The present Staplegrove Cricket Club was founded in 1919 as part of Staplegrove Sports Club, also formed in the same year, when a local landowner allowed the Sports Club to use two fields off Manor Road, Staplegrove for local people to play both cricket and football.
The landowner was Guy Turner. He had inherited the Manor from his uncle, Gribble Turner former Paymaster General of Madras, benefactor to the village church and Justice of the Peace, and who had made his fortune in India. Guy was known as ‘the Squire’ and he was very keen on cricket. It was reported that he sometimes offered to play. When he did it was said, that the two sides would then have to wait to start the game until Guy sauntered across from the Manor. The back gate of the Manor is opposite the cricket ground.
Guy was apparently a fully paid up member of the not terribly good club. Recollections of two people (then in their 90s) – the daughter of the head gardener and the son of one of the founders of the cricket club – both mentioned Guy’s love of cricket but not a Manor team (there were not enough).
It was also reported that Guy hinted in the 1930s that the club would get the grounds in his Will. But times were tough after the war. In 1953, Guy went into a home and the chap looking after the assets of the Manor informed the club that they couldn’t cut the grass, “as it was now needed for grazing”!
Staplegrove Sports Club eventually bought the grounds in 1955 for £900 (£800 a 4% 15 year loan from Supporters of the club).
Previously there had been reports in local papers of cricket games played by Staplegrove from the mid 1860s, and a Staplegrove Cricket Club was established in 1909 but was wound up in 1919 when Staplegrove Sports Club got up and running.
The interwar years were a period of steady development from “a humble village club” to a club playing cricket and football at higher levels. The early 1950s was a period of uncertainty for the Sports Club, but after the death of the landowner, the Sports Club was able to buy the sports fields in 1955. Over the years a number of Somerset players have played the odd game for Staplegrove Cricket Club. Before playing for the West Indies, Richie Richardson played for Staplegrove, and ex-England player John Jameson also played.
Today, Staplegrove Cricket Club has two men’s sides playing in the Somerset Cricket League, as well as Under 11, 13 and 15 junior sides. There are also developing women’s and girls sides.
Article contributed by David Lausen, Chairman of Staplegrove Local History Society
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