Old Gravesendians Cricket Club prepare to celebrate 95-year anniversary with hopes of a return to competitive action

The rebuild operation is well under way at Old Gravesendians Cricket Club.

Founded 95 years ago, the club hope to continue running their successful social team while also getting back to having a successful league side in the near future - as they had prior to the Covid pandemic.

“Most of the matches we are playing, the [other] teams are struggling to get players - but we are not,” said captain Andy Day.

“We are a friendly team that plays in the right spirit.

“It’s a lot better [playing friendlies at present]. Obviously, playing in a league, we would play teams that score 200 or 300-plus - but we only get up to 150 most of the time.

“I, personally, would like us to get a league team out. But it’s about having the numbers. At the moment, we have the numbers but I don’t think we would be ready to go into a league just yet.

“We have not scored enough.”

Old Gravesendians do have a healthy amount of people to choose from, though, with the team’s numbers bolstered by ex-rugby players.

Day said: “At the moment, we have about 32 people. Usually, only about 25 make themselves available regularly.

“But we have got a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old right up to a 55-year-old. So there’s quite a range but 90% are ex-rugby players - so cannot really last the full match!”

Old Gravesendians groundshare with Gravesend Rugby Club and will be holding a dinner and dance in October to mark their 95th anniversary.

“There’s only three clubs in the area, I believe. We are celebrating our 95th anniversary on October 1,” Day said.

“We are doing a dinner and dance, we don’t usually do them (end-of-season award nights) - we do an AGM and a fines night - but this will sort of be one.

“We recently got some nets and we are in the process of getting them