TO SAY emotions will run high when Stayley Cricket Club steps out at Lord’s will be an understatement.
For ‘Mr Stayley,’ it will be beyond his wildest dreams.
Over the last six decades, Billy Bird has been there. So much so, the pavilion at the ground on Oxford Street in the Millbrook area of Stalybridge is named after him.
There have been highs, lows, alarms and dramas, as well as facing fearsome fast bowlers like Joel Garner and Patrick Patterson, without wearing a helmet.
But when they take to the wicket at the home of cricket for the Voneus Village Cup final on Sunday, September 21, after using England’s dressing room, it will be worth it.
Billy, now 73-years-old but a player until he was about 45, said emotionally: “This is an important place for me.
“My older brother, John, played here at Stayley. So I tagged on and then obviously I started then.
“I never thought I’d see the day we play at Lord’s. I never even thought I’d see the day where we are where we are now.
“I couldn’t believe we’d got there. I still can’t believe it now. I’ve been past Lord’s, but I’ve never been in.
“And when we won the semi-final, I was just thinking, ‘Who’s going to get the drinks in?’ Now I’ve just got to get the bank card off the missus!”
Billy really is part of the fabric at Stayley CC. After all, he lived next to it for 33 years.
That proximity meant a few moments where things came a little too close to home – and there were times when he doubted if the club would exist.
However, seeing them defeat Dumbleton in the semi-final, setting up the final against defending champions Foxton Granta, made the dark days fade into insignificance.
And as the team of 2025 follows in the footsteps of Harry Pilling and John Sullivan, who both started at Stayley before going on to become Lancashire greats, dark days will be a distant memory.
Billy recalled, as he revealed he bought a suit for the occasion – from a Willow Wood Hospice shop: “I was too near, because of the alarm going off and people breaking in.
“Don’t forget, years ago they used to smash the place up when they broke in as they went for the machine money.
“Then they’d get behind the bar. Sometimes they’d leave the bloody pumps on!
“In 2005, there was an arson attack as the changing rooms used to be where the clubhouse is now.
“At least they’re getting there and want to evolve now, whereas years ago, we were like, ‘Hang on, who’s giving us a bloody lift down here?’
“We’ve kept soldiering on but there was a point when I thought, ‘This is it.’
“Stamford Estates owns the land and we’d pay a peppercorn rent, which was great, but we couldn’t get any funding.
“It took me 34 years to get the lease. Then we got it and it’s been so important to retain the cricket club because otherwise they’d have just built on here.
“About 30 years ago, we had no fencing up – any we did have was falling down and the club wasn’t nice. It was clean enough but not like it is now.
“We relied on some of the old members back then to keep it ticking over, which we did and we kept going. As years have gone by, we’ve improved.
“We got some funding and Stamford Estates did much of the fencing – if you’re paying £300,000 for a house on the neighbouring development, you don’t want to overlook a s***hole, do you?”
As Stayley CC prepares for its big day, Billy’s memories of facing bowlers whose name would send a shiver down batsmen’s spines remain vivid in his mind.
He told the Correspondent: “Patrick Patterson was running in from boundary edge here when we played him and we beat him.
“He was playing for Austerlands and was bowling from boundary edge! Our lads were saying, ‘Where’s he bloody going?’”
Village Cup success would actually make it a double for Stayley after they earned promotion from the Greater Manchester Cricket League Division One.
As Billy knows, perceptions about them are changing and even though they are facing the defending champions, three words ring true.
He continued: “I’ll be emotional at Lord’s, possibly.
“People would yell, ‘Bloody Stayley, bloody rubbing rags.’ Well, we might have been a couple of years ago. Now they’re thinking, ‘They’re not a bad side.’
“We’ve got promotion, so at least we’re making them think twice.
“We have a meal on the Saturday. So I’ll be suited and booted for that and Dumbleton got to the final last year and we beat them. Foxton Granta is a good side, but…
“You never know.”