EVERY organisation will undergo a good deal of evolution during the course of half-a-century and Wormelow Cricket Club, who celebrate their 50th anniversary this year are no different.

It’s certainly a far cry from having to drive sheep off the outfield before a match to now playing on what is widely regarded as one of the finest playing surfaces in the county.

And it’s most definitely a far cry from changing in the back of a horse-box before matches to enjoying the facilities of an excellent purpose-built pavilion.

“We had lots of farmers involved in the early days and they helped us a lot with flattening out and preparing the outfield,” recalled founder member Dave Verry.

“We had people like Dennis Worthing, Dennis Williams and John and Tom Helme helping us out.

“There was a chap on one of those big old road rollers doing some work just outside the ground and we slipped him a couple of quid to come in and flatten the square for us.”

Verry, who has been a constant thread through much of the club’s history, took advice from former Racecourse groundsman Tom Wheatstone before setting about bring the club’s playing surface up to scratch.

He spent countless hours working on the ground as well as making a significant contribution on the field and providing, in his sons Duncan and Simon, two of the best players to have pulled on the club’s colours.

He picks out the time when the club was able to buy its Kennel Field ground back in 1982 as one of the most important times of the club’s 50 years.

“Two of our founder members, Handley Scudamore and David Beaumont, were able to play a significant part in the negotiations with the South Hereford Hunt, who owned the ground,” he recalled.

“But the lead figure in ensuring that we could buy the ground was our chairman at the time, Peter Lambert. He was brilliant.

“We bought the ground for £6,000 and then added another piece a few years later for £1,300 and it’s now such an asset.

“We would not have been able to do all the things we have done there without owning the ground.”

The major development on the Kennel Field site since buying the ground, has been to build the club’s current pavilion, which was opened by England legend Fred Trueman and constructed with the help of a substantial grant from Sport England.

In its early days, the club had changed in an old summer house provided by David Beaumont before this in turn had been succeeded by a former John Laing site hut – Verry, Mike Stayte, Ken Hook and Stewart Blyth had dismantled the sectional building, loaded it on to the back of an articulated lorry, which was driven back to Wormelow by another club member Roger Colcombe, before being reassembled.

When the club was founded, they played only friendly matches in those pre-league days.

During the 1970s, they played principally on Sundays before joining the Hereford and District League in 1979.

Progression was rapid and the club reached Division One of the competition in 1985 before then playing mostly in Division Two until they became founder members of the Marches League in 1992.

They then moved on to join the Worcestershire League in 2006 when the ECB pyramid system was brought in and have subsequently played mostly in Division Two where they sit comfortably in mid-table this season.

Youth development has provided a succession of talented players over the last 35 years and players who have represented four Minor Counties clubs, Herefordshire, Wiltshire, Cornwall and Norfolk have all turned out for the club.

And the focus on youth continues with youth practice nights on Wednesdays regularly seeing more than 70 young players being put through their paces by club coaches.

The club has a major dinner planned to celebrate their 50 years on September 19 at the Three Counties Hotel.

England batting coach and former Test player, as well as Strictly Come Dancing champion, Mark Ramprakash will be the guest speaker with tickets available through the club website.

Before that, on August 16, the annual Chairman’s Xl v President’s Xl match will provide a chance for past and present players to get together with all invited to the celebration.

The club are still trying to piece together their complete playing history but are missing scorebooks from 1965-7 and 1970.

Any clubs who played against Wormelow during those years and who still have their scorebooks are asked to email rtprime@btinternet.com with any details they may have.