Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

112 Hotelier of Wootton Court adding a smoking room, children’s nurseries, new kitchens and a conservatory. ‘I haven’t counted the rooms yet,’ Mike was quoted as saying shortly after buying Wootton Court. He later found there were 35. At the time of Mike’s purchase many local people would still have fondly remembered the philanthropy of Francis Wright’s son, to whom Wootton Court passed. During the War Arthur FitzHerbert Wright welcomed those who had been bombed out of their homes in Coventry, always ready to offer succour and shelter to all who needed it. On his death in 1952 the property was acquired by Aubrey Jones, a Coventry builder, and it was he who later sold the house and five-acre garden to Mike, while retaining the surrounding agricultural land. As Mike and his family would be living on the premises at Wootton Court, he and Jack Bannister realised it would be difficult to devise a formula for a less-involved partner to be treated fairly, so the idea of partnership was ended amicably. Required to pay £45,000 for Wootton Court, Mike was buying much more than a site for a few squash courts, and it was as a country club and 13-bedroom hotel with a range of leisure facilities that he required finance. The family home backing onto the cricket ground in Leamington, for which Mike had paid £11,000 when moving from Lapworth, was sold for almost twice this sum, but there was still a balance to be found to meet the purchase price, while money was also needed for building the courts and making necessary alterations to the house. To Mike’s surprise his local bank manager was unimpressed by what he was proposing to do, and it needed his accountant to convince the manager of the merits of the business plan. The club soon flourished and paying the interest on the loan never presented any problems. Mike’s only regret is that he had not borrowed more and reaped the reward of retaining his previous home through the property boom. Mike and Diana moved into Wootton Court in July 1972. A daunting task lay ahead of them before the rambling mansion was ready to open its doors to members and guests. Their first priority was the hotel and restaurant, which were in operation at the formal opening on Boxing Day 1972. Within a month there was a solarium and sauna, soon to be followed by four squash courts, the first of ten that would eventually be built – all of them with just one Banbury element, the front wall. Four grass tennis courts were ready for play by the summer. Soon there was also a snooker room with three tables.