The history of the VCC

In 1982 a deal was struck with Michael Hopkins (now Sir Michael Hopkins) that if Chris won any money in an Architectural Competition he wanted to do in the firms name then some of the money could be spent to form an office cricket team.

The entry came second and won £2,000 and about £500 was spent on kit and booking pitches on Wednesday evenings in Regents Park.

The first “ringer” in the office team was Richard Baldwin then an earnest aspiring handsome young Quantity Surveyor with a passion for all things architectural and a beat up Hillman
Avenger. Other teams of Architects were the opponents and Hopkins team included Nigel Stock, Nic Bewick now a top Architect in Milan, Jim Eyre now OBE for services to Architecture, Ian Sharratt one of the most successful Architects in England, Robin Snell who designed the recently shelved Fulham Football Stadium, Peter Romanuik now married to Paula Prike, Florists to the Queen and Elton John.

During the second season,one by one the Architects dropped away and Martin Stockman, who had moved in to the flat below Chris in Belsize Park, started to play regularly and introduced David Hooper, Jeff Walkden, Martin Oaksmonger, and Phil Sharkey. Collectively known as “The Radlett” .They graced the team with tales of shared girlfriends, wanton mayhem at the Radlett War Memorial and pissing in honest folk’s milk bottles,. Richard meanwhile introduced Gary Ward, Julian Farino and Sabo collectively known as “The Croydon Jazz Funk” with tales of listening to Robbie Vincent and little else.

By now Chris was only known as Skip and organising weekend matches at far away places like Cambridge, Heyshott, Staplefield, Laxfield, anywhere with a decent pub and a crap cricket team. The regular meeting place after midweek matches was “The Village Curry Centre” in Belsize Village and as there was only one Architect playing regularly the VCC was born and an amazing cricket team has evolved. Tim Graham (the Saint) joined the team and for a while we became the best dressed cricketers in North London.

Under Saints guidance, the VCC has had numerous media coups both individually and collectively. The finest hour was Stocky’s “48 hours 48 thrills- Diary of a Weekend” expose in the Evening Standard closely followed by the teams appearance on the unforgettable Saturday morning tv slot No73 to publicise a 48 hour cricket marathon to raise money for Charity. The event on Parliament Hill raised over £5,000 for Charity but almost split the team when Sharkey delivered his immortal line “Charity begins at home and that’s where I’m going”. Sadly that’s also where he’s stayed.

After a search for a President which included letters and fantastic replies from Michael Palin, David Attenborough and Harold Pinter, Ken Livingstone then Leader of the GLC kindly agreed although he has been singularly uninterested in us or our activities throughout his long tenure.
Regents Park was abandoned because of the bad pitches, dangerous to batsmen facing Phil Sharkey or Gary Ward and the VCC became a wandering side. The first overseas tour was to Ireland where we played Waterford, Wexford, Arklow and Trinity College Masters. Over the years we have become more adventurous with tours to Malta, Italy, Paris, Barbados, and Capetown in 2004 which has seen us twinned with the Township team of Nyanga.

The fortunes of the side have fluctuated as players have moved away, got married, had children etc. but remarkably the majority of the team from 1984 is still intact. Recently the Club has gone from strength to strength. This is particularly due to the new sponsor Mr J Savitt (Lord Ozone) with a huge injection of private wealth and the 2003 captain Aamer Mughall and his globetrotting brother Atif. Don Ewing is a fantastic fixtures secretary and constantly refreshes the fixture list to add some of the prettiest villages in England. The newer members have regalvanised the side and also introduced new and better standard of players. 20 years on I find it quite amazing and a constant source of great pleasure.

The vcc are always looking for new players
If you think you would like to join us email ozmax.net@boltblue.com