Sandon Strollers Cricket Club was born in 1985 when Colin Atkins, Paul Morris, Steve Whittingham plus one other, met at the Bird in Hand in Gosmore to decide on an alternative to playing football. Prior to this the club had been ‘Herts Attack’ mixed football team. However age was catching us up so the decision was made to play something less energetic.

In the early days there were only a handful of members that had actually played cricket before and the standard was pretty low, but the concept was that the club should focus on the social aspect and less on the desire to win at all cost. Everybody took part; everybody bowled, anyone could choose to keep wicket and players could choose where in the order they would like to bat. Any match fees raised were used firstly to pay for the teas and then to be spent in the pub.

In the first few years The Strollers played all matches away, after all we were principally a wandering side. One of the first teams we played was Sandon CC when Ian Roberts was running it. We didn’t win a game for a number of years, but teams like Lilley CC kept playing us because no matter how heavily we were beaten we always socialised with the opposition after the game.

The connection with Sandon CC had started some years before, when Paul Morris, Danny McAndrew and Colin Atkins all played for Sandon CC. In the early years we only played 20 over evening games during the week and didn’t progress to weekend fixtures until we were 2 years old.

By 1990 our fixture list had expanded and had regular matches against the likes of Lilley, Weston, Hinxworth and of course Sandon. Then in 1991 Sandon CC folded and Andy Darton approached us. As we often hired the Roe Green pitch Andy asked if we would like to take over the ground so that the pitch did not disappear. After a few more years we assimilated into the sports club and became as we are now, Sandon Strollers.

Now in 2017, we are a tight group of friends from the surrounding villages. Fathers and sons of a variety of ages take to the wicket together and once each year, against each other in the Over 40 v’s Under 40 game in June.

We have a very supportive groundsman – David Green, who also coaches the colts on a Friday evening. If you’re new to the area and would like to give us a try, we would be delighted to see you and any young family members you may wish to get involved. Either email or turn up on at a home game – these start in June due to a high water table for our pitch.