Menu
Website Design & Development
1990-1999
Champions at Last
The 1993 Willis Corroon Title and a 150th Anniversary
The Nineties, 1990-1999
The decade gave Sutton Coldfield the finest league season in its modern history — the Willis Corroon M.C.C.C. Championship of 1993, won with a single defeat — and closed with a 150th anniversary that carried the club from Rectory Park to Bristol and on to Lord's.
Andy Luckhurst took the first eleven in 1990 and held it for four seasons, and the side he led was as strong as any Sutton had put into the field: a settled fifteen, a superb fielding unit and a bowling attack that once removed a title rival for 26. Around that summer sat a decade of steady cups and hard-won lessons — three trophies in 1996 and, on the same ground in the same August, 33 all out. In 1997 the club kept its 150th year in company with its own past, welcoming back the Free Foresters who were born at Rectory Park in 1856, beating W. G. Grace's old club at Bristol and an MCC side at home. Then, after eighty years of politely declining, Sutton finally joined the Birmingham & District Premier Cricket League and discovered how hard the new company would be.
A bowler in his delivery stride, watched by the umpire Peter Bell — one of a group of photographs kept with the club's papers from these years; the bowler is not identified in the surviving records.
A New Order at Rectory Park
The 1990 annual general meeting reshaped the club. Mike Hepburn took the chair after Bob's three years in it, James Ross replaced George Griffith as secretary and Paul McCarthy took the fixture list from D. T. Worsfold. Andy Luckhurst succeeded Geoff Hopkinson as first eleven captain and Ian Nicholls accepted the Hawks. Full membership stood at £55, with £10 off for anyone who paid before 31st May, and the annual dinner was held at Aston Wood Golf Club on 1st February.
The cricket that followed was busy and productive. The first eleven played 53 matches, winning 23, drawing 16 and losing 13, with only one abandoned. Hepburn made 114 not out against Water Orton, Danny Longhorne 133 not out at Leamington and Phil Sutcliffe 110 against Harborne before carrying his bat for 74 not out at Bedworth. Luckhurst and Chris Munn added 216 for the fourth wicket against Solihull, Luckhurst making 116 and Munn 102 not out; the captain also took 7 for 84 against Stratford.
The lower sides were thriving too. Robert Powell scored 844 runs at 52.75 for the thirds, A. Jones made 203 not out and Jonathan Miller 100 not out in an unbroken stand of 287 against Barnt Green, and Terry Matthews took 43 wickets. In 1991 the first eleven finished runners-up in the Warwickshire Sunday League and the seconds won 21 of 40 games. The 1992 meeting changed nothing at all — every officer was returned unopposed — but it did engage Adam Bacher of South Africa as professional.
Sutton Coldfield 3rd XI, 1993 Willis Corroon champions: J. Little, S. Nicholls, P. Greetham, J. Illingworth, N. Arif, K. Lancaster, P. Wells (umpire); P. Harding, N. Jerman, T. Matthews (captain), R. Hassan, K. Wilson.
Champions: The Summer of 1993
The season opened with a change at the top. Geoff Pritchett resigned the presidency on leaving the Midlands for Norfolk after 47 years as player and officer, and Peter Wells was elected in his place; Terry Matthews took the captaincy of both the Hawks and the Grasshoppers, and Tim Buckett, an Australian, arrived as professional. Then Luckhurst's first eleven simply won the Willis Corroon M.C.C.C. League Championship, losing one match all summer and using, by Andy Biddle's reckoning, about fifteen players.
The defining afternoon came in July, when Knowle & Dorridge — fellow contenders, and described by their own chairman as their best batting side in years — arrived with the Warwickshire trio of Dougie Brown, Michael Powell and Darren Altree. Nigel Moore won the toss and put Sutton in on a rain-affected pitch; the home side made 166 for 6 from 55 overs. K&D were then bowled out for 26. Adrian Sutton returned 7 for 9 from 10.1 overs with six maidens, Paul Junkin 3 for 16, and Biddle's account records nine catches and a stumping.
It was a double. Matthews's Hawks won the Willis Corroon M.C.C.C. 3rd XI League Championship in the same summer, and the league thought so highly of the senior side that seven Sutton men were chosen to face the Shropshire League: Luckhurst as captain, Junkin, Richard and Mark Jerman, Biddle, Munn and Hepburn, with James Ross travelling as twelfth man. On August Bank Holiday Tuesday Jonathan Miller made 124 not out against Aldridge and took 5 for 16 as the visitors fell for 142. Vandals, meanwhile, burnt down the lower ground pavilion yet again.
Sutton Coldfield Knock Out winners, 1996: M. Mackey, C. Munn, C. Harwood, M. Hepburn, R. Powell and J. Little standing; A. Sutton, M. Dean, R. McLachlan, J. Ross and D. Benson kneeling.
Cups, Centuries and Thirty-Three All Out
Major work was done on the pavilion in 1994, brick walls being raised inside and outside the old wood and asbestos frame and a pitched roof set over the flat one. On the field Buckett took the honours with 97 wickets at 15.49, including 8 for 60 against Knowle & Dorridge, bowling unchanged for 22 overs. Michael Dean made 128 against the same club, and the Jerman brothers — whose surname the club's records spell variously Jerman and German — made 143 not out against Rugby and 125 not out at Leamington.
In 1995 Hepburn and Ross were elected life members, bringing the total to ten, and Luckhurst stood down after four seasons, the captaincy splitting between Adrian Sutton on Saturdays and Michael Mackey on Sundays. David Trafford of Australia was engaged, subscriptions rose to £70 for full members, and the annual dinner returned to the refurbished pavilion on Friday 28th January with Chris Cowdrey of Kent and England toasting the club. Sutton won the Warwickshire Sunday League's John Whitehouse Trophy and the thirds took the Jubilee Shield.
The 1996 season was the decade's sharpest study in contrasts. Michael Dean led both first elevens, Rob McLaughlin came from Australia, and the club won the John Whitehouse Trophy against Coventry & North Warwickshire, the Sutton Coldfield Knock Out Cup and the Jubilee Shield. Luckhurst, dropped to the twos, opened on three successive Saturdays for 128 not out, 57 not out and 30 not out. Yet on 31st August Harborne declared at 239 for 3, Alvin Kallicharran 92 not out, and Sutton were dismissed for 33 in 25.5 overs, seven men failing to score.
1997, 150th Anniversary: S.C.C.C. v M.C.C. — the two sides lined up together in front of the Rectory Park pavilion.
One Hundred and Fifty Years
The anniversary began in winter. On Friday 31st January 1997, 263 members and guests sat down at the Penns Hall Hotel with the President in the chair and Dick Sperryn saying a grace written for the occasion, with humour and just enough reverence. Michael Joseph, a playing member until business took him south, proposed the toast to the club and Neil Houghton replied; then Henry Blofeld, of the BBC's Test Match Special, gave the room an insider's view of the commentary box on a Test match day.
Even the menu card served the occasion, carrying a short history of the club, noteworthy jottings over 150 years, individual feats, the fifteen Sutton players who went on to Warwickshire and seventeen achievements of the previous twenty years. The cricket honoured the same debt. On Sunday 18th May the Free Foresters returned to the ground of their birth — they had been formed at Rectory Park on 20th July 1856, in a match got up by the Rector, W. K. Riland Bedford, then the club's President — and were beaten by the home side.
The celebrations then travelled. Team and supporters took a coach to Bristol to play Bedminster, also keeping its 150th year and once counting Dr W. G. Grace among its members and vice-presidents, on the county ground; Sutton won that too, and beat an MCC side at Rectory Park. The year's business was quieter: Eric Harding took over the fixture list from Paul McCarthy, junior subscriptions rose by £5 to £15, and Luke Latimer of Australia was engaged as the club's overseas player.
Lord's, 1998: Cross Arrows v S.C.C.C. — the Sutton Coldfield party at the headquarters of cricket on 9th September.
Into the Birmingham League
Mike Hepburn stood down in 1998 after eight years as chairman and James Ross was elected in his place, with Jonathan Miller stepping up from vice-captain to lead the first eleven. The Birmingham League then invited the Midland Club Cricket Conference clubs to join a renamed Birmingham & District Premier Cricket League, and Sutton entered Division One — accepting at last an invitation the club had received, and declined, several times over the previous eighty years.
First came the last of the anniversary cricket. On 28th August the guest Australian David Frakes took 4 for 58 against the Midland Club Cricket Conference and then made 85 not out from 51 balls, hitting the final ball over long on and out of the ground over the groundsman's shed to win by three wickets. On 9th September a coach left the car park for Lord's and the MCC's Cross Arrows, who made 273 for 7. Ross made 79 and Hepburn 68; ten were wanted from the last over and two from the last ball, and the game was drawn at 272 for 9.
League life proved unforgiving. The first eleven finished tenth in 1998 with 84 points, six wins from twenty-two matches — as many as fourth-placed Harborne, who gathered 130 — and the club noted that bonus points needed attention. Consolation came in the Warwickshire Sunday League, where Sutton were runners-up to Harborne and then beat them in the John Whitehouse Trophy final. In 1999 survival came by a single point over Kings Heath, two points lost to a slow over rate, six games abandoned, and Paul Howells carrying the side with 592 runs at 39.47 and 50 league wickets at 14.94.
Key Moments
1990
Luckhurst Takes the First Eleven
Andy Luckhurst succeeded Geoff Hopkinson as first eleven captain as Mike Hepburn became chairman and James Ross secretary
1991
Sunday League Runners-Up
The first eleven finished runners-up in the Warwickshire Sunday League, and the seconds won 21 of their 40 matches
1992
Adam Bacher Engaged
The South African Adam Bacher was engaged as overseas professional; he opened against England in the Lord's Test of 18th June 1998
1993
Willis Corroon Champions
Andy Luckhurst's first eleven won the Willis Corroon M.C.C.C. League Championship, losing one match all season and using about fifteen players
1993
Knowle & Dorridge for 26
Adrian Sutton took 7 for 9 in 10.1 overs with six maidens and Paul Junkin 3 for 16 as K&D were dismissed for 26 in reply to 166 for 6
1993
The Hawks Complete the Double
Terry Matthews's third eleven won the Willis Corroon M.C.C.C. 3rd XI League Championship in the same summer
1994
Buckett's 97 Wickets
The Australian professional Tim Buckett took 97 wickets at 15.49, including 8 for 60 against Knowle & Dorridge bowling unchanged
1996
Three Trophies in One Summer
Sutton won the John Whitehouse K.O. Trophy against Coventry & North Warwickshire, the Sutton Coldfield Knock Out Cup and the Jubilee Shield
1997
One Hundred and Fifty Years
263 members and guests heard Henry Blofeld at the anniversary dinner, and the Free Foresters, Bedminster at Bristol and an MCC side were all beaten
1998
The Birmingham League, and Lord's
Sutton joined the Birmingham & District Premier Cricket League and, on 9th September, drew with the MCC's Cross Arrows at Lord's on 272 for 9, two runs short
"It was unquestionably a great side, well-balanced and a superb fielding unit."
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