‘What made Burtonhole Lane so special was the characters’
Vince Holohan, MHVCC 1970-2017, club president 2012-15 and colts co-founder
I first went down to the Village in Burtonhole Lane in 1952 as an 8-year-old, as a spectator. The front field had two cricket pitches and the back field was for football. My first real memory is aged 9, throwing the ball back to the wicket-keeper from the boundary and it bounced in front of him and hit him in the privates! His name was Bill Carden, who later became club president. I eventually joined the Village in 1970, having played next door at Maxams, the sports team that belonged to Dunn & Co, the menswear retailer.

One of my favourite memories is from one year during Cricket Week. We played Harefield Cricket Club, who used to come on a Friday. After the match, we would all have a curry, made by the soldiers from the nearby barracks - they made the curry because one of the sergeant majors played cricket at the Village. A boozy evening followed and the Harefield team went on to sleep in the clubhouse - and have the remaining curry for breakfast. And on Saturday, we all played again. There were many great characters back in the day.

There’s a much more diverse membership now, but the cricketing standard is not as high. When I played, we had a very, very good team. The standard they play now, they’re playing 2nd and 3rd team sides in Herts; we were playing all 1st XIs in Middlesex, which was a stronger county. But by having as big a junior section as they have now, the standards will improve. Back then, it was compulsory for members to play every Saturday and Sunday or you’d be in the third team.

I started running an under-17s team with the late Ron Bunning, and carried on doing that for some years. And after I stopped playing, I also umpired for many years. I stopped umpiring around 2017, but we continued to be social members of the club until 2022, when we emigrated to Australia. Some great friendships were made at the Village. We still have friends who we keep in touch with and some have visited us in Australia.

What made Burtonhole Lane so special was the characters that were in it. It was a very social club, always busy - wives, girlfriends and children there.

‘We used to have bowl-outs at 2am’
Gary Topp, MHVCC 1982-2010
My first memory of the Village is being taken down as an 18-year-old after I'd finished my A Levels to play a mid-week game skippered by George Hurd. Little did I know we'd be teammates for many years to come.

We used to have amazing Sunday fixtures, probably a stronger standard than our Saturday League games. Not forgetting a strong midweek list of fixtures, Cricket Week and a tour. The nature of club cricket has changed, so all of that is not possible any more. It gave everyone a chance to play with one another, and that led to a very strong club Identity.

I have so many favourite moments of my time at the Village: having a bowl out at 2am with cars with their headlights on driven down near the wicket to illuminate; once chasing down 350 in a league game; but probably my favourite memory is George Hurd again. Batting 11, he was in the loo when I had to go knock on the door, telling him he was in. He thought I was joking. I told him there were two balls left and we needed 12. He asked what I wanted him to do as the captain. I told him go and hit two sixes. He duly did!

‘The Village helped shape me as a person’
Garry Westmore, MHVCC 1972-2004
My first memory of the Village goes back to a Sunday in 1968 when I was 10. There was a testimonial game at the ground for David Richardson who played for Worcestershire. A lot of his teammates played together with other personalities of the era. They didn’t do very well the following day against Surrey after a night at the Village!

My first game was in late 1972 in the 3rd team away against Harpenden. I kept wicket, only let two byes through and scored 2 not out. I then started playing football for the Village and had my first full season playing cricket in 1973. Mostly in the 3rd XI but towards the end of the season, I was keeping in the 1st team on Sundays. This was a reward for helping to do work on the ground and the square, helping John Hardie [the first Village player to score 1,000 runs in a season, in 1967] and Henry Windsor. Colin and Keith Tomkins were also helping. These were really enjoyable times when the Village was a very vibrant place, both in the summer and winter. The level of cricket played was very high and the opposition regularly had players from overseas and minor counties.

My favourite Village moment has to be watching Denis David score 174 not out against Watford Town on a Sunday afternoon. [Described by the late Roger Golding as “the biggest run maker the Village has ever seen,” David once scored 4,300 runs in a season.] Their opening bowler was Dave Camden, who was a minor counties player, but Denis took him apart.

Another favourite moment was watching Billy Thompson score a 36-ball century away at West Herts CC for the 2nd team. Their 1st team captain played and bowled his off-spin, which was dispatched many times for six into the tennis courts. Tennis was suspended until Billy was out.
Cricket week and cricket tours to Gloucestershire were always a highlight of the season. Great times.

It’s a massive shame that the photos of previous teams and times are not up in the clubhouse and that football isn’t as important as it used to be. That said, the club is all about who is there now, and they create their own memories.

I am extremely grateful that the Village was there for me as a young teenager, as it helped shape me as a person. I’ve been able to take forward into my working and personal life the lessons and experiences I had at the Village. I know a few other old codgers would say the same.

'The club hasn’t changed at all over the years; that’s what makes it so special'
Sam Smith, current MHVCC club chairman and 1st XI player 1998-2005, 2025-present
I actually went to the Village for the first time when I was two months old to “help” mum do the teas. But I don’t remember too much of that. My earliest memory is playing football and cricket every weekend for hours, normally with Marcus Cara, while my dad played football or cricket. I then joined the U10 cricket team when I was 8 and haven’t looked back since.

They always say that your favourite places are the ones where you have spent time with your favourite people. Although the club does have certain charms, for me it has always been about spending time with family and friends. I think winning the league last year might be my favourite-ever moment - coming back to the club recently to play with my best pals, especially now my kids get to be involved.

I don’t think the club has changed at all over the years; that’s what makes it so special. It has kept its "brand" while the rest of the world changes around it.

'It’s good to see some families back at the Village again'
Melanie Smith, Juniors Membership Secretary 2017-present; appointed Honorary Vice President in 2025
My daughter Anna and son Tommy (now a 1st XI regular) practically grew up at the Village. There was so much room to run around, they loved it. Lots of the players' young families were down there on a Saturday and Sunday at that time. Squash and cake on offer at 4pm, it was old-school village cricket: a white picket fence then, match teas etc. Very traditional.
I always remember Ingrid, the cricket teas lady, when I first came down to the Village 30 years ago. She baked enormous cakes for the teas. She’d always keep a slice or two back. And of course I remember Cath Kelly’s teas and bacon sandwiches, her Christmas dinners and what she'd make on President's Day, helped out by Lee Downes. But then the players moved on and so did the families. It’s good to see some families back at the Village again, with club chairman and 1st XI all-rounder Sam Smith’s family down there. For a while, about 10-15 years ago, it was very male-oriented. It’s so much better now.

We’ve always had a very successful juniors section at the Village, with over 100 children on a Friday night. My husband Phil (MHVCC director of cricket) took it over about 18 years ago. The numbers had started to drop and we wanted a juniors section, not least for Tommy to play in! When he was little, we didn’t know if the club would still be around for him. Phil has worked very hard to involve all families in all aspects of the club, for example, getting girls' cricket off the ground, which helps the club secure funding. The lease extension took years to negotiate, and now it’s taking years trying to obtain permission to use the third field [behind the current back field].

'The people who play at the Village are my family'
Loz Bird, MHVCC player 1991-present, former club secretary, former 3rd XI captain and vice president
As a colt, I started playing at the Village when I was 8 years old. I remember quite vividly going to training on a Friday night, along with my school friends. In my age group, we had Andy Potter, Lee Cara, my brother Jon, Rory MacLeod and Chris Gallagher, who would all go on to play a significant number of games for the Village.

When I first started at the club, we had a thriving colts section and four Saturday and four Sunday sides. Whilst the club has had its ups and downs since then, we are somewhat bucking the trend of not just other cricket clubs, but sports clubs generally, having increased the number of Saturday sides we put out from three back in 2020 to five now in 2026, plus a Sunday league XI, a Sunday friendly XI and the colts now running an A and B team for some age groups and five girls teams.

A key difference is that back in 1991, a high proportion of members lived in Mill Hill. They could walk to cricket each day, they could play midweek games as they only worked around the corner and the club was somewhere to socialise from Friday through to Sunday. Society and the way we live has changed - it’s not through any fault of any individual, but the sense of community isn’t quite as strong as it used to be. First XI and 2nd XI players used to give up much of their time to coach the colts, spending hours after practice on fielding drills, learning to run between the wickets properly (I mean actually running between the wickets), and providing guidance and mentorship to the next generation.

A key club moment for me was when as secretary of the club a few years back, we were heading into rocky territory with an expected rent increase that would have likely exceeded our revenue for the year. With the other members of the committee, I looked into the various options we had, and decided that registering as a Community Amateur Sports Club and then incorporating would give us a far greater likelihood of committing to a lease. (On the previous terms we would have had to have guarantors for the lease willing to commit to paying thousands of pounds, should the club fold). We were then able to secure several grants and to obtain rent relief owing to the benefits that we were providing the local community. It might not sound like a lot, but knowing that the club I’d been at since I was 8 years old would be secure, in the immediate future at least, was incredibly important to me.

Another important turning point was joining the Herts Premier Cricket League. Having spent a high proportion of my cricketing career up to the age of 28 stuck in traffic around the North Circular on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, playing on park pitches that would make the Village back pitch look like Lord’s and dubious umpiring week-in week-out, to say I was excited when the club announced that in 2011 we would be joining the Herts league, would be an understatement.

We initially entered three sides into the league in divisions 10, 12 and 14, which was always likely to be a bit low, but it meant we could ease ourselves into new surroundings gently. The journey up the A1 was infinitely nicer than Hanger Lane and the grounds were considerably more picturesque and generally well-maintained, even in the lower divisions. My first game as captain of the 3rd team ended up as a loss, but having made my maiden 50 for the club, I was on cloud nine. Fast-forward to today, and you can see how much progress we have made as a club with four Saturday league sides and our Sunday league side all getting promoted last year.

It may also be fair to say the quality of the cricket perhaps was higher back when I joined. Having been the scorer for the first team as a 10-year-old, I got to see the standard they played first-hand, and it was of fantastic quality. I don’t think that’s specific to our club, though, as the number of sides each club is putting out has diminished, which has inevitably reduced the strength of each side.

One of my favourite Burtonhole Lane memories is the infamous Kronenbourg switch: On a standard Saturday evening, having had three sides play and all return to the bar, we did the usual of celebrating a win or two with jugs of beer. Now, usually it’s piss-weak. However, the brewery had accidentally delivered a keg of Kronenbourg instead of the usual drop. Without mentioning it initially (I think it was Legs), he just connected the 5.2% beer to the Fosters tap and let the chaos ensue. I do have some trouble remembering all of the details of that night, but I’m pretty sure the Stump Game was involved at one point (a drinking relay where you have to down a pint, then run about 10 metres, put your head on a stump in the ground and run around it 10 times and then try to run back). As you can probably imagine, there were bodies strewn around, several teas made a reappearance, and at least one person crashed into the score box!

Certain matches also stay long in the memory: chasing down 330 at Watton at Stone with Marcus making 190 not out; bowling out Shenley Village for 14; and playing in the Herts Sunday league against Kings Langley. What happened that day has become the stuff of legend, but it’s safe to say I have never laughed as long or as hard as I did that day, along with the other nine teammates on the pitch, as we watched Godders lose an inevitable battle with a slope and gravity.

There’s a huge amount of effort that goes into running a sports club and we are so reliant on volunteers, whether it’s managing fixtures, doing groundwork and rolling the pitches, stocking up the bar, managing the finances of the club, running the colts section or the general governance of the club. Back when I joined, it was no different, except there were more of them. These days we rely on a significantly lower number of volunteers, but it means the time they invest is significantly higher. The club probably wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the amount of time and effort of people like Phil Smith, Pete Jaffe and James Thompson in the last decade or so.

Without a doubt though, the thing that hasn’t changed is the quality of the people. Despite living in Bedfordshire, I will happily drive down the M1 for an hour to Burtonhole Lane because it’s my second home. The people that play at the Village are my family, and I will always value the friendships, the camaraderie and the stories that we have all shared for many decades and hopefully for a few more to come.

‘I got driven home from Burtonhole Lane with a Mill Hill Village sign between my legs’
Laurie Westgarth, Hayes CC, 1957-2002, ex-president, ex-treasurer
I started playing for Hayes CC in Middlesex around 1957, as a 15-year-old, and continued to play into my 50s, until a quadruple heart bypass brought that to an end. We used to play the Village regularly. My first recollection is being driven home from your ground with a Mill Hill Village road sign between my legs, not sure whether taken from the roadside or pillaged from the club’s “memorabilia.“ For years, this would be hung from the oak tree that we had on our boundary when entertaining your club. I don’t believe we were ever in the same league as, on the onset of league cricket in the south, we strongly resisted entering leagues, recognising the potential loss of the social aspect of what we were enjoying.

However, we had to eventually agree to join the league cricket scene, losing our ability to dictate our opposition, but happily still managing to find a Sunday slot to keep Mill Hill Village on our fixture list. This must have been mutual because I can recall that if ever the season needed to be extended, for example, if we were experiencing an Indian Summer, it was always the Village that we approached for such a fixture. There was a good social relationship between the clubs.

In putting these words together and, as an 83-year-old, it has highlighted that very few people that are still around that can share these comments, but my own son-in-law, Stuart Waite, (now in his early 60s), having a lifetime association with Hayes, recalls many confrontations with the Village batsman Denis David and remembers “cleaning him up” in the first over of one particular match. (He didn’t elaborate on perhaps other situations when perhaps the boot was on the other foot.)

On the footballing front, I can only recall playing against the Village once, this as a goalkeeper playing, I presume, in a cup match for GWR as we were in different leagues. I have no real recollection of the outcome, but recall standing on my goal line and not being able to see the lower legs of your keeper by virtue of the humped nature of the pitch.

Although it’s now perhaps 30 years since I had a direct cricket playing involvement, I believe our clubs have many similarities in attracting local family membership passing through the generations and being important additions to the local Community.

'It is our family's second home'
Nicole, MHVCC safeguarding officer 2022-present
I have really fond memories of feeling free while my brother Marcus [long-time 1st XI regular] and I grew up at the club. I remember Kath Kelly teaching me how to cook while she was doing the cricket teas, and I enjoyed playing a variety of sports once the cricket was over - everything from some fruity variations of cricket, to volleyball, golf or even javelin. I revised for my GCSEs and A Levels in the sunshine at the club. It is our family's second home.
In terms of how the club has changed, grassroots and community sport isn't what it was. The club was a wide family, but modern families don't quite operate in the same way now, so things have changed. That said, our club has retained its roots and it's great to see so many children enjoying the Friday night cricket, and I am pleased to be the safeguarding officer so this can happen.

My fondest memory of the club was when I ran the summer camp a few years ago. I stood at the double doors of the clubhouse, looking out at 100 children from our local community. Children from all backgrounds and walks of life, enjoying the place that means so much to me as I grew up there.

'There is always a warm reception for all who step through our doors'
Devraj Ray, MHVCC club captain
I grew up at the top of the road on the Ridgeway, and my mum worked in the former Medical Research Centre that looks down onto the cricket pitches from the top of the hill. Their office cricket matches were held at the Village every year, so I've been coming down here since I was about 5 or 6, forming very fond memories. It wasn't until my cousin Saahil joined as a colt around 1997 that I had a more personal connection with the club itself, meeting the likes of Phil Smith, Pete Jaffe, Chalky Cara et al back then, as well as two of my now best friends, Marcus Cara and Sam Smith.

I moved to South London in 2000 and played for a club down there for 15 years before returning to the Village, and what struck me most is how unbelievably welcome I was made to feel on my return. In many ways, the best thing about the club is that it has remained the same in all the right ways. There is never anything less than a warm reception for all who step through our doors.

That said, the last few years have seen a rapid evolution in more practical ways. The clubhouse has undergone a wonderful refurbishment thanks to Dave Flavell and Pete Jaffe. We've installed new nets and are planning to construct a new digital scorebox this year. There are visible improvements taking place all around, and it is no coincidence that we are improving on the pitch as well. My favourite Burtonhole Lane moment has to be last year when the 1st XI clinched the Division 4B title, which was also my first as club captain. The feeling inside the clubhouse that evening was just incredible. Indeed, last year all MHVCC XIs were promoted, which was beyond any of our expectations. Up the Village.

80th anniversary match vs Sutton CC
Mill Hill Village Cricket Club turns back the clock for a special 80th anniversary friendly match against Sutton Cricket Club, our first-ever opponents, on Sunday, May 17 at Burtonhole Lane. All are welcome. Visit our dedicated page for more stories about the club's history at Burtonhole Lane.

Today, Mill Hill Village Sports Club is a thriving hub for the local community, with five adult Saturday league cricket teams, adult midweek fixtures, a Sunday league cricket 1st XI, a development XI playing friendlies on Sundays, mixed junior teams at Under 11, Under 13, Under 15 and Under 17 level, as well as four girls teams. We also field two Saturday football teams in the Southern Amateur League and an XI in the Watford Sunday Football League.