KENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY  -- RESEARCH    Studying and sharing Kent's past      Homepage


History of Ash and Ridley from Earliest Records to 1957
                    
Compiled by Dorothy G. Meager on behalf of Ash and Ridley Women's Institute           Page 90

These webpages are designed to be viewed with the screen resolution set at 800 x 600 and text size at normal. HOW TO

Clubs

Cricket
Today the Village can boast the existence of an enthusiastic Cricket Club. This was started in 1947 and the 10th season has just opened. Mr Cyril Seath kindly granted the club the use of part of his meadow opposite the Church. The pitch is cordoned off and kept in good condition by club members.
   The present officers are:-
      President - Mr George McCarthy.
      Captain - Mr Cecil Jenner.
      Secretary - Mr Stanley Anstiss.
      Treasurer - Mr. Arthur Storer
   The story Mr George Orpin of The Forge had to tell regarding cricket before the 1939-45 war is very different. He said regretfully that numerous attempts to establish a cricket club in the Village had all failed. His regret was deep, for all his life he had been a keen cricketer, and he played until he was over 50 years of age. He has played for Southfleet and Stansted but he would have liked to have had the opportunity of playing for his own village. Cricket had been played in years gone by, Mr Orpin can remember the annual match with Fawkham played in the field opposite "The White Swan" on a Whit Monday. It was rough and ready cricket he said. The pitch was scarcely up to Test standard and there were no white flannels to be seen, but

the rivalry was deadly, and the enthusiasm alike of players and spectators, terrific. And when the game had been won and lost everyone adjourned to "The White Swan" to celebrate and commiserate. The nearest the Village came to possessing a regular side was immediately after the 1914-18 war, when a team was assembled and managed to maintain its integrity until the end of the season but that season was its last as well as its first.

Football

Although Football Clubs have been formed from time to time they have never had a very long life. After the First World War W.J. Francis Snow late of Hartley gave a silver cup for inter-village football. The winning teams were as follows:-
      1920 – 21 Hartley
      1921 – 22 Kingsdown
      1922 – 23 Stansted
      1923 – 24 Ash
   Money collected at these games went to the finances of the Nursing Association. After these four seasons the clubs ceased to exist, and Ash being the last winner of the cup, it remains in the Village and is in the custody of the licensee of "The White Swan".

Previous Page          Back to Contents Page          Next Page

Back to Ash next Ridley - Members & others Researches

For details about the advantages of membership of the Kent Archaeological Society   click here

Back to Members & others Researches      Back to Research         Back to Homepage

Kent Archaeological Society is a registered charity number 223382
© Kent Archaeological Society 28th August 2007 

This website is constructed by enthusiastic amateurs.  Any errors noticed by other researchers will be to gratefully received so
 that we can amend our pages to give as accurate a record as possible. Please send details to research@kentarchaeology.org.uk