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KIBWORTH CRICKET CLUB - A NEW HOME


The opening game for the Fleckney Road ground took place on Saturday 28th July 1883 with the club beating a Harborough Victoria team by 6 runs as part of a final season record of played 18, won 13, lost 2 and drawn 3 (two of these 'in favour of the club'). The report of the Annual Dinner includes details of a speech by the president T. Macaulay in which he details the problems the club had faced in getting the new ground up and running;

"At the close of last season the cricket club in Kibworth stood at a disadvantage. They had just made an agreement for the new ground, and incurred an enourmous expense considering the size of the place, but they bravely faced the difficulties and had, he was happy to say come off victorious. They had played a great many matches and won the bulk of them, but their greatest victory was in conquering the difficulties at home. They had spent £30 in extraordinary expenses, namely, in levelling, draining and buying appliance for the new ground, and although they started with a fair balance in hand last year they had paid every shilling the club owed during the current year, and also had a small balance in hand. Mr A Loveday in responding, said he felt that the cricket club in the last season had entered a new life, and that they were this evening celebrating its first birthday. Several gentleman present remembered that Kibworth Cricket Club of some twenty five or thirty years ago, and referred to it occupying a very prominent position in the county. He, however, doubted whether the club at that time was in any way superior to the current one, or whether there were better players in the club than at present."

The work obviously continued as the opening report of the 1884 season describes the ground as "much improved" and expenses listed in the speeches at the Annual dinner included £8 for a heavy roller. However the results were less successful particularly in the early part of the season "lost through bad batting, and from lack of practice" the latter a reoccuring theme that crops up in many Annual Dinner speeches from this period. The speakers also debated whether the club should move from all day games to half day matches "to obviate the common difficulty of getting elevens for wholedays" and whether they should participate in the Challenge Cup. This season is also significant as it is the was the source of the first known team photo and as such the basis on which the 1984 'Centenary Match' took place. Additional levelling occured during the winter of 1884-5 and, after the ground was described as "not quite as good as it might have been", in the following winter as well. 1885 is interesting for a couple of other points as well, the first recorded game between Kibworth and Smeeton (won by Kibworth) and a game against Little Bowden where Kibworth batted all day scoring 243-8 a remarkable effort in an era when 150 represented an excellent total. The correspondence after the game suggests that circumstances of the match, which included the first century scored for the club may not have been ordinary !

Here the records leave us a conundrum, at the 1886 AGM, held at the Old Swan there is no indication of trouble. Indeed the club are trying to raise funds for a tent to be used as a pavilion, yet by April the following year the Leicester Chronicle was reporting "the lack of definate arrangements for a field in which to carry on the campaign for the forthcoming season". Why the owner of Fleckney Road had turned difficult after three successful seasons is not made clear but there were serious plans made to return to Harborough Road for the 1887 season. This seems to have been avoided "through the liberality of Dr Marriott" although batsmen may have thought twice about the matter in a season where small scores were obtained due "to the state of the ground". In such bowler firendly conditions one man seems to have enjoyed particular sucess "Mr Austin's averages showed that he had taken 51 wickets , at a cost of little over three runs each". As a side note is worth highlighting one feature of Fleckney Road at that time, like the remainder of roads in Kibworth it is not tarred and is just a dirt track with open ditches by the side. Worse, until 1897 there were no sewers and these open ditches were used for this purpose providing an offensive smell in summer until a spell of heavy rain flushed them out.

It seems from the 1889 annual dinner that the tent had never been purchased as the club was using two of the houses on Fleckney Road (73 and possibly 75) as changing rooms as they were empty in common with about 40 other village properties. Philip Porter's history of the village reports that at this time there was a lack of trade for the mills and therefore a migration of many inhabitants to other parts, hence the spare property. The club was operating at this time on a small annual balance in hand of around £6 to £10 and playing around 22 fixtures a year of which the majority were won. On 7th June 1890 the club played Leicestershire on the county ground at Aylestone Road losing by 18 runs in a single innings match. Whilst the club has played celebration games for the "Centenary" in 1984 and "150 years" in 2007, Global warming makes it highly unlikely that we will be able to celebrate another anniversary match. On 7th January 1893 Kibworth played Saddington "on the ice of Saddington Resevoir, with the surface being described as being "in splendid condition". The players wore skates and the wicket was described as "a combination affair, so that the fall of one involved the toppling over of the entire structure." A large crowd watched the home side rack up 205 and Kibworth were 95 for no wicket when darkness fell.

As the turn of the century beckoned the thoughts of KCC members turned to the need for a perminant pavilion. Donations were sought during 1897 and in March 1898 a special meeting was shown the plans prepared by Mr Pettifer, Architect of Leicester for a structure that would cost around £80 (the club had aready raised £50). A dance was organised to help raise the remainder and the contract awarded to John Branston a well known local builder and carpenter under the eyes of a special committee. With "one of the strongest fixture lists in the history of the club, both as regards quantity and quality, comprising 48 matches in all" for the 1899 season, the club faced the new century full of hope.

The ground was used for the first time by the Kibworth and Smeeton Horticultural Society for their annual show in August 1899 with two large marquees erected to accommodate the exhibits. An added attraction for the event was a game between KCC and Lutterworth who brought with them the county captain Mr C Marriott. Kibworth ended up 94-9 chasing the visitors score of 107. Three years later on 26th June 1902 the ground was the venue for the villages celebrations to mark the crowing of King Edward VII despite the fact that illness prevented the actual coronation taking place on that day. Luckily there was still a balance in hand to repeat the event on 9th August when the coronation finally took place.