SOUTHAM HAVE ENJOYED UNPARALLELLED SUCCESS LOCALLY AT INDOOR CRICKET OVER THE PAST 25 YEARS. 8 times winners of the Leamington League on Sundays, and 3 times winners of the Banbury League, held on Tuesdays.
Maybe its because we don’t like getting cold, or is it that we only have six or seven decent players, whatever the reason, Southam have won more than their fair share of silverware at the indoor version of cricket. But looking through the teams put out for the majority of the time it was a nucleus of 8 or 9 players who formed the backbone of the success. Gary Shaw and Chris Bramley opened the batting, expecting at least one of them to get to 25 and retire, enabling the batsmen coming in to attack with more freedrom later in the innings. Pete Jones and Nick Clewes were regulars for their experience with bat and ball, as were Tony Inskip and Roger Walker. Backed up by the likes of Mark Angove and Steve Barratt Southam always managed to put out a formidable line-up and at Leamington won the cup competition on no less than 11 occasions.
Southam also got through to represent Warwickshire on 2 occasions, and in 1997 won through to the National Finals at Lords, whereupon two coachloads of supporters travelled down to London for the day. Unfortunately Southam lost out in the semi-final to the eventual winners, Pudsey, but although it would have been great to win, nothing spoilt the day of the travelling Southamites.
