Kenilworth Wardens: A heritage to be proud of

Those are the words spoken by Mike Sorrell, the former head groundsman at Kenilworth Wardens Cricket Club, who just so happens to be showing off an impressively hefty piece of clay that was dug up from the area surrounding the club’s current home at Glasshouse Lane.

Over the course of an engrossing couple of hours with Mike and club stalwart Malcolm Whitehall on a typically wet and windy day in February, there were a whole host of interesting topics brought up in conversation, many of which will be explored in greater detail in this article, but that particular selection of words towards the end of my afternoon in East Kenilworth really stuck with me.

Starting in the figurative sense, the geology of Kenilworth is absolutely fascinating; large swathes of the town sit on those aforementioned impermeable clay deposits, which led to a booming brickmaking industry in the Victorian era, and there’s also a rich layer of Permian Sandstone that was quarried locally and used to construct a number of the older buildings in the settlement, the most famous example of which is Kenilworth castle.

Then, of course, there’s the rich history of the town itself; from the great siege of 1266 – which led to the creation of the ‘Dictum of Kenilworth’- to the lavish royal visits of Elizabeth I in the 1500’s and the rapid rise of the horn comb industry in the mid-1800’s, the Warwickshire town has always been a place with a somewhat unique, and perhaps slightly underappreciated, sense of local identity.

There’s one aspect of this identity however that often goes under the radar; the town’s intrinsic connection to sport.

Admittedly, you won’t find a globally-recognised organisation the size of Aston Villa or Birmingham City nestled within this quaint and quiet part of the county, but there’s a strong sporting culture present nonetheless, with the rugby club, tennis club and golf club all presenting many an avenue for the local residents to enjoy in their down time.

Most importantly for us as fans of the greatest game ever invented though, the town’s also home to two amazing club cricket teams; Kenilworth CC, located on the Warwick Road, and the subject of today’s piece, Kenilworth Wardens.

Whilst I’ve never actually represented Wardens in a playing capacity - and for their sake I think it’s best that I don’t even try at this point - I’ve still spent many an hour at Glasshouse Lane over the past couple of years watching the 1st and 2nd XI in action, and even played against their 4th XI in my final game in the Cotswold Hills League for Rowington in 2022.

One question I always pondered from afar however was the origin of their name; why on earth would a club from Kenilworth be called the ‘Wardens’?

Well, as it turns out, the answer to that question was actually in plain sight.

You see, in 1942, during the height of the Second World War, a number of personnel from Air Raid Precautions (ARP) Post 12 on the High Street, along with members of the St John’s First Aid Post  – many of whom had had been playing irregular matches against the other local Civil Defence sections and Armed Forces units at Kenilworth CC as early as 1940 - decided to form a club of their own.

Whilst on civic duty, those who volunteered at ARP Post 12, wearing their instantly recognisable dark blue uniforms and protective steel helmets marked with a capital ‘W’, were known as the air raid wardens, hence the origin of the name.

During those formative months, and in the immediate years after the end of the war for that matter, Wardens existed as a nomadic side, traversing between grounds at Kenilworth Tennis Club and Kenilworth Rugby Club who kindly offered the use of their facilities at various points, as well as Newfield Farm, a patch of land located between Windy Arbour and Glasshouse Lane which helped keep the club going until a permanent home could be established at Leyes Lane in 1949.

Among those who were absolutely instrumental in achieving this major milestone for the club were Hector Makepeace - one of the original founders from ARP Post 12 - and a gentleman by the name of Bill Harwood, a hard-hitting all-rounder who not only captained the side upon his arrival from Villiers Hill, but also helped them maintain the quality of the playing surface at their newly acquired ground for a number of years to come.

Whilst Leyes Lane may not have the most luxurious venue in Warwickshire at that point, after all, it was a farmer’s field with a converted cowshed as a clubhouse and a tearoom with a false ceiling, the wandering Wardens, who had regularly been on the move for their opening six seasons, finally had a place to call their own.

From these humble beginnings, the club slowly began to lay the foundations for a bright and promising future, with ramshackle sight screens, toilet facilities, a rudimentary car park and basic seating all being added to the Leyes Lane site in the years that would follow.

Then, in the months leading up to the 1956 season, the committee proposed that the club should adopt a new badge, along with fresh club colours, to give them an even greater sense of identity and belonging on the rapidly-evolving local circuit.

The design that was ultimately chosen, formed upon a dark blue and gold background to represent the local civil defence units in the area, featured a powerful image of an eagle carrying away a bomb in its talons, a striking symbol that persists as the club’s emblem even in the modern day.

In another nice nod to their roots, this time during the opening of the new clubhouse at Leyes Lane in 1959, the aforementioned Makepeace presented his peers with a gold lettered, black painted board inscribed with the words, ‘Wardens Post No. 12’.

Just like the badge, that very board, the original one which once hung outside of ARP Post 12 on Kenilworth High Street during the Second World War, is still displayed prominently by the club all these years later, a fitting homage to those brave volunteers who went above and beyond to help protect their local community from the horrors of the Blitz.

If that isn’t a heritage to be proud of, then I’m not quite sure what else is.

Upon the culmination of the 1950’s, the following decades would see the once makeshift Wardens grow exponentially.

The now sadly defunct women’s hockey section – founded ahead of the 1959-60 season – continued to attract players and produced strong results on the field for good measure, whilst the rapidly expanding social side of the club saw the continued presence of a darts team as well as the creation of an ad-hoc football side, although it’s worth noting that an official football section wouldn’t be added to the Wardens’ sporting arsenal until 1985.

There were also a number of advancements taking place in a cricketing capacity.

The 1960’s, for example, saw the very first tour to Dorset take place as well as the creation of a second playing square in order to satisfy increased demand, whilst the 1970’s gave rise to the first Kenilworth Wardens youth team – also known as the Colts - as well as the club’s first ever international fixture, a 1979 ICC Trophy match between Fiji and Malaysia.

Unfortunately, on that occasion, the rainfall was absolutely relentless in its nature, and the match was abandoned without a single ball being bowled as a result, but the weather was thankfully more favourable just three years later in 1982 when Leyes Lane played host to the ICC Trophy match between Papua New Guinea and Canada, a high-scoring contest that was ultimately won by the Barramundis of PNG.

At this point, during the height of the mid-1980’s, all appeared to be going well at the club. The cricket team had recently entered the Central Warwickshire League, the newly formed football section was bringing in a healthy number of players and the women’s hockey side had tasted success in the John Joyce Cup, lifting the trophy itself in 1985.

From an outsider’s perspective, everything seemed to be falling very nicely into place.

Off the field however, change was coming, and it was coming very quickly indeed...