Sports and Past-times

The areas sporting history was recorded in the local newspaper Croydon’s Weekly Standard, established in 1859, it later became The Bucks Standard from July 1887. It included reports of sporting fixtures about cricket, football under rugby rules, cycling, fishing and athletics. These sporting activities were only undertaken by men and boys.

To date, no official records have been found regarding the existence of an official E & H Roberts Ironworks Sports Club, but there are certainly several photos, medals and news reports of Ironworks teams for football, athletics, cricket and fishing.

Several different fields around the village were used as sporting venues; fields behind the demolished Georgian Bridge Farmhouse (the later site of Brayfield’s Farm) at the corner of High Street and Hayes Road. Manor Farm stewards The Green and Cricket Field adjacent to the old farmhouse, under a 1772 Act of Parliament, that is still active today, confers these two areas to be maintained for use by the people of the parish and cannot be fenced in.

The earliest Deanshanger cricket match reports appear in the 1860s and rugby football in the first half of the 1880s; during this period remarkably rugby match reports are featured more than those about association football. Several Deanshanger men (A Wootton, W Foddy, E Canvin, Ridgway and Roberts amongst them) played for the village rugby team and also turned out regularly for Stony Stratford teams. Rugby was still being played in Stony Stratford up to the outbreak of the Second World War, but by this time association football and cricket dominated the village sporting scene. Much of the sport, especially Cricket, appears to have been played on the Cricket Field up to the late 1950s, which remains to this day a public open space. Reports about the Deanshanger Angling Club show competitions were held in local rivers and the canal.

Early athletic 'sports days' regularly occurred on Whitsun Bank Holiday Monday, but many spring and summer celebratory community events held in the village included a sports day, e.g. the annual anniversary of the dedication of Holy Trinity Church, held a sporting programme after a church service. Sports days generally included community teas for all ages and the athletic programme involved running on a marked track on The Green and around the village streets as well as Sack Races, Tug of War and Cycling Races. Prizes for sports winners would often be domestic items or services donated by local shops rather than medals and rosettes. The event was then usually rounded off by a dance which went on late into the evening with many including a firework display finale.

A 'sports day' accompanied village celebrations when the tolls on the approach roads to Deanshanger were abolished in 1878.

Mr & Mrs Rupert Ridgway purchased an orchard off Folly Road in 1948 with the purpose of selling it to the village for creation of a sports and playing field. Subsequently the Deanshanger Sports & Playing Field Association (DSPFA) was formed to establish a sport and leisure facility for and on behalf of the people of Deanshanger. In 1952 the Minister of Education awarded a 60% grant to the DSPFA for the layout costs and purchase of land from Mr & Mrs Ridgway, the rest of the money had to be met by public funds. Weekly tote contributions were collected door-to-door from villagers and many events and activities organised to raise funds.

All Deanshanger sporting clubs came together under a working agreement whereby each retained a separate identity, but adopted a “Common Entertainment Policy” where their social and sporting functions were organised in order to raise funds for the project.

Consequently, during the 1950s Deanshanger became a famous weekly ’dance hotspot’ for the district. People came from far and wide to dance to music provided by live bands at events, hosted by the various sporting groups, held in the Memorial Hall or Conservative Club. Sporting events were also staged to raise funds such as open-air Boxing Tournaments and subscriptions and donations were collected at football games. Villagers also raised money through various activities over the years holding Whist Drives, jumble sales, fetes, coffee mornings and cake stalls.

In 1962 plans were put forward at a public meeting for a purpose-built sports pavilion that would cost £3000. There was some debate as to whether both the Cricket Club which had its’ own pavilion, a former railway carriage, and the Football Club would support the project and where the funding would come from. The hurdles were overcome and a new pavilion was finally built for £4000 and opened in 1966 with a tennis court, clubhouse, changing-room, public toilets and children’s playground corner. In order to cope with the demand of needs and uses of the ground, notably the overlapping period from Cricket to Football season the far field was and still is leased from the Merchant Venturers Company.

Money was again raised to build a £7000 extension to the pavilion, doubling its size to include two separate changing rooms which was opened in 1974. The Cricket Club provided the curtains and furniture for the project.

Another revamp occurred in the 1980s that enlarged the bar area, changing rooms and provided a separate meeting room to the building.

Cricket

There is a long history of the ‘noble game’ in the village. The earliest local newspaper Croydon’s Weekly Standard has Deanshanger cricket match reports appearing in the 1860s. Matches were played on the Cricket Field adjacent to Manor Farm.

Cricket became controversial and the subject of a legal battle when John Clarke, then owner of Manor Farm, in 1815 defied the 1772 Act of Parliament forbidding the fencing in of the The Green and Cricket Field. However keen cricketers who included Lord Charles Fitzroy of Wicken, Dr Hey, and Reverend Loraine Loraine Smith pulled the fences down and deliberately played a game whilst two Solicitors rode around on horseback recording the event. In 1836 John Clarke brought six men before the Stony Stratford Magistrates Court for removing the fences and playing cricket on his land, unfortunately for John Clarke the Revd Loraine Smith was one of the magistrates and saw that the case was dismissed. News regarding the result of the case brought over 70 villagers out to play yet another game which continued well into the night!

Over the years the Cricket pavilions have been notable buildings providing a clubhouse and changing room facility. Originally a corrugated tin and wood structure was erected in the Cricket Field; this was later replaced by an old wooden Wolverton Works railway carriage.

When the sports and playing field was purchased for the village the original pavilion was another ex Wolverton railway works carriage, which in former times was reputed to have been used by Winston Churchill.
As part of a cricketing community programme Northamptonshire County Cricket Club held matches at local club grounds playing against village teams. On several occasions County sides with some first eleven players played at Deanshanger as part of a promotional exercise or events such as player’s Benefit Matches.

The Deanshanger Cricket Club finally closed due to lack of support

Rugby Football

Rugby Football match reports in the local newspaper appear in the 1880s long before Football Association match reports. Rugby was played under different rules than today’s game with different scoring methods of rouges, tries, touchdowns and goals. Several Deanshanger men A Wootton, W Foddy, E Canvin, Mr Ridgway and Mr Roberts amongst them played for the village rugby team and also turned out regularly for Stony Stratford teams. Rugby was still being played in Stony Stratford up to the outbreak of the Second World War, but by this time association football and cricket dominated the village sporting scene.

Athletics
Early athletics events in the village were focused around 'sports days' held annually on a Whitsun Bank Holiday Monday, but athletics events were also held as part of major celebration events. For example, the annual anniversary of the dedication of Holy Trinity Church held a sporting programme that followed the church service, and a sports day accompanied the village celebrations when the tolls on the approach roads to Deanshanger were abolished in ????

The sports days generally included community teas for all, an athletic programme on a marked track on The Green and around the village streets. Events also included Sack Races, Tug of War and Cycling Races. Winners prizes would often be domestic items or services donated by local shops rather than medals and rosettes. The day was usually rounded off by a dance which went on late into the evening, with an occasional finale of a firework display.

In 1932 the new Deanshanger School Headmaster, Mr Taylor Brown, introduced fitness and sports classes to the curriculum, resulting in the school producing a strong athletics team and several school county championship athletes over the years.

To date the village’s most successful athlete on the international stage was Dorothy Scouler, granddaughter of William Panter, who was raised by the family at Bridge Farm (now the site of The Beeches). Dorothy was one of 100 competitors in the 1926 Women’s World Games (the Women’s Olympics of the day) held 27th-29th August at Slottskogsvallen Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden. The tournament, the second of what was to become an annual event was originally organised in response to the International Olympics Committee’s refusal to include several women’s sports in the 1924 Olympic Games.

Dorothy’s appearance at the Games was not without its own controversy. When selected for the Great Britain Team Relay Squad her Grandfather insisted that she had to be chaperoned by her aunt as she was only 16. Initially the authorities said her aunt would have to pay her own travel and expenses, but relented when William Panter refused to let Dorothy go as the family could not afford the expense. The 4 x 110yards relay team with Dorothy as 'lead-off' won the Bronze medal.

Deanshanger Football Club
The playing of Association Football in the village dates back to the late 19th century and it was not until the village purchased the ‘Sports and Playing Field’ off Folly Road that the Club had a permanent home venue, previously having played on various different village fields in the past.
Several teams have come and gone, including those established for Saturday and Sunday league matches and organisation teams such as the Deanshanger and Wicken Branch of the British Legion.

Deanshanger Athletic FC

Deanshanger Athletic Football Club was founded in 1946 and is affiliated to the Northampton FA, the Club played in the United Counties League and the North Bucks and District League which it has won 9 times.

It most notably enjoyed a decade of continued success throughout the 1950s under the Secretary-ship of Douglas Foddy the club honours included winning: The Wolverton Cup, The Stantonbury Cup, The Towcester Cup and the North Bucks League Division 1, seven times and runners up twice in ten years. Over two thousand people watched the final of the Northants Junior Cup matches and over two thousand watched the Towcester Cup match held at Towcester.

At the same time the Club had a thriving minor team of players 18 years old and under. In 1954 Les Roberts became Secretary and the following year they became runners up in the Northants Junior Cup and won it outright in 1956. Les along with Mr Connors, a Deanshanger Primary School teacher, organised a team trip to Germany in 1958, where they played two games. One versus Gemund and the other against Lammersdorff - the results were a one all draw at Gemund and at Lammersdorff they played on a hard surface pitch, never seen by the Deanshanger lads before, and won 1-2.

However the Club went through a difficult period during the early 1960s due to lack of support. An Extraordinary General Meeting was called to discuss its future on 7th July 1961. Eventually at the meeting the Club was saved when men offered to become club officials under the Chair of Mr Higgs. Mr H W Sykes of the Northampton FA attending the meeting commented Deanshanger was notable for its remarkable friendliness and “the flag of football must be kept flying”.

1962 saw the Club once again under threat when at its AGM, attended by only 20 people (even most players had not turned up) the then Chairman reported the Club had dropped from fielding three teams to only one in the last 3 seasons and that it was only the proceeds from the bingo that was keeping the Club afloat. Having finally withdrawn from the North Bucks League the season before, the Club, at its 1963 AGM, were unable to appoint a Committee thus finally elected to disband. The remaining funds of over £36 were put into a trust after having paid the league’s hefty fine of £42 2shillings. The outgoing President Alderman Rupert Ridgway called the fines ‘barbarous’ on a village club “When a club is in trouble it wants helping, not kicking when it is down.”.

There was a successful Deanshanger Athletic FC Youth team in the 1950s and a Deanshanger Minors team was formed under the auspices of the Youth Club during the 1960s. The Deanshanger Athletic Club name was being used again during a resurgence period when the team were winning trophies during the early 1970s. Its youth section, now called the Deanshanger Colts was active in 1989, but DVHS has found no record of when the Colts were founded. Today there is a very strong programme ranging across the youth age groups of male, mixed and female teams.

Recently the Deanshanger Ladies football team playing in the Northamptonshire Women’s League, Division 2 became its 2017-18 champions.

The modern era has seen the Deanshanger Athletic FC win the League and Cup doubles in consecutive seasons 2000-1 and 2001-2 and was North Bucks & District League, Intermediate Division champions in 2013-14

Honours Table
United Counties League Division Three
Winners: 1970-71, 1971–72

North Bucks & District League Division One/Prem
Winners: 1950-51, 1951–52, 1952–53, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1959–60, 2001–02, 2002–03,

North Bucks & District League Intermediate Division
Winners: 2013-14

Northamptonshire Women's & Girls Football League Winners
Winners: 2017-18

North Bucks & District League Premier Division Cup
2 x Winners: 2000-01, 2001–02

Northamptonshire Junior Cup Winners
Winners 1955-56

Northamptonshire Lower Junior Cup Winners
Winners: 1982-83

Deanshanger Tennis Club

Prior to the building of the Sports and Playing Field Association court there were no public courts in the village and so the club played on privately owned courts. Lodore, built in 1904, had a grass tennis court built in the grounds.

The Deanshanger Tennis Club was founded in 1927 with Mr T Foddy, its Honorary Secretary. The Committee appealed to local businesses for support and garnered several Club trophies, some of which are on display in the Sports and Social Club today.

Angling

Angling has long been a popular recreational activity and competition sport, in part due to the proximity of the River Ouse at Passenham and the Buckingham Arm of the Grand Junction (Union) Canal that ran through the centre of the village. Match reports on fishing competitions have been regularly reported in the local press over the decades.

In the 1940s the Deanshanger and Old Stratford Angling Association negotiated the purchase of ‘Fishing Rights’ on the river Great Ouse with the Hovering Sand and Gravel Extractors who had been undertaking extraction work from the fields leading off the Bridal Path from the then Buckingham Road.

Bowls and Skittles

There has never been an outdoor bowling green in the village so those interested in the sport travelled to Stony Stratford and Wolverton Clubs, but indoor bowls has been played here.
The village has produced some accomplished players, male and female, in both the outdoor and indoor game some playing at County and Regional levels.
Steve Chaytor, of Ridgmont, won the national Open Bowls Tournament Eastbourne Gold Challenge Cup at his ninth attempt in 1981, beating his opponent by two shots 21-19. Steve was a member of the Wolverton Town Bowls Club at the time and had been bowling for eleven years.

Short Mat Bowls

Several indoors bowls clubs have come and gone in the village, but the sport does still continue today being played at the Memorial Community Centre. Like many sports clubs the Bowls club has had a thriving social scene.
The Deanshanger Short Mat Bowls Club was founded by Herbie Curry and his daughter Jane Duncan in 1987 with the help of Comsport. Comsport was a national organisation set up to revitalise village halls and bring communities together through sport.
The Club is one of many spread throughout the county and competes in the Northamptonshire County League. The sport is open to all ages; Deanshanger’s members have ranged from 13-70. The Club has been very successful in the League and produced several players selected for County Teams over the years
Short Mat Bowls is still played in the Deanshanger Memorial Community Centre so contact them if you’re interested in having a go.

Skittles

The then tenants of The Beehive, Lionel Sapwell, and Leslie Roberts of the Woodman Arms joined with other pub landlords from the local district to form the South Northants and North Bucks Skittle League in 1956. A league that became very successful. Teams played each other at Home and Away for league points and the League also organised Knockout tournaments.

Cycling

Deanshanger forms part of the National Cycling Route No ? which runs along Stratford Road, High Street, Little London and Folly Road the reason for the many groups of cyclists that can regularly be seen in the village.
Cycling became a popular recreational past time in the village with the invention of the Safety Bicycle in 1885. Harry S Roberts set up a cycle manufacturing business in Church Lane (see Local Trades) which undoubtedly promoted the use of bicycles in the village.

Cycle races were often reported in the local press as forming part of village Sports Days when cyclists would race around a pre-determined circuit using the village roads and tracks.

Grass Track Speedway Racing

The Moonrakers were Deanshanger’s Grass Track Cycling Club during the 1950s. Young boys competed against other grass track cycling clubs from the local surrounding villages in the North Bucks Amateur Speedway League. Other local teams included the Yardley Aces, Wicken Wizards and Milton Stars.
In a competition won by the Yardley Gobion team which formed part of Wicken Bank Holiday Fete in August 1952, the Moonraker team were R Price, B Cameron, B Barby, G Varney, R Varney and A Lelliott.

Deanshanger School Cycling Club

An article from the Deanshanger School Magazine reports that its School Cycling Club was one of the School’s ‘Good’ clubs and had strict rules for its members.

Women’s Cycle Tour 2018

14th June 2018 saw Deanshanger play its part in Stage 2 of the Women’s Ovo Energy Cycle Tour of Great Britain. Crowds gathered to watch and cheer on the women cyclists’ race through the village along Stratford Road, High Street, Little London, out through Folly Road and on towards Salcey Forest.

Darts

With seven pubs and clubs within the village, Deanshanger established its own Competition Darts League and many of the pubs also competed in the local North Bucks leagues. During the 1950s and early 1960s the teams were mostly male. However Deanshanger ladies teams began to play in the leagues during the 1970s. The Fox and Hounds Ladies Darts team went on to win the North Bucks league in 1979, having only lost 3 matches all season and were clear winners

BOXING

It was during the early 1950s that the Deanshanger Amateur Boxing Club was formed under Coach Mr L Sapwell where many local boys improved their fitness and learnt their craft. It is not known where the boys trained but most probably the Memorial Hall. Competition bouts were organised against mainly local clubs.

The Club, even though in its infancy, had the only portable boxing ring in the county, it was well-used for competitions and demonstration matches and used by several internationally and nationally famous boxers, notably, at one time in Bedford, by Randolph Turpin the World Middleweight Champion of 1951 who had beaten Sugar Ray Robinson to win the title.

The Deanshanger Playing Fields Association joined with the Boxing Club to organise tournaments in the village to raise funds for the playing field. Summer tournaments were held outdoors generally in the school playing fields where large crowds were reported some as large as 500 people. Tournaments were arranged in other larger local venues such as The Empire, a cinema in Wolverton.

Members of the club listed in match reports of 1952 include Ted Eburn, T Smith, D Varney,
R Mayling, R Smith and A Pratt.

“The highlight of the evening was between two Deanshanger boys R Smith and A Pratt both weighing 3st 7lbs who fought three 1 minute rounds with determination and spirit that greatly amused the spectators.”
Extract from the Wolverton Express, 4th July 1952 report on a Deanshanger boxing tournament

Sports and Past-times

The Sports and Playing Field Association