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The Bomb On The Square

One recent incident at the ground however had Ron [Ashworth] questioning his dedication to the Club.

It was a balmy summer's afternoon in June of 1991 as he was preparing a wicket at one end of the square for the week-end game, when he noticed a man carrying a box across the field towards him, holding it well away from his body. Ron gazed on as he carefully placed it down at the other end of the square then scurried away towards the edge of the ground from whence he came. There he was joined by the community police constable for Denham, other police officers and the press, leaving the Club Captain in splendid isolation. (It only needed Captain Mainwaring of Dad's Army to complete the scene!)

At this point, Ron thought that he had better find out exactly what was going on, so he went over to the assembled throng, and was told in a matter-of-fact way that the box contained a bomb that had been dug up in the car park of the near-by Plough Inn - which, as Ron later recounted, was very decent of them to let him in on it at all.

The landlord had carried it round to the cricket ground as a place of safety - for them at least! - and they were waiting for the Bomb Squad to arrive.

Fortunately, after much excitement, it was found that the device was in fact only a practice aircraft bomb from World War I - and so the square, the week-end cricket (and Ron) emerged unscathed.

From The Centenary Brochure, p58

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