Mexborough & Swinton Times, May 05
Cricket, Tennis and Bowls Club
Annual Dinner
A Hope of Winning the Yorkshire Council
The annual dinner of the Denaby and Cadeby Cricket , Tennis and Bowls club was held at the Canteen on the cricket ground on Saturday evening, Mr. H. C. Harrison presiding.
The Chairman read letters of apology from M. J. J. Roper, secretary of the Midland League, the Rev. H. Lee and Mr. W. P. Turner.
Last season, he said, was more or less successful in every way. The bowling, cricket and tennis sections had their ups and downs, but the bowling section had provided the club with the most honour in the shape of “pots”.
The cricket section, however, had not disgraced themselves and he thought the members would agree that they had done well. They had opportunities there for cricket which a good many people did not enjoy, and he thought the people of Denaby ought to make the most they could of those facilities. Although their first team represented the sportsmen gathered there that night, they only represented the culminating point of sportsmanship in Denaby.
All Denaby should be infused with that spirit of sportsmanship. They were playing in high-class cricket. They even aspired to play the champion county of England, and were not disgraced on that occasion. Indeed they had the satisfaction of being told by the county players that theirs was one of the best grounds on which they had played.
In regard to the season now opening, he wished to make an appeal. Financially, they were not at all well placed. They were in debt to a very large extent, but there were certain gentlemen who were prepared, if necessary, to shoulder the burden, though they thought, like himself, that, as others participated in the advantages offered by those grounds to the same extent as themselves, others should be called upon to do their share. It was not fair for one or two shoulder the burden, and he appealed to all their members to support the club during the coming year. It was only by their membership that they could make the club a success.
They did not get big “gates”, and it was only by unanimous effort on the part of their members that they could make the club go. They did not want to lose their good name in Yorkshire as sportsmen (hear, hear!)- and as people who provided first-class facilities for sport. They should remember that, wherever they went and whoever they played, they had cricket, tennis and bowls grounds second to none.
To Win the Yorkshire Council?
Mr. Ernest Robinson, proposing the toast of the Denaby and Cadeby Cricket, Tennis and Bowls club, said that after his 29 years residence there, there was nobody more proud than he to see the position to which the club had attained, for he remembered its small beginnings.
They had persevered and had secured some very good sportsmen to assist them, and they built up a club and ground which was one of the finest in the Yorkshire Council (Hear, Her!)
Their success was due to the efforts of hard-working sportsmen, and, wherever they had gone, they had always been invited to go again. Two years ago they entered the Yorkshire Council, and the question had been asked as to whether they could stay there. He thought, however, with the players they had got and the management behind the club, they could win the Yorkshire Council championship this year (Applause).
The Chairman, responding, said it was very difficult to mention sport in Denaby without mentioning the Robinsons. Mr. Ernest Robinson had been connected with Denaby cricket longer than anyone, and nobody had done more to foster the game locally than he and his brothers.
When he (Mr. Harrison) first came to Denaby he found a wonderful ground, a wonderful team, and, a wonderful enthusiasm, and the cricket prospects of Denaby Main were still opening out. Denaby was the smallest place represented in the Yorkshire Cricket Council, and the Midland Counties Football League, and there was every reason to hope that Denaby would be as gallantly and successfully represented by its cricket team as it had been by its football team (hear, hear).
There was nothing they could not do in Denaby if they set their hands to it. He hoped the people of Denaby would use to an increasing extent the facilities provided for them, and would help to maintain in the place the best standard, both of cricket and football. He had to congratulate the bowling teams on having won two of the five cups they competed for, and he had good hope that the tennis section would also win honours, and would ultimately evolve a Legend. (Laughter and hear, hear). The cricket team would include practically all the players who assisted the club last year with the important addition of a very promising recruit, Crossley, from Frickley Colliery.
The Chairman then presented the Shipstone Cup (Doncaster and District Bowling League), to Mr. Peter Phillips, captain of the first bowling team, who received it on behalf of the team.
The Chairman also presented prizes to the following: E. Tibbles, first team batting average; G. Worthington, first team bowling average; J. Robinson, second team bowling average; R. Clarke, first bowls team average; J. Langford, second bowls team average.
The proceedings during the evening were enlivened with an excellent programme of songs.