LOCAL CRICKET INTEREST
Can you help us identify the players in this photograph of Stourbridge Social Cricket Club? The picture was taken in the early-1960s. If you can identify any of the team members, please contact us
UPDATE ON SSCC PHOTO 13/03/18
Sue Grandini-Williams tell us: The player on the far right is my grandfather, Fred Grandini. This is my photograph which I sent into the Black Country Bugle a few years ago. [March 2018]
Steve Grandini (son of Fred) adds: I spent many happy times when I was young, watching my father play on this team. He is Fred Grandini and is standing on the far right. At the back, fifth from the right, is Ken Connop who later became Mayor of Stourbridge*.
The team was made up of postal workers and railway workers. Ken Connop was the captain of the team. Next to him (fourth from the left) is Len Hutton who was an engine driver. Fred worked for Brierley Hill Post Office with Arthur Brown next to my father. Squatting on the far right is Les Penn; his brother (?) Penn, is holding a trophy [?]; both worked for Stourbridge Post Office.
The picture is taken in Mary Stevens Park where they used to play, but could only play there mainly on Saturdays, but sometimes in the week, as ball games were not allowed on Sundays in the park, so that they always had to play away games if the game was on Sunday. The clubhouse was at Oldswinford British Legion, not far from the Crabmill. Hope this is useful. I will try to remember some of the other names. [March 2018]
* S&DCS webmaster adds: Ken Connop became the inaugural Chairman of Stourbridge & District Cricket Society in 1972, a position he held until his retirement when he left the area in 1979. I must try and find out more about Fred Grandini’s background!
Sandra Sutton offers another name for Hutton: Standing, fourth from the left, is Bert Hutton. He was not a relative, but a very nice neighbour for many years. [March 2018]
Steve Grandini has come back with further information: No, the [family] name is definitely not Black Country! It is Italian. Fred's father, my grandfather, arrived from Palma [east of Naples], with his father and older brother in the late 1800's. They came in search of work, leaving the rest of the family behind, but never went back. My grandfather, Mario, settled in London and married and had five children, the eldest boy being Fred. All of the family in London loved cricket.
Fred was involved in the Second World War and whilst travelling up through Austria with the troops, met and married my mother Irma, who is Austrian. After the war, he brought her back to the UK to live in London. She did not settle well, but had a sister who had also married a British soldier from Quarry Bank, and that is where my mother and father moved to, in order for her to be close to her sister.
My father first worked on Midland Red buses, so played cricket for them. Then, he moved to the Post Office and played for Stourbridge Social CC. [March 2018]
S&DCS webmaster adds: Thanks, Steve for sharing memories of your father with us. To the best of my knowledge, Fred Grandini is one of only two men of Italian-birth to have played cricket. Other than Fred, the other one is the former Sussex and England captain, Ted Dexter who was born in Milan.
Mick Gardener provided his memories of Stourbridge Social CC:
Stourbridge Social Cricket Club (SSCC) was founded in 19xx*. I joined the club in 1963, and in the following year, became the fixtures secretary, a position I retained for the next 37 years. In the days before cricket was organised into a league structure, all matches had to be organised by the individual clubs. Added to which, in its early days, SSCC had to play all their fixtures away because the club had no home ground of its own.
Rather than playing local factory sides in the Black Country, Gardener widened his horizons and arranged fixtures in the shires which included trips to Colwall, Malvern, Pershore, the Cotswolds, the Forest of Dean plus a visit to Builth Wells. To overcome travel problems, a charabanc was hired from Eric Hollioake of Brierley Hill, with resulted in surprisingly few breakdowns. Wives and children accompanied the team for a grand family day, out in the country fresh air.
In respect of wives, Mick, who lived for cricket, met his match made in heaven and married Maureen, who organised the teas for the club, a task she describes as a genuine labour of love. Mo, as she was known, did so for more years and was celebrated in the local paper when she poured her last cuppa for the club in 2009.
SSCC went on tour to Somerset and played fixtures against Glastonbury, Minehead and others. They also undertook home-based tours, playing away against the likes of Birmingham Police, Birmingham University, Staffordshire Police and Warwick University and returning home each night to sleep. It helped keep the costs down!
In the 1980s, following the demise of Brierley Hill CC, Stourbridge Social CC were offered the use of the Norwood Road Ground behind the Labour in Vain at Brockmoor, Brierley Hill, which today is used by the club’s second team. However, within 48 hours of taking occupation the uninsured, wooden pavilion was mysteriously burnt to the ground. Ever resourceful, the team used the mower shed as a makeshift changing room. Later they acquired the use of the Sons of Rest pavilion, formerly used at Wollescote Park Tennis Club.
Mick Gardener, described himself as a right-arm medium pace bowler, proved to be the match winner in one match when Hanley Castle were all out for 102. Mick recorded his career-best figures of nine for 41 (seven clean bowled) to help SSCC win by twenty runs.
Stourbridge Social CC merged with Oldswinford CC in 2010, as both clubs found it increasingly difficult to field four separate elevens. [April 2017]
* [Does anyone know the precise year when SSCC was founded?]
Steve Grandini (son of Fred) adds: I spent many happy times when I was young, watching my father play on this team. He is Fred Grandini and is standing on the far right. At the back, fifth from the right, is Ken Connop who later became Mayor of Stourbridge*.
The team was made up of postal workers and railway workers. Ken Connop was the captain of the team. Next to him (fourth from the left) is Len Hutton who was an engine driver. Fred worked for Brierley Hill Post Office with Arthur Brown next to my father. Squatting on the far right is Les Penn; his brother (?) Penn, is holding a trophy [?]; both worked for Stourbridge Post Office.
The picture is taken in Mary Stevens Park where they used to play, but could only play there mainly on Saturdays, but sometimes in the week, as ball games were not allowed on Sundays in the park, so that they always had to play away games if the game was on Sunday. The clubhouse was at Oldswinford British Legion, not far from the Crabmill. Hope this is useful. I will try to remember some of the other names. [March 2018]
* S&DCS webmaster adds: Ken Connop became the inaugural Chairman of Stourbridge & District Cricket Society in 1972, a position he held until his retirement when he left the area in 1979. I must try and find out more about Fred Grandini’s background!
Sandra Sutton offers another name for Hutton: Standing, fourth from the left, is Bert Hutton. He was not a relative, but a very nice neighbour for many years. [March 2018]
Steve Grandini has come back with further information: No, the [family] name is definitely not Black Country! It is Italian. Fred's father, my grandfather, arrived from Palma [east of Naples], with his father and older brother in the late 1800's. They came in search of work, leaving the rest of the family behind, but never went back. My grandfather, Mario, settled in London and married and had five children, the eldest boy being Fred. All of the family in London loved cricket.
Fred was involved in the Second World War and whilst travelling up through Austria with the troops, met and married my mother Irma, who is Austrian. After the war, he brought her back to the UK to live in London. She did not settle well, but had a sister who had also married a British soldier from Quarry Bank, and that is where my mother and father moved to, in order for her to be close to her sister.
My father first worked on Midland Red buses, so played cricket for them. Then, he moved to the Post Office and played for Stourbridge Social CC. [March 2018]
S&DCS webmaster adds: Thanks, Steve for sharing memories of your father with us. To the best of my knowledge, Fred Grandini is one of only two men of Italian-birth to have played cricket. Other than Fred, the other one is the former Sussex and England captain, Ted Dexter who was born in Milan.
Mick Gardener provided his memories of Stourbridge Social CC:
Stourbridge Social Cricket Club (SSCC) was founded in 19xx*. I joined the club in 1963, and in the following year, became the fixtures secretary, a position I retained for the next 37 years. In the days before cricket was organised into a league structure, all matches had to be organised by the individual clubs. Added to which, in its early days, SSCC had to play all their fixtures away because the club had no home ground of its own.
Rather than playing local factory sides in the Black Country, Gardener widened his horizons and arranged fixtures in the shires which included trips to Colwall, Malvern, Pershore, the Cotswolds, the Forest of Dean plus a visit to Builth Wells. To overcome travel problems, a charabanc was hired from Eric Hollioake of Brierley Hill, with resulted in surprisingly few breakdowns. Wives and children accompanied the team for a grand family day, out in the country fresh air.
In respect of wives, Mick, who lived for cricket, met his match made in heaven and married Maureen, who organised the teas for the club, a task she describes as a genuine labour of love. Mo, as she was known, did so for more years and was celebrated in the local paper when she poured her last cuppa for the club in 2009.
SSCC went on tour to Somerset and played fixtures against Glastonbury, Minehead and others. They also undertook home-based tours, playing away against the likes of Birmingham Police, Birmingham University, Staffordshire Police and Warwick University and returning home each night to sleep. It helped keep the costs down!
In the 1980s, following the demise of Brierley Hill CC, Stourbridge Social CC were offered the use of the Norwood Road Ground behind the Labour in Vain at Brockmoor, Brierley Hill, which today is used by the club’s second team. However, within 48 hours of taking occupation the uninsured, wooden pavilion was mysteriously burnt to the ground. Ever resourceful, the team used the mower shed as a makeshift changing room. Later they acquired the use of the Sons of Rest pavilion, formerly used at Wollescote Park Tennis Club.
Mick Gardener, described himself as a right-arm medium pace bowler, proved to be the match winner in one match when Hanley Castle were all out for 102. Mick recorded his career-best figures of nine for 41 (seven clean bowled) to help SSCC win by twenty runs.
Stourbridge Social CC merged with Oldswinford CC in 2010, as both clubs found it increasingly difficult to field four separate elevens. [April 2017]
* [Does anyone know the precise year when SSCC was founded?]
