High Stables History

It all happened on a drunken New Years Eve 2005/2006. The original founders Gordon Poad and Nick Brereton decided the wonderful hamlet of High Stables needed something to bring the community together. Several options were discussed and eventually they agreed looking at the calibre and physic of the men in High Stables a cricket team would be a good idea.

Instead of the usual all talk and no action they progressed and invited all interested parties for a meeting at the Poads mansion. Everyone was keen and they agreed a practice session needed to be arranged. In earnest everyone began buying kit believing they were the new Freddie. EBay must have seen an increase in their profits.

The first practice session was arranged and was held at Consett. Obtaining the help of professional Anthony Patterson practice commenced.

It only took one practice session for them all to catch the bug and H.S.C.C was officially formed.

Weekly practice sessions commenced in earnest and the team were improving by the minute. An application to join to North East Mid Week Cricket League was discussed in April 2006 however, we were unsuccessful. We were given the opportunity to participate in the Cup which we willingly agreed to.

We continued practicing throughout 2006 and had our first ever match against Leadgate 2nd’s. This match was followed hastily by several friendly’s leading up to our first professional Cup match against Kibblesworth.

The Cup match was a very valuable experience which certainly helped the team see the calibre of people we were going to be playing against in the not to distant future.

Even though we were defeated we held our heads up high in the bar for after match drinks and vowing to improve and practise harder.

We were approached by Anthony Patterson who was at the time arranging a friendly cup competition in memory of Les Oliver (20/20 rules). We willingly agreed. The competition was held over 2 months and provided some valuable experience. We fought with our heads held high and managed to come away with a draw and three trophies for our hard work.

The friendly’s continued however, with the weather deteriorating we arranged to hold indoor sessions at Greencroft School which continued weekly until April 2007.