Loddington & Mawsley CC

HISTORY OF LODDINGTON CC

The earliest evidence of the Loddington Cricket Club to date is from the Kettering Leader from 1894 which has the following scorecard:-

Loddington v Maidwell, 8th June 1894

 The following week saw Loddington play at Great Oakley, with the hosts scoring 57 to the visitors 46.  After the game, the visitors were entertained to tea by Captain A.W. de Capell Brooke, at Great Oakley Hall.

Friendly cricket was played until the end of the century, against such opponents as Thorpe Malsor, Kettering Bible Class, Kettering Church Institute, Brixworth, and Weekley and Warkton.  From 1896 to 1899 the club also ran a second XI.  In a game against Weekley & Warkton in 1899, the team are referred to as the "Ironstone Clickers" by the match reporter.

No cricket was played in 1900 as the club was unable to secure a ground, but cricket resumed the following year, and continued until the 1st World War.

In the Village Hall is a picture of the team winning a cup in the 1920's.  Apart from that, there is little information about the club until the 1960's, although Stephen Schillizi, resident at Loddington Hall, and President of Northants CCC at the time, invited the famous 1948 Australian tourists, including Don Bradman on his last tour of England, to tea at the Hall during the rest day of the Trent Bridge Test.

The club was by the 1960's a member of the Mid-Northants Cricket League, playing teams such as Isham, Brixworth, Pitsford, Arthingworth, Old and Walgrave. The club won the league in 1965, then the golden years of the early seventies saw the club dominate the league when the club had some exceptional players, with the dual bowling attack of Bev Linnell and Tony Billing.  The two competitive characters helped win four league championships in a row in 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975.  However, Tony later stepped up a grade to join Kettering, while Bev eventually went back to play for his native Walgrave.  The 1980's saw the emergence of a real bowling talent in Dave Billing, son of Tony.  Dave played for the club as a youngster before following his father to Kettering. Dave was soon a member of the 1st XI, and had an illustrious career at the top level of local cricket, including two County League winners medals at Overstone Park.  Dave finished his career back were he started at Loddington, helping the club to a couple of promotions in the early 2000's before calling it a day at the end of the 2005 season.

The club's fortunes reached their lowest ebb in 1987 when a number of players called it a day, or moved on to other clubs.  With only two players left, the club was in crisis.  However, Mercenaries, a District League club of only 4 years standing, who had played a season at the Titchmarsh minefield, were looking for a new ground.  A call was made, a meeting arranged, and for the 1987 season the clubs merged to form Loddington Mercenaries.  Despite the Loddington club only having 2 players, one of these was Phil "Yorkie" Bailey, a former Bradford League hostile, humourless bowler.  He showed his worth in the promotion year with many a destructive bowling spell, his best being 8 wickets for 2 runs which clinched the league at Barton Seagrave. 
Unfortunately Bailey went back up North, and was never heard of or seen again.  The club remained in the District League, but with the formation of the Northants Alliance, a number of more ambitious clubs had left the District League for the holy grail, and each season saw the league become more mediocre as the standard of grounds was dropping.

This resulted in a serious shortage of players by the early 90's, and again the club was on its knees.  Morale was low, and the team floundered at the bottom of the league.  The club's top batsman, Karl Sanders, had moved on to Weekey and Warkton to play at a higher standard, and it was difficult to see a future for the club. However, the club's fortunes turned again as four of the village's youngsters, Sam Bouch, Charlie Kimbell, Sparrow Clarke and Chris Brown, aided by Richard Baker and Philip Bouch, formed a youth cricket side at Under 13.  These youngsters soon became an integral part of the club, bringing with them friends such as Will Haines, Martin Heels and Nick Segaren. 

The club also took advantage of Casuals CC's demise by recruiting their skipper, Craig Love, who bought with him three of the Casuals players with him.  Dave Billing came back to the club, and Alan Philip also joined.  By the late 1990's, the club had gained entry into the Northants Alliance, and was now running two sides.  Karl Sanders was persuaded to return to the club, he had a vision of increasing the youth participation in the club.

The 2000's saw the club on the up, entering the new Northants Cricket League at the Division 4 level.  In the 1st year, 2003, promotion was gained, and the following season, 2004, saw the club's first Overseas Player, Robbie Sekel, recruited.  This was a shrewd move, with Sekel, after a sticky start with only 4 runs in his 1st 2 innings, scoring over 900 league runs as the 1st XI narrowly missed out on promotion.  Sekel enjoyed it so much he stayed on for the English winter.  He again scored in excess of 900 league runs the following season as the 1st XI won the division on the last day of the season against nearest rivals, Thrapston.

2006 saw the 1st XI consolidate their position in Division 2, however in 2007, with Andy Stanley out of the country, Rob Stanley out for the season and Will Stanley unable to bowl, and Sam Bouch being unavailable for most of the season, the team suffered after a poor 1st half of the season.  The return of Scott Sanders from Rushton, along with Adam Gasson, saw a strong finish in the league, however the club fell 6 points short of safety and were relegated to Division 3 for 2008.