Welcome to Chalgrave Sports Club
Introduction
The club is located in the parish of Chalgrave in South Bedfordshire - comprised of the villages of Tebworth, Wingfield and Chalgrave.
Cricket was played at Tebworth as early as 1910 although there was not a cricket club as such. Apparently, cricket used to be played on the field in Chalgrave Road next to the Vicarage. Teams were mainly from the Luton hat factories and used to arrive by horse and waggon! There was no break for tea, the game was played through to the finish when everyone would go round to The Queen's Head for food and drink.
A sports club has existed in the parish since the 1920's but dwindled in the late 1990's at which point the cricket club merged with another local team at Milton Bryan and the ground fell into disuse.
Reformed
The club was reformed in 1998 by a number of locals who were dismayed at the closure of the previous club. It was felt that there were many people in the parish and visitor's to The Plough in Wingfield who would like to continue to play cricket and a number of other sports. With this in mind we set about recovering the ground and reforming the club.
A large amount of effort was required just to get the sports ground playable once more after 18 months of disuse. Equipment needed to be purchased to cut the field, roll the cricket square and perform the other maintenance duties. Thanks to the efforts of many people the club reopened formally in 1999 and a number of matches were played in a 'Friendly League' against teams from local pubs - this league had been in existence prior to the demise of the former club. This league continues to this day and the club have just celebrated with their first 'festival of cricket' - a 10-10 competition (cut down from 20-20) - which was a great success.
Support
As a club we support the Chalgrave Village Games by providing sponsorship and holding a brief Kwik Cricket session to introduce youngsters in the parish to the game of cricket. We are also generously supported by the Chalgrave Parish Council.
