By Chris Ledger

As a wandering cricket club without a home ground or clubhouse, you could say we really depend on just three things, each helping to make KCC the fantastic club that we all love…  Firstly our members, and even if we have to say it ourselves, what a great bunch we are! Secondly the club ethos, hard to define in words, but understood and treasured by all. And last but certainly not least, the clubs we play against, who generously host us each week.

As all of us lucky enough to play for KCC know, we have a fantastic fixture list. On the one hand, we’re privileged to be hosted each year by clubs playing at some of London’s finest and most historic grounds, such as Vincent Square, Bank of England, Wimbledon, Richmond, Barnes, and the Honourable Artillery Company. And on the other hand, in the countryside around London, we enjoy rural bliss each summer at quintessential village cricket clubs like Dunsfold, Great Missenden Pelicans, Reigate Pilgrims, Tilford, and Warborough & Shillingford. We’ve played these and many other plum fixtures for decades, and long may they all continue…

One of the greatest pleasures of playing for KCC is the annual return to each of these cricketing Shangri-Las. What an unusual and special experience it is to build up relationships with our hosts at each of these clubs, year after year, visiting for just one day a year, tuning out for 364 days and then tuning back in again annually to revisit old jokes and memories. What else in life, apart from Kensington’s annual fixture list, so regularly and amiably measures out the march of time from youth to middle age, and for some of us far beyond?

Over the years there’ve been many remarkable cricketing exploits at all the grounds where we play, but after more than 30 happy years playing for KCC it’s the laughs on and off the field that linger longest in my memory, albeit rather hazily from all too often having had one too many in the pub or clubhouse after the game… Who can imagine any of the village grounds we play without their classic village pub just beyond the boundary? Cross fingers we’ll all have the chance to socialise in the bar after games even more than usual this season! And here’s hoping too for exciting, close results enjoyed by everyone – for if all 22 players in our games have fun, and want to play again next year, we’ll keep getting invited back 😀