Oxford Downs, one of the county’s leading cricket clubs, celebrates its centenary this year.

Former members and players of the club, based at Standlake, near Witney, are being invited to mark the historic occasion on Sunday, July 23.

The day will include a cricket match, the opening of the club’s centenary nets, batting and bowling competitions and evening food.

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The club was formed in 1923, initially as a private club of the local Pickford farming family. Matches were played at weekends in one of the family’s fields off Martins Lane, with players having a tea break in a nearby cottage.

By the 1990s, the club felt strong enough to enter first and second teams in the Cherwell League.

In 2002, the club pavilion was badly damaged by fire, with many of the club’s trophies and other memorabilia destroyed.

But cricket continued and a redevelopment project in 2004 resulted in the pitch being relaid in a nearby field and a new clubhouse being built.The last match played on the old pitch, which had been in use since 1923, was between teams of Under 35s and Over 35s on Sunday, September 19, 2004. The first game on the new pitch took place in April 2005.

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The new pitch, clubhouse and equipment in Abingdon Road, Standlake, have helped the club to continue to grow. Today, it has more than 50 senior players and more than 100 junior and youth members.

Chairman Tom Welch tells me: “Most of our current first team have come through the junior ranks.”

Oxford Downs have carried on a cricketing tradition at Standlake which stretches back more than 150 years.

Records show that village sides would come from afar to play the Standlake team as early as 1869, enjoying tea at the Black Horse pub. Cricket clubs at Standlake and Northmoor reformed after the First World War. However, in 1922, the Northmoor club folded, it was decided to amalgamate the two and the Oxford Downs Cricket Club was founded. The centenary celebration will start at 1pm. Captions: 1: Oxford Downs’ knockout finalists in 2001; 2: another successful side; 3: the Oxford Mail report of the pavilion fire in 2002; 4: an Oxford Down sheep; 5: the 1923 fixture list; 6: the first women’s team.

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Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

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