Menu
Website Design & Development
1970-1979
Dixon's Decade
A New Pavilion, a New League and a Record-Breaking Batsman
The Seventies, 1970-1979
The seventies opened with a tape being cut on a new pavilion and closed with the Canadian national side at Rectory Park. In between, Sutton entered league cricket for the first time in its history — and Michael Dixon passed a thousand runs in every season of the decade.
It was a decade of building, in every sense. The pavilion that members of the cricket and hockey clubs had laboured through the winter to finish was officially opened in July 1970, and the bill — £16,369 in all — was settled the following spring. Then, in 1971, a handful of members quietly signed the club into the Willis Faber-sponsored Midland Club Cricket Championship, ending more than 120 years of purely friendly cricket and dividing opinion sharply; the club historian, Norman Sharp, could find no reference to the decision anywhere in the Minute Book. Six seasons later that same league brought Sutton its finest hour, when Michael Dixon's attacking side were crowned champions in 1977 and a plaque was hung in the pavilion with pride. The same summer produced the club's first Alpine Under 16 champions and, in July, the death of Norman Sharp himself.
The card printed for the opening, headed "Opening of New Pavilion, July 24th 1970" over "Norman Sharp Esq., President", and signed by some sixty members beneath the words "Very Best Wishes for a Speedy and Complete Recovery". Sharp was in hospital; Arthur Spencer deputised for him at the ceremony.
A Pavilion at Last
Work had begun the previous autumn and continued through the winter, but weather, drainage and the usual delays meant the new pavilion was usable rather than finished when the 1970 season opened. Members of both the cricket and hockey clubs worked on to the end of May to make it presentable, and the official ceremony followed on the evening of Friday 24th July, when Edmund H. King, Chairman of Warwickshire C.C.C., cut the tape before a large gathering.
Arthur Spencer, President of the Hockey Club, deputised for Norman Sharp, who was ill in hospital, and welcomed the Mayor and Mayoress, Alderman and Mrs H.J.C. Musgrave; a tankard went to Charles Groves in recognition of his services to the undertaking. Peter Cadman put figures to it early in 1971 — £15,752 on the building and £617 on furnishings and equipment, £16,369 in all. Paving slabs and turfing followed that autumn at the expense of Joe Holman, a playing member.
Not everything went the club's way. In the autumn of 1970 vandals gutted the lower ground pavilion, the insurers meeting a claim for £800. Two great servants died that year: F. Bernard "Bengy" Clark, a member of sixty-two years who took over a thousand wickets, his best 10 for 35 against Yardley in 1914; and Paul I. Terry, the wartime Hon Secretary in whose memory the new pavilion clock was erected. Alex Harvey, groundsman since 1953, retired in 1971 with a handsome testimonial.
Cricket Week at Rectory Park, August 1972, held to mark 125 years since the club's foundation.
The Coming of League Cricket
Sutton had played non-competitive cricket for over 120 years and had declined invitations to join the Birmingham League on a number of occasions. It seemed a pity to the club's historian, then, that a few members should decide on their own initiative to enter a league — a matter he judged unconstitutional, and of which no record appears in the Minute Book. The Midland Club Cricket Championship was born for the 1972 season, sponsored by Willis Faber, with Sutton among its clubs.
The early evidence did little to settle the argument. In 1972 the 1st XI won only eight of forty matches and drew twenty-one — 52 per cent of completed games, by far the highest proportion in one season in the club's history, against 31 per cent over the previous decade — and won just one of its twenty Championship fixtures. Little apparent interest, the historian wrote, was shown by either players or spectators, and very few seemed to know the state of the league table.
Knockout cricket, by contrast, flourished in the long evenings. Peter Bell's new Sutton News Cup drew sixteen of the leading Midland clubs in 1971, Dennis Amiss presenting the trophy to Aston Unity, and Bell went on to found the Sutton Coldfield & District Association of Cricket Umpires. In 1973 Sutton beat Streetly, Nuneaton and West Bromwich Dartmouth before losing the final to Aston Unity. Cricket Week in August 1972 marked 125 years since the foundation, the Midlands Club Cricket Conference meeting the M.C.C. on the Thursday.
George Lindsay of Willis Faber presents Bob Strachan with his Duncan Fearnley bat in 1975, his team-mates looking on — among them Ian Nuttall, Roger Coombs, Dave Edmunds, Warwick Tidy, John Robinson and James Ross.
Dixon, Tidy and the Doctor
Michael Dixon made his name as an opener in 1970, when he and his captain Martin Bloomer both passed a thousand runs; by 1972 he was the club's Cricketer of the Year with 1,278. Then came 1973. Dixon made 1,630 runs, beating Brian Clewer's club record of 1,472 set in 1959, with four centuries — 101 not out at Aston Unity, 115 against Harborne, 140 against Bromsgrove and 125 not out against Little Aston Stragglers. The side's seven hundreds that summer beat the six of 1928.
The runs simply kept coming: 1,234 at 36.29 in 1974, including hundreds on consecutive days — 104 away at Stafford on the Saturday, 103 away at Leamington on the Sunday — for which the Midland Club Cricket Conference named him its Cricketer of the Year; 1,445 at 41.29 in 1975; 1,134 in 1976; 1,047 in 1977; 1,298 in 1978; and 1,109 in 1979, a thousand runs in a season for the tenth successive year.
He was well served around him. Warwick Tidy, awarded the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy in 1970 as the most promising young cricketer in the country, took 81 wickets at 16.35 in 1975 and 69 in each of the two seasons that followed. Gavin Weston claimed 51 dismissals behind the stumps in 1974 and 57 in 1975, of which 35 were stumpings. And Dr Bob Strachan, a local GP, was twice honoured by Willis Faber in 1975 — a Duncan Fearnley bat for his bowling against Leamington in May, and a case to keep it in after a fifty in forty-five minutes against Solihull in June.
Sutton Coldfield Cricket Club, Midland Club Cricket Championship champions of 1977 — the photograph at the centre of the plaque hung in the pavilion.
Champions of the Midlands
The highlight of 1977 was the 1st XI finishing as winners of the Midland Club Cricket Championship, having won as many games as they lost — seven each. The club's record is unambiguous about the cause: it was the result of the captain Michael Dixon's attitude to attacking cricket, great to watch even when the side lost, for many a side would never have attempted the chases Sutton took on and would have settled for a tame draw. The plaque was hung in the pavilion with pride and copied in 2022.
Dixon again headed the aggregates with 1,047 runs at 29.91, Keith Gardom made 784 at 25.29 and Ross Rayburn a fine century of 102 away at Moseley Ashfield. The bowling was shared three ways: Warwick Tidy took 69 wickets at 15.0, Dave Torry 51 with his left-arm spin at 16.08 and Gardom 49 with his leg breaks at 15.07. Around them in the champions' photograph stood M. Hepburn, T. Yomens, G. Tidy, D. Edmunds, G. Weston, N. Houghton and J. Robinson, with H. Lock scoring and P. Berry umpiring.
Gardom's own story ran through the decade. Born in Birmingham on 31st December 1952 and a product of Bishop Vesey's Grammar School, he toured the West Indies with the England Young Cricketers in 1972 and joined the Warwickshire staff, making his first-class debut against Cambridge University in 1973; in seventeen first-class matches he scored 427 runs at 18.56, his highest 79 not out against Surrey. The family business proved stronger than the county's persuasion. He took the Sutton captaincy in 1978 and made 1,285 runs to Dixon's 1,298, the side's eight centuries setting another club record.
Peter Yates's under-16 squad, winners of the first Alpine Under 16 Championship in 1977, captained by David Stokes.
Young Cricketers and the Wider World
Junior cricket had been growing all decade — as early as 1972 eight teenagers were representing the county's junior elevens, among them John Maynard's sons Steve and Chris and Simon Berry, while Peter Wells's schoolboy cricket in the summer holidays was judged a great success and continued. It came good in 1977, when the Alpine Soft Drink Company launched an under-16 competition and Peter Yates organised a squad of some eighteen talented young cricketers who, captained by David Stokes, won the first Alpine Under 16 Championship. Stokes, then fifteen, took the Conference's Alec Hastilow Trophy as the best under-16 cricketer.
In 1979 the wider game came to Rectory Park. The club played Canada in a warm-up before the I.C.C. World Cup: the Canadians, invited to bat, made 254 for one in their sixtieth over and bowled Sutton out for 170. Peter Bell and Phil Berry were appointed to the 60-over tie between the U.S.A. and Sri Lanka at Northampton, the U.S.A. making 168 and Sri Lanka 170 for four, and Bell's photograph from the occasion later appeared in The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Cricket. The 2nd XI, meanwhile, were runaway winners of the Midland Club Cricket Championship.
The decade's greatest loss came on 14th July 1977, when Norman Sharp died suddenly at the age of seventy-six. His association with the club had begun in 1905 and ran seventy-two years: 2nd XI scorer as a boy, the regular 1st XI opening batsman for thirty years and captain from 1941 to 1948, fixture secretary from 1930 to 1947, then treasurer, chairman and President from 1966 until his death. He scored nearly 25,000 runs in club cricket, 19,710 of them for Sutton, and wrote the history that carries the club's story down to 1975.
Key Moments
1970
The New Pavilion Opens
Edmund H. King, Chairman of Warwickshire C.C.C., cut the tape on the evening of Friday 24th July before the Mayor, Alderman H.J.C. Musgrave, and a large gathering
1970
A Trophy for Warwick Tidy
Tidy was awarded the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy as the most promising young cricketer in the country, and the club presented him with a tankard to commemorate it
1972
Sutton Joins a League
The Willis Faber-sponsored Midland Club Cricket Championship began, ending more than 120 years of friendly cricket — a decision the club historian judged unconstitutional and could not find in the Minute Book
1973
Dixon's Record Season
Michael Dixon made 1,630 runs, beating Brian Clewer's club record of 1,472 set in 1959, with four centuries; the side's seven hundreds beat the six of 1928
1974
Cricketer of the Year
The Midland Club Cricket Conference named Dixon its Cricketer of the Year after 1,234 runs at 36.29, including 104 at Stafford and 103 at Leamington on consecutive days
1975
Two Awards for the Doctor
Willis Faber honoured Dr Bob Strachan twice — a Duncan Fearnley bat from their director George Lindsay for his bowling against Leamington, and a case for it after a fifty in forty-five minutes against Solihull
1977
Champions of the Midlands
The 1st XI won the Midland Club Cricket Championship under Michael Dixon, winning seven matches and losing seven, and Peter Yates's under-16s won the first Alpine Championship
1977
The Death of Norman Sharp
The club's President and historian died on 14th July aged 76, ending an association with Sutton Coldfield that had begun in 1905 and run seventy-two years
1978
Eight Hundreds in a Summer
Keith Gardom, the new captain, made 1,285 runs and Michael Dixon 1,298; the eight centuries scored by the 1st XI beat the seven of 1973 and set a club record
1979
The World Cup Comes Calling
Canada made 254 for 1 at Rectory Park and bowled Sutton out for 170; Peter Bell and Phil Berry umpired the U.S.A. against Sri Lanka at Northampton
"So ends this history of the first 128 years of the Sutton Coldfield Cricket Club, a club, which with the Sutton Coldfield Hockey Club, has given me a lifetime of pleasure and the privilege of numbering many great sportsmen amongst my friends."
Jump to New Decade
Foundations Before Formation
1837-1847
The First Fifty Years
1847-1899
A Time of Change and Uncertainty
1901-1909
A Decade of Transition and Challenge
1910-1919
The Golden Resurgence
1920-1929
The Thirties
1930-1939
Wartime and Renewal
1940-1949
The Fabulous Fifties
1950-1959
Transformation and Tradition
1960-1969
Dixon's Decade
1970-1979
Trophies and Tragedy
1980-1989
Champions at Last
1990-1999
The New Millennium
2000-2009
The Twenty-Tens
2010-2019
The Twenty-Twenties
2020-Present