Club History 10 of 15

10. 1958 - 1966


In 1958 the ‘A’ and ‘B’ Elevens were renamed Falcons and Eaglets. An England Women’s 2-day Trial match took place on the ground. Eric Bryant made his 1st Class debut for Somerset.

In 1959 Mike Fox, David Evans, Des Campkin and Terry Willetts scored the most runs with Bill Andrews captaining the side. Fox topped the Saturday 1st XI averages for the second year running. Jack Pitman took 93 wickets for the 2nd
XI. Essex won the 6-a-side tournament yet again.

Under the leadership of G. H. D. Evans in 1960, the 1st XI (Saturday & Sunday combined) had an excellent season and lost only 3 out of 46 matches. The only mid-week defeat was to M. C.C. despite an innings of 111 from David Evans. Weston lost to Gloucestershire in the 6-a-side Final.

In all matches in 1961, David Evans scored 1055 runs. At Lynton & Lynmouth, in a Sunday 2nd XI game, Bryan Chambers took all 10 wickets for 21 runs.

In 1962, David Evans again scored heavily for Weston with 1176 runs in Saturday and Sunday Cricket. Opener Terry Willetts scored most runs in 1963.

1964 Trevor Sparkes took 99 wickets for the 1st XI.

It was noticed that many more youngsters were playing cricket at the club, so some friendly matches were arranged

In season 1965, Trevor Sparkes, Tony Slocombe & Peter Evans started Youth Cricket at Weston aimed initially at Under 15 /17 age groups. Weston were blessed with outstanding prospects such as Brian Rose, Mike Hare, John Lovell
and Alan Porter. They were later followed by a very young Philip Slocombe, plus Nick Evans, John Hook, Graham Board to name just a few. On entering the North Somerset Youth League, Weston won the 1965 Under 17 K.O. Cup at
Congresbury. It was appreciated by everyone that Test players John Edrich & Ken Barrington were in attendance. They were playing for Surrey against Somerset at the Clarence Park Festival, so they agreed to present the prizes

The Squash Courts on the Club premises were built and opened in 1966. This was the beginning of a long relationship between Weston Cricket and Weston Squash Clubs. James Fitzgerald took 6 for 70 for Cambridge University against
Essex on his first-class debut (a record that stood for many years…).