Rainham Cricket Club 100 Years Ago

As the 2004 season gets underway and Rainham Cricket Club prepare the wickets, select the teams and get everything in order to face the opposition how were things at the club 100 years ago?

On Wednesday February 17th, 1904 Rainham held their Annual General Meeting at the Lion Hotel (now The Green Lion), the club headquarters, in Rainham High Street.

At the meeting, well attended and chaired by Mr A Tucker, Dr Tippett was elected Club President, Mr. RM Wakeley First XI Captain, Mr G Springate Saturday Vice Captain and Mr A Tucker Wednesday Vice Captain. Mr Bill Finnis was elected Treasurer and Mr Charles Clark Club Secretary.

The club ground at the time was Rainham Recreation Ground and written permission had to be obtained from the Parish Council each year for them to play there. The maintenance of the ground and preparation of the pitch was conducted at the personal expense of club patron and First XI Captain Mr RM Wakeley, the owner of Siloam Farm and partner in the family farming business 'Wakeley Brothers.'

The 1904 season opened on Wednesday April 27th with a match against Whitstable at the recreation ground which, according to the East Kent Gazette, was in excellent condition. In the match Rainham batted first and scored 62 with Police Constable Martin top scoring with 21. In reply Whitstable struggled to 35 all out with Charles Clark taking 6-16 and W Hunt 4-12.

There were several good matches during the season but one of the most memorable was against Rochester Conservatives. Rochester batted first and scored 89. Rainham were in serious trouble at the end of the first over of their innings when they found themselves three wickets down with no runs. Albert Gooding (27) and George Springate (22) then shared a partnership of 50 before W Hunt (17) allowed his side to finish on 81. The other eight Rainham batsmen all scored ducks.

The biggest disappointment was the cancellation of the annual Rainham Flower Show match in July due to rain. This was usually played in front of a big crowd at the recreation ground.

Rainham had a reasonably good season in 1904 with the Wednesday XI playing 19 matches, winning 9 and losing 10. The Saturday XI played 15 matches, winning 8 and losing 7. Overall it was better than the previous season.

W Hunt (98 wickets), Charles Clark (81 wickets) and Albert Gooding (71 wickets) totally dominated the bowling throughout 1904 as they had done the previous season. RM Wakeley was the top batsman with an average of 55.60 and scored the first recorded century for the club when he hit 136 not out against Lower Halstow. This was a tremendous achievement considering the condition of pitches at the time. To put this in perspective, nobody else in the club scored either a century or a half-century in 1904, Stuart Jelly coming closest with 47.

At the club's Annual General Meeting on February 8th, 1905 at the Lion Hotel, RM Wakeley won the prize for the best batting average in the Wednesday team, Charles Clark won the bowling prize while Albert Gooding won the batting and bowling prizes for Saturdays.

Financially the club was in a satisfactory condition even though there had been a dropping off of patrons and members. In fact the financial balance sheet showed that £12/18/9d had been made, £11/15/1d was spent, leaving a profit of £1/3/8d.

The main thing of note during 1904 was the installation of a water pipe on the recreation ground so that the wickets could be better prepared and the appointment of a caretaker to look after the ground and to generally improve conditions. These topics were discussed at the clubs annual dinner on November 19th, 1904 then put into practice by the Rainham Recreation Ground Committee a short time later.

The cost of joining the club in 1904 was 2/6d while club secretary Charles Clark who owned a Clothing & Boots store in Station Road sold cricket whites for 5/11d a pair and cricket boots for 2/6d a pair.

This was a good period for Rainham Cricket Club who went on to win the Sittingbourne & District League in 1905 and 1906 and to become one of the most powerful sides in the area in the years leading up to World War One.


David Wood 2004