9. Chapter 6 Heading for the Great War 1903-1914

The First Cricket Week (1904): Matches
against Kent Club & Ground: W G Grace
scores 54 at Bexley (1913): The Financial Crisis and the Resolution to Disband: Closed for the War

The year 1904 is notable in the Club's history as being the date of the first Cricket Week. The idea was largely the brain-child of the Secretary, Mr R C Sweet, a man of great vision and organising ability. He arranged for all-day matches to be played against invited XIs, from Monday to Saturday in a week in mid-June. (There was no suggestion that cricket should be played on Sunday at that time.) The initiative was rewarded with warm sunny weather, good matches and big crowds. Excellent pitches produced a feast of runs. with three centuries being scored in the week. The ground was decorated with flowering plants and a specially licensed marquee was erected for lunches and teas. A banner 'Success to Cricket Week' was hung across Bexley High Street.
The visiting teams included many well-known cricketers, most notably the Test player A E Trott of Middlesex. He is famous for being the only man to have hit a ball over the pavilion at Lords; this he did in 1899 when playing against the Australians, but there are no reports of any prodigious hitting on his visit to Bexley.
So began the tradition of Cricket Week. But it proved to be a faltering first step, because although a second Cricket Week was held the following year, somewhat surprisingly the idea was then dropped and not taken up again for almost twenty years.
Another enjoyable event in 1904 was a match between a women's team, captained by Winifred Potter, the daughter of Mr & Mrs J A Potter and a men's team captained by her brother, Alistair. The men had the not insignificant handicaps of having to bat left handed and use broomsticks. From this light hearted beginning, however, Miss Potter and her friends began to play more seriously, regular mid-week games being played against other women's teams from the surrounding areas. These continued for the next few years, with batting and bowling averages being published at the end of the sea on.
At this time also the Manor Hockey Club was formed. As its name suggests it played home matches at Manor Way. Most of the members were Bexley cricketers and Percy Newton, the cricket captain was the first hockey captain. It remained active for a few years, after which there was a gap of over sixty years before an arrangement with Burnt Ash Hockey Club brought hockey back as the winter activity on the ground.
The main attraction in 1905, apart from Cricket Week. was a match against a Kent Club and Ground XI made up mainly of professionals from the County Club. The holding of the match at Bexley was a welcome indication that the club was getting back on the cricketing map. The Bexley team was reinforced with several players from other clubs,
but unfortunately cricket’s old enemy, rain, prevented any play. Later in the season Bexley scored an overwhelming victory over Sidcup, J Upton (137) and H Redpath (102) putting on 240 in an unbroken stand for the fourth wicket. This remains the highest partnership for this wicket.
At the AGM at the end of the season it was reported that from a playing point of view the season had been very satisfactory, with the 1st XI recording 12 wins, 6 losses and 3 draws. There were also regular 2nd XI and Thursday XI matches. There were 113 members and in some ways the club was thriving. But the financial position was not good, there being a deficit of £45. This had arisen mainly from the purchase of a new mower, the laying on of water to pavilion and the ground, and the purchase of 160 feet of canvas and poles to form an enclosure in front of the pavilion. Not for the first or last time the Potter family rallied round and Mrs J A Potter organised a rummage sale for Club funds which raised £26.
In 1906 Kent C&G again sent a team to play at Bexley. The weather was kinder this time, and a full day’s play was possible. Kent included Hubble, Hardinge, Munds and James Seymour, the first two scoring centuries. Kent enjoyed a very successful season that year, winning the County Championship for the first time. To mark the event in Bexley, the President (Mr A Carden) and the 1st XI Captain (Percy Newton) presented the Club with a large framed print showing the l906 Kent team in action at Canterbury . This print was to be hung in the pavilion as a permanent reminder of Kent’s prowess. In fact it hung there for about fifty years, but disappeared in the 1950s. (A number of other prints of the scene are still in existence and occasionally come up the sale rooms. Perhaps some time a replacement will be purchased. But they are not cheap, at the MCC Bicentenary Auction held at Lord in 1987 a smaller version fetched £770.)
The regular match between Kent Club and Ground and a Bexley and District XI was held again in 1907. The team were entertained to luncheon by Mr Robert Cooper, the President of the Club. Mr Sweet’s gardener had decorated the marquee in the Club colours, with a magnificent floral representation of a ball, stumps and bat as the centrepiece. It must have been a colourful spectacle with all the flowers and the brightly coloured blazers of the cricketers. Bexley made 174-8 declared and Kent had replied with 77-1 when rain stopped play. And the great disappointment was that the next man in was Frank Woolley, 20 years of age and already beginning to show the skills which were to give pleasure to cricket watchers all over the world. He first played for England two years later.
'Towards the end of the season, playing in the ground man’s benefit match, Sydney Platt scored 173 not out. One hoped he made a generous donation to the ground man’s fund for preparing such a good batting pitch. He was elected 1st XI Captain for the following year, 1908.
The Club accounts for 1907 make curious reading. Of the 125 members, 57 paid £1.1.0 [£1.05], 3 paid £1, 40 paid 10s 6d [52p], 1 paid 10s 3d [51p], 7 paid 10s [50p], 17 paid 5s [25p]. It seems there was an elaborate scale of membership subscription; or perhaps the Treasurer merely took what he could get! As usual there was a deficit on the year’s working (£31), but with the help of the proceeds of a sports day, two concerts and a rummage sale the Club managed to convert this to a surplus of just 2s [10p].

Fixture card (for 1907. Many early cards were of a folding design, the form in the upper photograph opening out to reveal the fixtures as in the lower picture.

Bexley at this time was still a very rural community and a reminder of this is to be found in a petition to the Railway Company, signed by J A Potter and others protesting about the nuisance from manure unloaded at Bexley station. At this time large quantities of manure from London stables were brought down to the stations on the Dartford Loop line and used to enrich the thin soil of the neighbouring farms
The 1911 season produced a crop of problems. As usual in this period expenditure exceeded income and the situation was made worse by the pavilion being blown down in a gale. Fortunately no-one was hurt, but the cost of repairs and re-erection added to the financial burden. To add to the gloom, the standard of cricket was at a low ebb the Club playing the 2nd Xls of some local rivals at this time. '
B 1912 the Club was in some financial difficulty. To case the problems a celebrity match44 was arranged between a team of professionals and XVIII of Bexley and District. The professionals team was:-
F H Huish (Kent, Capt.) R R Relf (Sussex), F A Tarrant (Middlesex), E G Hayes (Surrey), R Haywood (Northants), E Hendren (Middlesex), A E Relf (Sussex), E J Smith (Kent), H R Murrell (Middlesex), E Ball (Worcs.), W S Lees (Surrey) A Povey (Kent II) and H J Preston (Kent).
Of this team Hayes, A E Relf and Lees had already played for England and Patsy Hendren was to become a leading Test player in the 1920s. It is probably the strongest team ever to have played at Bexley. Huish's team scored 288 (Hendren 61), Bexley and District replying with 62. Although the match was one-sided, it drew a large crowd and was a success financially the Club benefiting by £24.
In spite of the help from this match, the financial position remained poor, with expenditure always exceeding income. In 1913 the President, Mr Robert Cooper, who by then owned the ground, offered to let the Club use it for a nominal rent equal to his subscription. In return he stipulated that children and perambulators were not to be admitted unless under responsible charge: that the ground was to be kept clean and in good order: and that on certain days it should be reserved for his use on reasonable notice being given.
It was under the last condition that Mr Cooper in 1913 organised possibly the most interesting match ever to have been played at Bexley. The particular interest was that Dr W G Grace, the most famous cricketer of all time, played in it. The match was between teams raised by Robert Cooper and Arthur North45• Cooper's XI scored 192 and North's XI replied with 251-7. W G Grace opened the innings for North's X1 with the former Bexley and Surrey captain John Shuter 'WG' scoring 54 and Shuter 13. One wonders whether they remembered the occasion 25 years earlier when they had opened the innings for England against Australia at The Oval. Also in the match, R N R Blaker, of Blackheath and Kent, scored 111 and W G Grace's son Charlie took 4 wickets. According to Mr James Flower, who sat next to WG at luncheon, he commented what a pretty ground it was. (A more detailed match report 5 is given in Appendix I.)
The visit of the great man must have been a much-needed fillip for cricketing enthusiasm in the Club. But the financial position remained bleak, and, despite Robert Cooper's generosity over the rent the Club ended the 1913 season with an overdraft of £28. The committee decided that it was time drastic steps were taken and at the

Annual General Meeting in January 1914 they came forward with the following resolution: “That the income of the Club is insufficient to maintain it, the assets be realised and the Club wound up unless members provide a scheme for increased support". There were sundry amendments proposed in a frantic endeavour to save the Club, but the Committee stood its ground and on the proposition of Mr Potter, seconded by Mr C G Beasley, the resolution was carried by 11 votes to 8. The local paper reported the meeting with the dramatic - and fortunately, inaccurate - headline “Bexley Cricket Club has ceased to exist''.
The resolution to disband was never put into effect. Robert Cooper who by repute was not always easy to deal with, saved the day by offering to buy out the Club lock, stock and barrel for £30, to clear the debt. He would also continue to lease the ground to the club for 5 guineas, which he would return as his subscription. The offer was gratefully accepted and the Club breathed again.
World War I began in August 1914 and no cricket was played at Bexley during the years 1915-1918. W G Grace, who had been living nearby at Eltham for several years, died in 1915 at the age of 67. He is buried in Beckenham cemetery where his tomb stone is inscribed simply "W G Grace Doctor and Cricketer'.