would
be somewhat of an understatement. I lost the toss and Gareth Wedley;
their captain (once a friend!) elected to bat. At the close of 20
miserable overs Con Can finished on 200 for 4 with Gareth himself
scoring a league record 109 runs. Our reply of 67 all out ensured
we gained “nil point” in our first game. We did go on
to beat B.T. and Dennis but finished bottom and won the “fair
play” trophy, presumably because everyone felt sorry for us. |
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We
improved slightly over the next few seasons and added new players
in the form of Tony Cooper, Wyn Jones, and Nigel Denton. Andy Roberts,
Jack Purdie along with the youth policy of James and Martin Plant
and Daniel Purdie (later famed for being named in the local press
as Damien Puride- possibly Les Lever!). These younger players all
went on to represent the County at youth or senior level. In 1991
we recorded our lowest ever score of 21 all out v British Telecom
(this is not now a record as we dismissed Royal Mail for 19 runs
in 1997.) |
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In
1992 Richie Hulmes and Dave Brand joined the company and were immediately
drafted into the cricket team and the year that Tony Cooper sadly
retired. Extensive work on the ground at Packsaddle continued with
the square looking vaguely playable. |
Back
Row:- J Purdie, B Bellis, D Brand, M Smith, R Hulmes, T Cooper
Front
Row:- P Roberts, M Plant, C Gibson, James Plant
Sitting:-
Martin Plant & Daniel Purdie
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1993
saw us record our first win over Civil Service by 11 runs at Llay.
It was also the year that we took up permanent residence at the
Packsaddle oval with the inaugural fixture against South Staffs
Water on August 6th. The wicket, to be fair was not at it’s
best resulting in Dee Valley Water being dismissed for 51! Due to
the fact that we had lost by teatime it was decided to have a ten
over “thrash”. I can’t find a record of this but
I am sure we made more runs in the second encounter! This was also
the year that Mark “Frosties” Evans took the first of
his five wickets with a double bouncer. |
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1994
was the first “tour” year when we played Northeast Water
at Matfen C.C. and duly got thrashed. We managed to play eight home
fixtures at Packsaddle, winning five. Due to a lot of hard and usually
unnoticed work the field was slowly taking shape and beginning to
resemble a proper ground. Thanks to the magpie like tendencies of
both Pete and myself varies items of equipment such as rollers,
scorebox, cutters and even a pavilion arrived over the next few
seasons. |
Back
Row:- D Brand, W Jones, Ray Hulmes, S Hesketh
Front
Row:- J Plant, P A Jones, Mike Plant, Richard Hulmes, Martin Plant
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Brian
Hall joined the team in 1995 filling the spinner’s spot vacated
by Tony Cooper. This was the beginning of the annual rivalry for
wickets between him and Steve Hesketh, which continues to this day!
This turned out to be one of our better years winning eleven of
our eighteen fixtures. |
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The
next season saw the first of many fixtures against Gresford youth
side in which James Plant elected to play for Gresford but his wiser
brother, Martin stayed loyal to us. We managed to reach the cup
final for the first time and despite being on top for much of the
game, managed to fashion a loss by 9 runs against Kimberly Clarke
at Pontblyddyn. We did, however secure this trophy in 2000 by beating
Dennis’s at Chirk. |
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In
1997 the cream came to the top when Daniel and James (both County
Colts by then) finished first and second respectively in the batting
averages. They were hotly pursued by Humo, who retained the knack
of scoring 85% of his runs down leg side irrespective of where the
ball pitched! The first tour win was also secured by a 117 run margin
at Acomb in York. |
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The following year was one of our better efforts when we secured
the Division Two title and got to the cup final! Due to bad weather
the final was deferred until 1999 when we got to the final again!
Thus, Dee Valley Water are the only team to have played (and lost)
two cup finals in one year. |
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Carl
Battersby joined the engineering staff in 1999 and was, not surprisingly
drafted into the team (our only Cockney!). He turned out to be a
specialist “long off” fielder who took it as a personal
insult if a boundary was conceded. Andrew Evans also joined the
team and added a bit of variety to the batting being, like Pete
left-handed. James won the batting award with an average of 73.50
and Humo led the team to a glorious victory against Civil Service. |
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As
mentioned we managed to win the Plate final in 2000 making 102 for
5 and dismissing Dennis’s for 84. James won the man-of-the-match
award. We also made the trip to Bristol to play Bristol Water but
were thwarted by the weather and returned without a ball being bowled.
This was repeated two years later at Eskdale when, again the weather
intervened. |
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The
next season saw Eifion Evans (former MANWEB captain) join us. A
very handy left arm swing bowler. Ian Hall also had the odd couple
of overs and caused instant rivalry between him and his dad. Yes,
two leg spinners in one team! |
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Both
the 2002 and 2003 seasons saw us win about half our fixtures. Despite
all being older (and slower) our fixtures remain one of the highlights
of the week and despite all the aches, pains and moans we all come
back for more. |
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No
one epitomises this Dunkirk spirit more than Gordon, who plays regularly
despite having replacement hips. I’d like to thank all our
players down the years and despite the vice captain and assistant
groundsman emigrating to Australia, I’m sure this season will
be just as enjoyable. |
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Mike
Plant (captain) March 2004. |
Mike Plant
(Opening
Batting & Bowling, Captain, Groundsman & Quiz Master)
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