The Summer Field

25 Making The Grades Stapenhill Cricket Club card for 1903, when ‘a few new members were enrolled and a successful season is anticipated’ as the local Burton Chronicle reported; are clubs before a season ever not optimistic?! Stapenhill’s fixture card for 1903 as filled in by E.W.Thornley, who made 45 runs all season, averaging 4.1 – as he recorded; a sign of how rough pitches were for batsmen.