History
On the 28th August 1983 a meeting was held at the Hare and Hounds pub forming the cricket club. That September the club played its first ever fixture and perhaps its fortunate that no scorecard survives as the team was dismissed for just 11 runs. At this time the club had no pavilion, cricket square or even a playing field but this was all under foot to be constructed. So the club played its ‘home’ matches at Stoke By Nayland School and this was to be our home for 4 and a half years. The first taste of success was when the club beat Great Horkesley on the 10th June 1984. During the season it was a mixture of playing games and stone picking for the proposed square.
We continued to stone pick through the summer of 1985 and the green was seeded in August and in the same month the Parish Council issued a Notice of Intent to grant us a twenty one year lease. In 1986 they continued the hard work and the club was heavily involved in Leavenheath’s first ever village fete in July. August and September were momentous months as first the Village Green agreement was signed and then the artificial wicket was installed.
In January 1987 as Sub-Committee was appointed to look into the question of a pavilion, but due to planning, building costs and labour problems as well as escalating costs their work was to continue for over four years. The square was first seeded in July and the net site excavated a few months later. 1987 was when the club had their first tour to Brighton. The nets were in use in August and early September saw the first match on the Village Green when the ‘Over and Under Forties’ competed on the artificial strip.
The first ever competitive match on the green, against Edwardstone, took place in May 1988 and later in the month Leavenheath Ladies played the first of their regular fixtures against Bildeston Belles. June saw some twenty five juniors turn up for nets.
February 1989 saw the planning application advertised in the East Anglian Daily Times and in the April the Green Management Committee approved the draft of the pavilion agreement. The square was first used in June, again for the ‘Over and Under Forties’ followed a week later by a match against Wormingford.
The pavilion was erected in time for the 1991 season and official opening took place in June. July saw the first ‘Tour Dinner’. The pavilion was fully completed for the 1992 mid-summer event and passed Babergh’s final inspection in September.
And as they say the rest is history…