Personnel - Adrian Barrett (T); Duncan Barrett; G. Chapman; Neil Cooper; Dave Evans; Neil Fox (W); Steve Hardy (C); Adrian Lamberth; Chris Lyons; Mike Marsden; Robbie Phillips; Andy Thompson; Richard Thompson; Hoard Turner (S); Clive Winter (W)

    This season, Andy Thompson's younger brother Richard joined the team. A quality batsman in the making, Richard was also developing a nice line in spin and turned in some good performances during his time with the club.

    Though we try before almost every match to guess the result - often in a pessimistic fashion - the truth is you never can tell. Take the first match of the season in 1988. Over the years that we played Isleworth Village, we found them to be generally quite a good side, but the results could be unpredictable. To start the season with a win is one thing, but a ten-wicket win was virtually unheard of, and is today for us! Quickly brought down to earth by the second game the rest of the season followed a broadly similar familiar pattern to 1987.

    Prize thrashings were dealt out in spectacular fashion by two clubs this season. The best dual-drubbing was courtesy of Fairlands from near Guildford. If the first meeting at home was disappointing, the return game at their ground was disastrous. 200 or more was the score to aim for on their small but pleasant ground which featured trees and a stream on two sides of the fairly short boundary. A damp ball from yet another firmly-belted four into the stream would be sufficient to dampen our bowlers spirits too, as any shine - critical in the second innings - and consequent swing would swiftly be no more. No-one likes bowling with a heavy sponge.

    Thorpe was a decent club from the Staines area who also 'did a job' to us on both occasions we met. First was the previously mentioned second game of the season where we received a 6-wicket beating. We had them over to our ground for the season finale, but to little home advantage - we were beaten by an eight- wicket margin this time, not an ideal way to round off the playing year.

    While one of our regular annual fixtures was against the local Gordon Boys School (in a controversial move, it later re-aligned itself to allow girls in too), this season saw the first in a series of annual games against a team made up of local-resident school leavers. Some of the youngsters were good players during their time at the school, and this shows up in the first game result on 7th August where we were fairly well routed.

    One of the most (if not THE most) remarkable games in our modern era took place on 4th September at Isleworth Village's ground near Hounslow. We batted first and succumbed to a mixture of decent bowling and thrown away wickets as we crawled our way to a staggering 26 all out. A pathetic total by any standards but for us a disaster and a huge effort was going to be needed to make anything respectable out of that. A canny bunch, the home team put their junior player in to open the bat, maybe to inhibit our bowlers. However we had steeled ourselves and Adrian Barrett clean bowled him second ball of the innings. The next man came in and was duly dispatched a couple of deliveries later. Suddenly, an air of mild panic enveloped the batting side as the Barrett brothers charged in from either end, giving next to nothing away. The odd single brought pained expressions but also increased our determination.

    Another wicket, then another, stumps went flying and all catches holding, then disaster. A shot from one of their lower order batsmen beat point and crept over the boundary for four, bringing cheers and shouts from the home team and supporters. Now, only a handful of runs stood in their path to victory. For us, we still needed to take those last couple of critical wickets to have a hope of achieving what would be one of the greatest fightbacks of all time. The match as far from over. Isleworth Village's last man was dispatched with the score halted on just 22, with and a result that has gone into legend. It was one hell of a game which is likely never to be equalled. To cap the slight absurdity of a game finishing well before tea a beer match quickly followed where both sides topped the hundred! Both 1991 fixtures saw West End beaten by a margin topping 100 and although continuing with this fixture Isleworth Village, after which we never met again.

    The only result of the season not actually recorded (that we know of anyway) was the Charity Match on August 28th. This was a local derby between us and the West End football team who were based at the Working Men' Club by the south-west corner of the Recreation Ground. In future years the more common type of format for money raising would involve the President who'd recruit some notable ex-WECC players into his team who'd play the main team. Regular President's Day would become an annual tradition under the watchful eye of our first President of the modern era, John Gaisford.