Catford Wanderers

= Catford Wanderers Sports Club =

[http://www.catfordwanderers.com Catford Wanderers Sports Club] is on Beckenham Hill Road, behind the large Homebase. It consists of 3 sport sections, Cricket, Tennis and Badminton.

Catford Wanderers Cricket Club

The Cricket Club was founded in 1906 and is one of the best known amateur cricket clubs in the United Kingdom. The Wanderers provided the last amateur cricketer to play test cricket for England - Jack Martin - later of Kent County Cricket Club - who played for Catford at the time of his call up to the England side in the summer of 1947. Past members also include Doug Wright formerly of Kent and England and David Constant, former Kent cricketer and International Umpire.The Tennis Club was formed in 1914 and it took them 34 years before they won their first Kent title, the Kent winter Division One title no less in 1948. Since then the club has won no fewer than 42 Kent titles (1948 – 2005) the greatest of these featuring the glorious Catford Men’s team of the fifties who won the first divisions (winter and summer) of 1955. Not far behind these successes were the girls 16 and under and boys 16 and under who were crowned Kent champions in 1966 and 1968.In North Kent leagues Catford have won 24 titles the highlight being the 2005 victories of the Men’s, Mixed, Men’s Veterans & boys 12 and under.

Catford Wanderers Tennis Club

[http://www.catfordwanderers.com Catford Wanderers Tennis Club] was founded in 1914 at at Brackley Road Beckenham where the club was then based. They moved to their current site at Beckenham Hill Road , then known as Symons Meadow in 1920 . The first Secretary was H, Pethybridge who resided at 77 Culverley Road SE6 and the club held its first club tournament in 1921 where the winners were Mr AG Lowe and Mrs Ethel Lawrence . On the subject of Club Titles Mrs Madge Alcorn won a record 29 club titles between 1947and 1966 which included a bumper 15 singles wins . Her record still stands to day. The youngest player to win the Mens Singles title is shared between John Guntrip the 1935 champion and Chris Wells the 1971 winner They were 17 years of age at the time . On the Ladies side ,the youngest winner was Candy Tomsett ,a mere 15 when she was Ladies Singles champion in 1967. The oldest player to win a Club Title was Dick Tritton winner of the Mens Doubles in 1999 at the age of 74 .

The Clubs greatest success was when their Mens team won the First Division of Kent in both the Summer and Winter Leagues of 1956 . The team squad included Eddie Ford , Bert Pembro, Bobby Thorn, Ken Tomsett , Roy Rogers, Tom Wingfield, Cliff Hodson, and the Guntrip Brothers John and Geoff . Although this success has never been equalled, the Club has won to date (2008) 43 Kent Inter Club Titles and 34 North Kent Titles . Worth noting also is that a total of 28 Catford Wanderers players have won individual Kent Titles at Junior and Senior level between 1930 and 2008.

Catford Wanderers players who have played for Kent at either Senior or Junior level include Michele Tyler , Madge Alcorn , Emily Brimson, Sidney Brock, Patsy Ford, Debbie Morgan, Suzie Russell, Joanna Smith ,Beverley Davies, Jo Wright , Neil Donnelly , Eddie Ford , Geoff Guntrip, Cliff Hodson, Geoff Mountain, Bert Pembro, Ray Stephens, Bobby Thorn, Ron Wellard, Chris Wells Tom Wingfield , Jeff Wright,and Denis Costelloe. The following Wanderers players have competed in the Wimbledon Championships , Eddie and Patsy Ford , Sidney Brock, Michele Tyler , Chris Wells and Bobby Thorn .The Clubs most successful player was Michele Tyler who played for the victorious Great Britain Ladies team who beat the United States in the Wightman Cup at the Albert Hall in 1978 in a team that included Sue Barker and Virginia Wade . During her career Michele had victories over Pam Shriver ( 5-7 6-3 6-3 in that Wightman Cup success ) and a win over the legendary Billie Jean King . She also won the French Girls title in 1976 .

The youngest player to play in a Catford Mens team was Shakeel Daw . He was 11 when he played for Mens second team in 2006 . The youngest player on the Ladies side was Emily Brimson . Emily was only 9 years old when she played for Mixed seconds in 1996 . The oldest player to turn out for a Mens Team was Dick Tritton who played for Mens 2 at the age of 77 in 2002. However the oldest player to represent the clubat any level was Bert Green who played for the Over Sixties Team in 2006 at the age of 79

Catford Wanderers has also had it great Club administrators down the years . Ken Tomsett was Match Secretary from 1939 to 1961 , Harold (Bunny ) Lascelles holds the record of unbroken club membership from 1933 until his death in 1998 . But perhaps the greatest of them all was Barry ( Larry ) Logan who joined Catford in 1967 and served as Tennis Match Secretary for a record 32 years as well as combining this with Tennis Secretarys duties where he served another record 18 years . Of course Larry gave much much more to the Club , and he acted as Groundsman looking after the Grass courts , the Football pitches and the Cricket square . Dear old Larry passed away in 2008 and the bench in his memory inscribed “ Larry Logan a Catford Tennis Legend “ says it all

But back to the present , The club has three Mens Teams , Two Ladies teams , Two Mixed Teams , Two Mens Veterans Teams one Mid Week Mixed team and a Mens over Sixties and over Seventies team . Unfortunately we were unable to field Junior teams this year but we hope rectify this in 2009

Links

* [http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/16921.html Jack Martin career statistics and history]
* [http://www.catfordwanderers.co.uk Catford Wanderers Website]
* [http://www.catfordwanderers.com Catford Wanderers Website (WIP replacement of the orignal site)]