SPORTING AMBRIDGE

CRICKET - VILLAGE CUP LATEST: SID PERKS REPORTS ON AMBRIDGE'S DRAMATIC WIN!

Like all English villages, sport has played an important part in Ambridge. In previous centuries, Candlemas Day (2 Feb) would be a traditional day for cockfighting. And in 2002, we were able to revive the traditional football match which until the early 1800s (when it was abandoned after an unfortunate fatality) was one of the ways in which Ambridge and nearby Darrington exercised their age-old rivalry. I can see no such revival in store for cockfighting, thank goodness!

Except for an occasional one-off match for charity, modern "Assocation" football has sadly gone into a decline since the glory days of 1976 when Ambridge Wanderers got through to the third round of the Crocker Memorial Shield Competition, with a memorable replay and one-nil victory over Jephcott at Borchester's floodlit ground.

But our young (and not-so-young!) men have continued to defend the honour of Ambridge with willow and leather, although sadly victories over Darrington continue to be something of a rarity. Since 1994 a regular fixture on what people of my age still think of as the Whit Monday Holiday is an annual Single Wicket competition for the Mark Hebden Memorial Trophy. My thanks to my brother Tony, above right, for the rules of this contest. Tony's son John (above, left) won this trophy three times before his tragic early death in a farm accident.

(Between father and son is Sid Perks, for many years team captain and now manager of the side - and our local publican!)