Page 3 - Bray Celebrity Cricket Programme Final

WELCOME
IF
you stand on the steps of our Pavilion on one of those increasingly rare
MAIDENHEAD & BRAY CRICKET CLUB
If you then felt inclined to walk down another 200 years but also to
the Pavilion steps and take a gentle remember a man who gave so much stroll around the boundary edge you and created so many memories.
cloudless summer days, the scene that greets you would lift the flintiest of hearts. In one corner, the venerable and imposing Norman Church stands sentinel, in another the village of Bray is a mere hook shot away and along one boundary behind a hedge the Thames waits patiently to swallow another lofted drive from muscular young tyros with bats like Thor’s Hammer.
It’s a picture-perfect cricket ground where the sound of leather on Willow and flannelled fools flitting to and fro have been heard and seen for over 200 years. It’s a place worth protecting, a place worth preserving, and it is why my Father was President of the Cricket Club until the day he died and why I’ve been Chairman of the Sports Club for over a decade. We have both in our differing ways ensured that this historic and important ground and club will always remain a place where cricket, hockey and football can be played, occasional serious drinking enjoyed, at least until the following morning, and latterly cohorts of pre school tots can make their first steps up the educational ladder.
will as you reach the shadow of the Church, become aware of why we are here today. The scene that then greets you is of a building that looks as if it has been transported from a 1970’s housing estate but only if was constructed without reference to building regulations or much input from an architect. It is well past its best, indeed if it ever had a time when it was at its best. It is, however, ours and we love and cherish it because of the memories that have seeped into its fabric. Its full of the echoes of cheers and laughter, epic victories and ignoble defeats and the ghosts of much-loved characters and revered cricketers. It is also home to the next generation attracting the sort of knowing looks and disdainful sighs from their elders that I experienced when my body could still manage a day in the field without necessitating a visit to an orthopaedic surgeon.
Today is about the future but also the past We want to use the money raised to start a fund that will eventually allow us to begin redeveloping our ugly duckling of a Pavilion and future proof it for
The passing of my Father closed a chapter at the club that was full of days like this. Days when Dennis Lillee bowled in a false nose, Ernie Wise wielded a 2-foot-wide bat, George Best scanned the crowds for a future Miss World, Billy Connolly fielded in a pair of white jeans and cowboy boots and my father, a decent cricketer and product of the tough no nonsense Yorkshire league, was caught and bowled by Annabel Croft.
So remember him today as we hopefully make new memories and open the next chapter for a club that was so close to my father’s heart.
THANK YOU FOR COMING AND ENJOY THE DAY!
Mike Parkinson
WELCOME