Your Letters
To the Editor:
Everyone (well nearly everyone) is proud and protective of The-Lee Cricket
Club. Started in 1875, it is a village institution and my family has been
associated with it for over a hundred years. It has reduced stalwarts to
pygmies, made heroes out of colts and given them all their finest hour in
the spirit of good sportsmanship.My one-legged father-in-law made a formidable wicket-keeper. All my husband’s aunts played when called upon for Lee Week and were a competitive force and worthy adversaries against visiting teams. Feuds with other village teams were legendary, on-going from year to year, but all was forgiven when great rejoicings (after battle ceased and stumps were drawn) took place in the pavilion or Manor House.
May The-Lee Cricket Club continue to thrive, bring on new players and be the summer centrepiece of this beautiful village. I wish The-Lee Cricket Club good luck, good weather, good friends and continued success over the next hundred and fifty years.
Liz Stewart-Liberty – Life President
The Lee
To the Editor:
As an ex-member of The Lee Cricket Club I would like to lend our support regarding the position of the cricket nets. I know in my time as a member there, the cricket nets were placed in that same position with never any complaints from the houses nearby. I now do quite a bit of umpiring around the county and there are loads of cricket clubs with houses around them, so is Chiltern District Council going to ask other clubs to move their nets if one house complains?
How short sighted this council is, but we shouldn’t be surprised about it when it comes to sport. We should all be trying to encourage the youngsters to play an outdoor sport which keeps them away from the television and computers, and The Lee Cricket Club is doing a magnificent job to do this. Let’s hope this neighbour has a change of heart and our council sees some sense.
Ken and Jan Moseley
Lee Common
To the Editor:
Andy Devoy’s claimed problem, following the Planning Committee’s decision that the nets in their new position must be taken down, is simple to resolve.
Re-establish the nets by the pavilion where they have been for the past 25 years and everyone should be happy.
I would advise Andy Devoy that if in future he is involved in any building project which requires planning permission, obtain planning permission before carrying out the respective work.
If he had taken this action the generous donation from The Lords Taverners would not have been wasted.
Leon Metcalfe
The Lee
To the Editor:
Andy Devoy will have a very good season if he can be as economical in his bowling as he was with the truth in his article last month about the cricket net saga. He failed to mention that:
· Two of his clubmates consulted me three times about the proposed location of the nets and were told on every occasion that they would be too close to my house and that I would prefer them to be located elsewhere.
· Having decided to go ahead regardless, they and the contractor were told on day one of construction that they needed planning permission.
· Work stopped briefly and another member of the club came to see me and said the nets would only be used twice a week, once for the children and once for the members, and would be taken down at the end of the season; the Club would put this in writing to me. The work was then completed. Guess what? The committee, of which Andy is no doubt a member, said that the member who had made this commitment to me was not empowered to commit the Club in this way (he was only the first team captain) and the Club would accept no limitation whatsoever on the use of the facility.
So the matter was put to the planning test and both the professionally neutral case officer and the democratically elected councillors agreed with my original view that the nets were unreasonably close to my house. What is Andy’s response on behalf of the Club?
To misrepresent me to the press and this Newsletter as some miserable simpleton who bought a house next to a cricket club and then objected to the playing of cricket. This after I have bent over backwards during my four years here to be a good neighbour to the Club – supporting them financially as a vice-president, giving them unrestricted access during matches to my property to retrieve balls, answering their search three years ago for an honorary auditor, and attending their general meetings. Hardly the behaviour of someone who is anti-cricket and the associated activities around the game.
My strong wish is that we can restore the good neighbourly relationship we enjoyed before this unfortunate development. All it needs is for the nets to be returned promptly to their rightful place by the clubhouse, where they have been for the last 25 years. If there really isn’t room then the Club have a choice – revert to one net, lose a bit of the playing field or have a word with their president about moving the boundary fence back a few yards further into the meadow.
Phil Moody
The Lee
To the Editor:
We would like to thank everyone who was involved in looking after our Westie
‘Ceri’ when she went missing on our walk in the woods near Chartridge. We
are not sure whether she was trying to find her way to Crufts or making
her way home. We understand that she was rescued from the road and taken
to Laura and Danny who kindly put her on a lead and walked her along Oxford
Street to Mike and Sue, where Vanessa found them. As it was the middle of
the afternoon we know that quite a few families were involved in caring
for her and we are very grateful.Ceri has a chip but we have now put back on her collar her ‘local’ disc with her name and our telephone number in case she makes a bid for freedom again.
This is a picture of Ceri proving that it was not only the children who enjoyed the day off in the snow.
John and Vanessa Enos
The Lee
To the Editor:
A Big Thank You to everyone who turned out on Sunday 4th March, or when they could, to remove litter. I and others worked on Rocky Lane and I always find myself getting increasingly angry. The litter we find is mostly thrown from cars – bottles, cans, food cartons etc. Why do we never see anyone doing this?
The weather was pretty awful but our spirits were revived by a brilliant pub roast. Please consider helping next year for, as the saying goes, many hands make light work.
Pat Chinnery
Swan Bottom
To the Editor:
Visitors to this area
are often confused by the lack of road name signs. In Lee Common this is
not usually a problem, but elsewhere in the parish there seems to be a preference
for anonymity.There are roads with well known names that figure in the Register of Electors but which have no signs – Timberly Lane, Furzefield Lane and Field End Lane for example.
There are some road names that are less well known and some, such as the nameless close in The Lee, that have no name at all. I’m sure few residents could find Kiln Hill or Lee Clump Road. Yet the latter name was given as the address of the Parish Hall and the cricket ground in their recent planning applications. It seems to be the name of the road from The Lee to Red Lion Hill, but few know it.
How about putting a tasteful sign opposite Oxford Street and at the Red Lion Hill end of the road? It would help visitors and delivery people alike. What do your readers think?
Barnaby Usborne
Lee Common