Wombat Cricket Club was established in 1984 by a small group of primary school teachers from the Taunton area who decided that they would like to play some social cricket. A meeting was arranged in the bar of the Colin Atkinson Pavilion (Somerset County Cricket Club) to discuss the type of club we wanted.
The social side was high on our priority and we were keen to be inclusive. This meant that some of our players had played a good standard of cricket and some had not played at all. This inclusivity is important to us to this day. At the meeting we decided that we needed a name for our newly formed club. After much deliberation it was suggested that One Bat Cricket club would be appropriate as we only had one bat between us. The late Colin Jones then turned this into Wombat Cricket Club, and we were ready to start arranging fixtures.
Initially we were a nomadic side playing home fixtures on Council pitches, such as Hamilton Road and Corkscrew Lane in Taunton but then a conversation with Clive Selway (West Somerset Hospital) led us to using the cricket ground at Tone Vale Hospital, now Cotford St Luke. At this time this lovely little ground was cared for by some of the patients from the hospital. We were grateful to play there and share the ground with the West Somerset Hospital side. At times fielding could be interesting as you could be joined by a patient who had wandered onto the outfield to have a chat. The tea was provided and quite often laid out by the pavilion; the disadvantage with this was that you could sometimes observe a number of patients digging in to the tea before the first innings was complete.
When the hospital started to close, we needed to find another home ground. By this time friends of friends had joined the club and the mix of people was much wider than just Primary school teachers. A number of our players were Policemen and through their contacts were able t o use Cannonsgrove (Police training facility) on the outskirts of Taunton as a home ground. This area is now the Halls of residence for Bridgwater and Taunton College. As the Police moved from Cannonsgrove we were again looking for a ground.
At this time, we played and surprisingly beat Bishops Lydeard Cricket Club in a cup competition. After the game it was suggested that we could hire pitches off of them and so Bishops Lydeard Cricket Club Ground became our home ground. This arrangement worked well until preparing a large number of pitches was becoming too onerous for the groundsman. We temporarily moved to play our home fixtures at Knapp Cricket Club, before being welcomed back to Bishops Lydeard.
Unfortunately Bishops Lydeard Cricket Club was having trouble raising a team and they suddenly folded in 2016 and it looked like we were going to be homeless again. At this time the ground was owned by the Ross family (see history of the ground below) who rented it to Bishops Lydeard for a peppercorn rent. The family agreed to rent the ground to us under the same arrangements for a couple of seasons. Following the death of Mrs. Ross at the grand age of 99 the family were keen to sell the ground but it was important to them that it stayed as a cricket ground. Through fundraising and grants Wombat Cricket Club was able to purchase the ground, and for the first time in our history we have a ground to call our own.
Since purchasing the ground we have been keen to improve the facilities and the playing area. A new purpose built garage has been built and new machinery has been invested in. The pavilion is undergoing an extension to improve the toilet and showering facilities for players and also disabled access and wet room to make it more accessible for all.
The square and outfield is vastly improved and this has meant we have been able to welcome Somerset representative sides, including Somerset boys age groups, Western Storm Ladies and Somerset Visually impaired. We have introduced allstars/dynamoes on a Friday evening and for an 8week period approx. 70 young players plus their parents can be seen learning the game and enjoying the facilities.
The Club plays about 40 friendly fixtures a year and continues pride itself on being very inclusive.
Article by Alan Ranger (Founder Member, Wombat Cricket Club)
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