History
The club name of Astwood Bank is thought to be older than the date registered of 1860. Many older club members believe it's actual founded date to be some years prior to this. Unfortunately evidence to prove this theory is sadly unavailable, records only starting from 1860 can be traced.
The needle industry is the main contributor to the birth of the club, with the four needle manufacturers of the village - Perkins, Hollingtons, Morrison Yeomans and James Smith combining to play other local firms and calling the team Astwood Bank C.C.
The original ground was run by the James Smith needle company and it's location was a field believed to be somewhere near the middle of the village. The club obtained more land in 1897, this secured a longer future for the club and still remains our home ground to this present day.
The first experience of league cricket came in 1890 playing in the Four Shires Advertiser League, The club played sides in the other three neighboring counties. Moderate success was gained as they won the league twice and also obtained the runners up spot on one other occasion.
During the turn of the century the club moved leagues again, this newly formed Redditch District League meant the team could play against other rival clubs in the area. They played here for five years, winning the league four times and finishing runners up once.
A snippet of history about the King family (GC King pictured here 2nd from the right in the back row)
A snippet of history about the King family (GC King pictured here 2nd from the right in the back row)
"My grandfather was a Birmingham accountant and was Chairman for a time of Milwards Needle and Fishing Tackle Co (which became Needle Industries based in Redditch and Studley). In 1912 he lived in Great Alne. He had 5 sons and 2 daughters. His eldest son Basil King was Managing Director of Needle Industries and David King (my father) was Sales Director. We lived in Coughton from 1945-1960. Both my father David, and his brother Edmund were keen cricketers, Edmund playing for Warwickshire in the 1930s and my father playing (once!) for Warwickshire 2nd X1. They played mainly for Harborne, Stratford and Wootton Wawen village clubs. The yougest daughter Angela was married to Hugh Mason who was a farmer in Astwood Bank - they lived in Astwood Hill Farm in the 1950s. Hugh might have played for Astwood Bank but his main passion was golf."
The club felt it needed to play against better opposition in a more competitive, this would only become available in the form of friendly matches. Sides they played are still renowned as being some of the best teams in the county. Competing in this standard of cricket kept improving every side within the club especially in the 1915 season where the 1st XI remained undefeated.
Village occupants and Families have always strongly represented the club, In the 1930's three fathers and sons played in the same 1st XI team. More recently the club has fielded sides containing a father and his two sons, plus three brothers who also played in the same team, of which two of these played in the 1st XI side that has gained promotion in it's last two seasons and the other brother captaining the 2nd XI concurrently. Even in today's sides players are linked to the successful side of 1900.
The Bank continued to play in a very competitive but friendly standard, with a reputation that was growing ever stronger. Decisions had to be made in 1973 with an invitation to join a newly founded Worcestershire League.
The league would only consist of the top ten premier teams in the county at the time and with this honorable invitation and with the prospect of better cricket the club joined the league.
During this time the club was still on a high after entering a competition called The Haig Trophy, a cup knockout for village cricket sides across the country.
Running in it's first year the club were to reach the final at Lords, only to be beaten by Troon C.C. Troon won again in 1973 and 1976 to become the first team to win a hat-trick of victories. Astwood Bank emulated the achievement of the 1972 team with yet another appearance in
the Lords Final in 2003.Since the Haig success the club has gone through some uncertain years, many of the players who were in the final gradually left, leaving many young players to fill their shoes. Those young players were thrust into the firing line without any valuable experience or advice you would normally expect to gain from older statesman of the side.
This took it's toll on the club as they soon became the regulars at propping up the foot of the Worcestershire League before it disbanded in the late eighties. These young players soon became the older ones and with the confidence sadly missing from playing in winning sides the club gradually fell on a downward spiral. A small junior section was once again formed bringing hope, trying to inspire young talent back in to the club and over the coming years this was to prove successful.
The club was hit by a major disaster on 15 December 1994, the club house and tool sheds were razed to the ground by a huge fire. Many thought this would be the finish, but through the resilience of players and members, preparing wickets with borrowed machinery and using a roller that lay rusting away in the corner of the ground for decades, the club has grown again. Reopening a new club house at the end of the 1998 season and returning once more to the reformed Worcestershire League, the club has gained two promotions in three years with a comparatively young side. The club is now back and fighting in Division one which many feel the club should be. This current 1st XI is being closely compared to other great sides in the club's history, long may this continue.
Since the 2007 season the club has been running 4 senior sides on a saturday. 2008 saw the reemergence of the Sunday 1st XI, which competed in the Worcestershire Sunday League. The club also has a Ladies team, which also compete in a Sunday League. The junior set up is as strong as ever and several of the young players who have shone over the last few years are now starting to develop into fine senior players.
On the field, 2008 was not a great success with the 1st's narrowly escaping relegation and the 2nd's not managing to reclaim the title. The 3rd's had a steady season but lack of availability and inexperience saw the 4th's finish bottom of division 8. Off the field, things are starting to look good with the funding being achieved for a new 4 lane net to replace the existing 2 lane nets that we had previously. Work to improve the outfield has also been sanctioned, with new drainage and levelling work to take place during the close season. With all of this in place, things look very bright for 2009.
2009 saw two new captains take over the 1st and 2nd teams. Andy Alexander became first team captain and Andy Williams took over the reigns of the 2nd team. With the new net facilities in place ready for the start of the year along with the investment made in to coaching, everything was in place for the club to have success on all fronts this season. Sadly, the outfield works that had been sanctioned in 2008 had to be suspended for a year due to the severe wet weather following the 2008 season.
The 1st XI had a much more successful season, with the team being in contention for the title until falling away towards the end of a long season which was ultimately plagued by injuries, illnesses and holidays. The team finally ended in 3rd place. The Village Cup threw up some great games as usual this year and the team made it through to the national stages for the first time in 5 years but were eventually eliminated by Stockton, the first time we have been beaten in the National stages by a team who did not go on to win the tournament.
The 2nds had an eventful year, which sadly also fell away at the final hurdle to narrowly miss out on the title. The Division was a split between some really good competitive sides and some that really were not. This was evident when Lye visited Sambourne Lane to face the wrath of the Banks in form batsmen. The home side piled on a record breaking 512 for 2 declared from 48.3 overs, which included 3 centuries. The midweek knockout cup was the highlight of the season with the Bank beating Harborne in a bowl out due to poor weather at Droitwich in the third attempt to play the match.
On the ladies front, the team had a highly successful year finishing 2nd in the table but sadly missed out on promotion to Walmley. There were some excellent perfomances from many of the team but the stand out performance was from the ever impressive Clare Boycott who took 8 for 14 against Stourport, which included two hat-tricks.
The 2010 season ranks among the finest seasons in the clubs long history. With the club managing to capture the signing of our most successful player, Stephen Adshead, who was released by his county Gloucestershire following the 2009 season, as our player/coach, hopes were high for the 1st XI to gain promotion to the B'ham League. Sadly, it didn't quite pan out as hoped with a 3rd place finish (the joint highest in our history). The 1st XI also managed to reach the League KO Cup final but lost out to Stourbridge.
The 2nd XI won 2 trophies, with the league title wrapped up with games to spare and the League KO cup retained following our 2009 triumph. League and Club records tumbled as well with Andrew Williams notching up a league record 237 not out against 2009 champions Barnards Green and Paul Boycott hitting an impressive league record 1041 runs during the league campaign.
The 3rd XI coasted Division 6 with the new Hanbury ground proving to be a fortress for obvious, bounce related, reasons. The quality of the young players mixed in with some seasoned experienced players proved a strong combination that was simply too good for many opponents. Dan Thomas's 8 wickets for just 4 runs against Droitwich a highlight from the season.
The 4th XI maintained their place in Division 8 and managed to reach the final of the League Cup competition losing out in the final on the last ball of the innings.
The Ladies team had a good season with Clare Boycott further developing her game with some remarkable performances including 3 centuries and a double century.
The club can owe a lot of its success for the 2010 season to the hard work put in in the close season from all of the players and coaches. The senior players worked with Steve throughout the season to improve their skills but also with Ian Pont (bowlers) and Simon Price (batters).
Preparations for the 2011 season will see all of our players attending coaching throughout the winter with the usual pre season nets for both juniors and seniors and further opportunities for players with batting clinics run by Steve and bowling clinics run by Jon Lewis. The club continues to invest heavily in the facilities and coaching opportunities being provided to its members and we hope this will pay dividend on the field in 2011...
...The 2011 season proved an interesting one for the Bank. With the winter coaching under our belts it was hoped that promotion would be within our reach this season. However, in the final pre-season friendly two long term injuries suffered by two of our most experienced campaigners Alex Robinson and Dennis Freeman left the 1st XI with a much different and much younger looking side for the season. A strong start to the season by eventual deserved champions Stourbridge left the remaining pack playing catch up for the rest of the season with only Pershore and ourselves in contention with a few weeks remaining. We eventually finished third with our highest ever points tally in this division, an excellent achievement considering several players made their 1st XI debuts this season.
The 2nd XI didn't manage to retain their crown having lost the bulk of the 2010 squad to the 1st XI following those injuries mentioned above as well as the departures of Tom Underhill, Dave Sewell and Kyle Millar. A mid table finish was respectable considering the difficulties captain Daws had in getting 11 players to the field in many weeks.
At Hanbury there was a much better quality of playing surface this season due to the work put in during the winter and the course of the summer by the groundsmen and volunteers who keep all of our facilities in excellent condition. The 3rds, having been promoted a level (despite still being in div 6), knew that it would be a difficult season. Again, with the departed players mentioned plus players like Jonny Mardling and Dan Evans unavailable the thirds would have to rely on our rapidly developing junior players along with the reliable seniors to ensure results were sufficient to keep us in the division. That they did, finishing just outside the relegation zone.
The fourth XI had a very successful season and for reasons out of our control did not finish in the top 2 places in the division which would have seen us promoted. Some top performances from the youngsters saw the Bank win the bulk of their matches and were the only team in the division who actually played all of their matches.
The ladies didn't play as many matches as their coach would have liked and probably didn't win as many as he would have liked either.
Our ever increasing junior section had an extremely successful season with many of the youngest age groups achieving outstanding success in their leagues. The volume of youngsters who use the club on a daily basis as well as the numbers who turn up to friday nights practice is astounding and it is a testament to the amount of work that goes in from junior chairman Mike Harris and his team of coaches. We are now seeing incredible progress in the standard of play in our junior matches and with the services of head coach Steve Adshead secured for 2012 this looks set to continue.
Winter coaching is again under way for the 2012 season. This year, with Jon Lewis moving to Surrey, we have called upon the services of Leicestershire bowling coach Lloyd Tennant. 9 of the clubs selected bowlers are attending 6 sessions with him over the winter. The winter indoor cricket league is also taking place in Nov and Dec...
