Great Waltham Cricket Club

Excellent

A warm trip down memory lane.Denise and I lived in the village through the 1970s - a while ago! I spent some years on the Parish Council and thoroughly enjoyed playing cricket. Having relocated from Yorkshire I found non-league 'friendly' cricket a bit strange initially. But fell in love with the delightful local grounds .... and playing Little Waltham wasn't all that 'friendly'.I have to agree with the consensus that this is one of the prettiest grounds. Early autumn looking across to the trees turning in Langleys and smoke rising from chimneys in the village was pretty idyllic.Off the top and in no particular order the players were : Rowley Knight (from Oz) / Philip Burton / Mick Blowes (local policeman)/ Terry Bradley / Vernon Broom / John Wray / Mick Rodgers / Jim Young / Peter Young / John Warn / Bruce Harman / Ollie Hopkins - apologies to the one or two I've missed.We went back for a visit with the cricket team in 2006 - covertly organised between Denise and Janet (Warn) - as I tend to avoid going back to places I've enjoyed as they are rarely as good as memory serves. Despite missing the Six Bells pub everything else was at least as good as remembered. But I couldn't understand why, close to 28 years on, everyone started to introduce themselves when for most it seemed time had stood still. Bruce Harman had sadly departed and Ollie Hopkins had just been ill but most looked as good as the day we reluctantly left the village and headed back North.The next day Denise and I toured most of the grounds we used to play on and, without exception, all were in better condition than I remembered. That includes Great Waltham where, purely co-incidentally we bumped into John (Warn) and Philip (Burton).I assume the initials (PGB) on the gates are a deserved tribute to Philip who looked after the purse strings for so long.Excellent memories - thank you.Denise and Mike Noyland

For a local village cricket club, this is ideal. The setting is lovely, a small club house with bar. Have enjoyed the friendly atmosphere over lots of years. Children also have joined as players (starting from All Stars cricket)

Look out for the live stream of the matches on YouTube, just search for Great Waltham Cricket Club.

One of my favourite places for cricket. A typical village cricket club.

Excellent and very friendly & helpful very good side & lovely ground to vist play and umpire on