Thanks for the Memories

Thanks for the Memories: The Story of Hockley Heath Cricket Club 1874-2024 tells the heartwarming history and deep connection between a cricket club and its community.

Hockley Heath Cricket Club may not currently compete in league cricket, but the village side, based at Grove Lane, is very much alive, and now its extraordinary 150-year story is preserved in a lovingly researched new book.

The club's revival, after a period when it appeared to have folded for good, is itself a tale of community spirit. And this book, packed with over 300 photographs and 272 A4 pages of vivid storytelling, is both a testament to the club's rich past and a celebration of its hopeful future.

The author, Dave Bullivant, has poured decades of passion and knowledge into the work. A true local, Dave grew up in Hockley Heath, attended the village Junior School, and first donned the whites for the cricket team sixty years ago. Since then, he's done it all: batsman, short-leg fielder, fixture secretary, Club captain, and ultimately, President.

Bullivant's deep ties to the club give him rare insight. "That means he rubbed shoulders with people who had played in the team 50 years before that,"the book notes, allowing him to weave together generations of anecdotes, traditions, and transformations in the life of the village.

Though the book is, at heart, the story of a village cricket club, it's much more than that. As Bullivant himself makes clear, this is also a social history -- a window into village life from 1874 to today. The book takes readers down forgotten by-ways and introduces them to "heroes and villains, teas, tears and beers, and even more beers."

"This is a celebration of the skill, companionship, fun and frustrations of playing village cricket," Bullivant writes. "It captures the colourful characters and the often life-long relationships that have flourished at Hockley Heath Cricket Club for 150 years."

The attention to detail, from pinpointing long-lost home grounds to compiling stats and reliving match-day highs and lows -- makes the book a treasure trove for cricket lovers and local historians alike.

Book details
Forewords by M.J.K. Smith and Dermot Reeve.
Soft cover, size A4, 270 pages and over 300 photographs. It retails at £25 plus £5 p&p with all profits going to the club.
Available from Dave Bullivant. Email contact: thebullivants@outlook.com

Resonating Far Beyond Warwickshire -Praise for Thanks For The Memories has come from far and wide.

Phil Dawes, a club member who has played cricket around the world, added: "Of all the clubs I have played for, Hockley Heath is the one dearest to my heart. Dave's book tells a great story of 150 years of village life, both on and off the cricket field. It will surely resonate with those living in Hockley Heath today."

Even larger, more prominent clubs may cast an admiring eye on what this small but spirited club has achieved -- both in enduring for 150 years and in producing such a landmark book to celebrate that legacy."

"This lovely book from David Bullivant and Terry Wright is a treasure. It should also be a template for every village cricket club to similarly record its own rich tapestry of adventures and characters."
Brian Halford – ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) Network Reporter, a Freelance Sports Journalist and Author.

"There will be a lot of very envious Cricket Clubs when they see this publication."
Ged Scott (BBC Sports Journalist and Broadcaster)

"I think it looks great, has definitely got the wow! Factor.and reads amazing. I've done quite a few club and league histories over the years and, for many reasons, this is the best I've done."
Andy Searle (published author and typesetter)

"This lavishly illustrated A4 paperback is an account of the Warwickshire village cricket club of Hockley Heath, between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon, from its origins in the 1870s to its new incarnation in the 2020s.

The early years of the club are shrouded in obscurity, but the first known reference to a match played in the village is in 1874, and hence the book fittingly celebrates 150 years of cricket in the village.

With numerous team photos, dating back to around 1921, decade-by-decade accounts of the team's fortunes, and pen portraits of many key players, this is an affectionate, comprehensive and – reflecting the involvement of Max Books – well-produced history of the club.

Highlights include some stirring performances in the early years of the Haig National Village Cricket Championship, when the club were Warwickshire champions in 1973. But perhaps the most encouraging part is the reform of the club in 2020, of all years, after its demise in 2007. At a time when cricket clubs are often struggling, this reversal of the trend is immensely pleasing to record."
Richard Lawrence – Association of Cricket Statisticians & Historians.