by John Duffell (1995 – 2004)

Established players made a conscious decision to take more of a back seat with the general idea
being to encourage youth whilst lending experience when needed.
So it was that some relatively young players such as Keith and Martin Secrett had more
responsibility in the play whilst me, Greg Stevens, Keith Finch and Steve Perry continued to play
whilst slowly but surely giving way to the new blood.
Of the new blood some were directly related to existing members, Matt and Simon are Greg’s
sons and Leo Meggitt is his nephew. Brian Mullens is the nephew of then chairman, Hector
Mullens (and cousin of Mark). Paul Angelo is the son of Ken.
As I write in 2024 it is worth noting that Matt and Simon are still playing for us and have now
reached a stage in their careers that I had in 1994. So also is Jon jones who has his own
consultancy and recently (2022) took part in a record first wicket partnership of 213 with Jamie
Evans, both scoring centuries. It is a small adjunct that when the new record was set 49 years
after the previous record that Greg Stevens and I who played in that game were the standing
umpires when the new record was set.
Graham Charles played with us until 2015 but now works abroad in Europe and Brian Mullens is
now the Chief Financial Officer for the McDonalds Group based in Chicago, U.S.A.
At the 1996 AGM, treasurer Gary Willson reported that the Club was broke. We had a made a
loss of £70 which for the time being was covered by Gary personally. Our financial plan was not
built around so many young players paying reduced subscriptions and with our tenure at the
BECORP ground,Bellingham being terminated to enable the demolition of the clubhouse and a
new rebuild we had to consider our future.
Any other Club would have folded but the meeting resolved to find a way to continue. Led by
good argument from Brian Mullens it was agreed that we should proceed on a one day a week
basis. The marginal consensus was in favour of a Sunday friendly fixture list to nurture the
development of the younger players. Inevitably we lost some players who wanted to pursue a
career in League cricket but the decision of Brian, Gary and Matt O'Donoghue to support
friendly cricket was crucial to its success. Greg continued as Secretary and Gary as Treasurer.
Dean Johnson had a change of mind about playing League cricket but after only a handful of
games for us his job, a CID police officer, hampered his avilability and he gave up. Keith Secrett
managed to combine League cricket with Wye on Saturday with playing for us on Sundays. His
brother Martin did not return to the fold until 2000 and if a surprise choice for captain in 2002
proved adept at organising selection.

Through a business connection Greg heard of and negotiated facilities and pitches with new,
private owners of the old STC ground in Ivor Grove in Eltham for the 1997 season. We still had to
provide teas, as we had at Bellingham, and which always proved difficult, impinging on the
playing time. My daughter Suzi stepped in to help and was awarded the Jean Pearce trophy in
2001 and 2002.
Reverting to our 1994 Sunday eleven our overall results continued to improve and the batting
average of several players rose significantly as we had acquired some talented batsmen and in
the year 2000 a total of 2 centuries and 15 half centuries were recorded.
On the non playing side I must pay compliment to Matt Stevens who put in a lot of work to a
secure a new ground for us at the old Private Banks ground at Catford Bridge in 2004. I took
over as treasurer for five years from 2000 to 2004 and our financial position was greatly
improved and remains so this day.
If I may I do have a few purely cricketing memories to recall in this period; Leo Meggitt's 110 not
out in 2003, Brian Mullens 6-28 in Greenwich Park in 1998 and Graham Charles's catch off the
very last ball to win us a game at Ivor Grove.
I retired in 2004 but in 2013 I played a game at our present ground, Bromley Common. We lost
quite heavily but I did take a catch diving forward at mid-off and when I got up I saw umpire
Greg Stevens at square leg wheel away with a look of almost stunned disbelief.