The 2003 season was, in terms of the Club's long 220 year history an outstanding year, but a year later, we realised that the 2004 season emulated and surpassed 2003 in every way.

To finish the season knowing that promotion was gained to the Premier Division of the Shepherd Neame Essex League by our first four eleven's was truly amazing. It must be noted that we are currently the only Club in the whole of the county of Essex to have all their Senior Saturday XI's playing at the highest possible level and to that end everyone connected with Hornchurch CC should feel immensely proud of what has been achieved not only in this but in recent years.

After a disappointing previous season our Saturday 1st XI successfully gained the long awaited promotion - if you first don't succeed, keep trying!

Going into the final round of matches the League season our 4th and 5th XI's had already won their Divisions gaining promotion respectively to the 4th XI Premier Division and Division 1 also of the 4th XI section. On Saturday the fate of our 1st, 2nd and 3rd XI's hung in the balance as whilst each side were in the 'box' seat, defeat would almost certainly have meant failure at the final hurdle.

The 1st XI had a potentially tricky tie at home to Chelmsford though any fears were soon allayed as Chris Drum, Jannie Dreyer and Marc Whitlock all backed up by some superb fielding (including young Greg Knight making his 1st team debut as a sub fielder) combined to shoot out Chelmsford for 113. Chris Sains then proceeded to smash the ball to all parts as we raced to victory inside 24 overs!

The win meant that the runners-up spot was guaranteed no matter what Chingford's result against league winners Wickford was and the celebrations began in earnest as we had finally succeeded in our long term goal of getting our 1st XI into the Premier Division of the Shepherd Neame Essex League!

With Adrian Rollins, Jannie Dryer and Ben Montgomery joining an already talented squad the all round strength of the team was evident as they remained unbeaten throughout the entire League campaign. Although the Rollins brothers topped the batting averages, four other batters averaged thirty or above, including Paul Murray Jnr who recorded his maiden League century as well as smashing the Club's record indivdual score with 210 not out, a record held for one year only by Sean Perry. Chris Drum and Jannie Dryer formed an awesome opening bowling partnership claiming nearly 70 wickets between them.

Our 2nd XI going into the last weekend were top of Division 1 and needed to win their match at Westcliff on Sea to be sure of promotion and also be crowned Champions at the same time. And win they did in style sweeping aside Westcliff in devastating fashion! First our hosts were dismissed for 158 thanks in large to the bowling talents of Neil Adams and Darren Whitlock.

The batting in the 2nd XI is of the highest class these days and they proved this by reaching the victory target of 159 for the loss of just 1 wicket in only 17.2 overs! Kevin Shallow and Matt Stallard were the chief destroyers dispatching the Westcliff bowlers to all parts to the tune of over 9 runs per over. This meant that the 2nd XI matched the achievements of the 4th and 5th XI by winning back to back Championships and also made sure of promotion into the Premier Division of the 2nd XI section.

The 3rd XI had probably the toughest task on the day as they needed 9 points to be certain of promotion and had to win against a very competent Ardleigh Green side to ensure the title. Given the circumstances the only sensible choice was to bat first and secure the 8 batting points and achieve this we did but only just! Despite a typical battling half century from Danny Simpson the Hornchurch inning faltered in the face of some excellent tight bowling from the visitors. The last over of the 52 arrived with us still needing 12 runs to get to the much needed and crucial 200. The situation was crying out for a hero and he arrived in the shape of Graeme Farquhar whose sweetly struck boundary from the final ball of the innings led us to final score of 203-9.

With the 200 in the bag all we needed to do was to take just three Ardleigh Green wickets to confirm our promotion. Easy in theory one could be forgiven for thinking but resolute batting meant that come the final hour only one wicket had been captured and things were beginning to look bleak! The re-introduction of batting hero Danny Simpson into the attack though did the trick and as the 3rd wicket finally fell the sense of relief was palpable for all! Unfortunately though we could not get the win that would have ensured us the title but a sterling fight back at the finish meant that the game ended in a draw when our visitors looked certain of victory. Hainault & Clayhall's narrow one wicket win at Saffron Walden meant that the 3rds would finally have to settle for the Runners-Up spot but this did nothing to spoil the celebrations as the 3rds also marched into the Premier Division.

Saturday 4th of September 2004 will surely go down in history as one of the most memorable days in Hornchurch Cricket Clubs proud 221 year history! Even surpassing last's incredible season where our 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th XI's all won their respective divisions!

Our Cricket for All youth coaching programme once again proved as popular as ever with almost three hundred different children attending throughout the summer. The success of our youth teams is testimony to the effectiveness of this coaching programme and thanks must go to the many coaches and helpers that regularly commit their time to this cause.

At our opening evening in July we were honoured to have as a guest speaker Will Jefferson (pictured below), the talented (and tall!) Essex batsman in attendance. His involvement on that memorable evening was immense as he answered questions, signed autographs, coached and even organised a game with the youngsters after the food and presentations have finished, a great ambassador for our sport and Essex Cricket.

In June, we organised the inaugural Inter-Schools 6 a-side competition for the under 13’s. Eight local schools participated in two groups based at Fielder Sports and Harrow Lodge with the final won by Hall Mead School. We hope this will become an annual event. The strength of the Club is gauged not only by the success on the pitch but also in what has been achieved off the pitch. The financial support we have received from our sponsorship with Hornchurch Football Club, Grove & Dean, Robertson Milroy, Jack Petchey and Sportsmatch enables us to progress further forward and I know that all members of the Club join me in recording our grateful appreciation to those named and many others who so generously support our aims. We were also honoured as the recipient of the Havering Sports Council for Sports Club of the Year Award for our achievement in 2003.

The ambition of our Club continues to be as strong as ever, over the next few months the Management Committee will be preparing for the higher challenges that lay ahead of us. We believe as a Committee we have firmly set the foundation of continued success and rely on all members to play their part, however small.

We must also take this opportunity to thank Chris Boniface, the Club's excellent Groundsman who has transformed both Harrow Lodge and Fielder Sports Grounds into pitches that regularly yielded 500 runs in an afternoon.

The League Umpire gradings gave the Harrow Lodge pitch the best marks in the League. So the last two seasons have seen the Club gain seven League Divisional titles and two Runner-Up places and now leaves us as one of only four clubs in the entire Essex League that have their 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th XI's all playing their cricket in the Premier Division!

We all at the Club look forward to the new challenges ahead, visiting new grounds and Clubs, meeting new people, lunches and teas (for those that have yet to sample one of the infamous HCC teas you are in for a treat!).

May we conclude by offering a warm welcome to all players, umpires, scorers and spectators visiting Harrow Lodge and our associated grounds during 2005.