We are a friendly and social Sunday cricket club based loosely in the Surbiton and Kingston-upon Thames area. Our members come in all shapes and sizes and from all walks of life; we currently have one OAP, two overseas, and one student in our membership ranks.

Our fixture list is fairly typical for a social Sunday side with medium weak ability, although we do try to play competitively. During the club's history there have actually been a few players with genuine ability with both bat and ball. Nevertheless, Surbiton is a club where there are opportunities for players of all abilities to join in.

As is traditional we arrange an annual tour weekend. More recently this has involved a trip down the M3 with our friends at Whirlpool for a match in Southampton on Saturday, followed by a match against a village side called Broughton on Sunday.

We do not have our own ground, as such, but in the past we have tried to find a ground that we can call our own for at least a season or two. Unfortunately things have not worked out for us that well over the last few years, and again we find ourselves starting the year without a home ground.

The club is run by a committee of players at various stages of life that are elected at the AGM in December. As well as the administrative posts there is also a role for a social secretary, who is reponsible for arranging the club's social calendar.

On the social front we like to mark the beginning and end of the season with a curry evening. We also have an official end of season awards evening where partners, wifes, etc. are encouraged to attend. We also hold a number of club meetings throughout the year at the Waggon and Horses pub in Surbiton. The choice of venue is because the committee are generally old gits who enjoy a good traditional beer pub. Throughout the year there may also be additional events arranged by the social secretary.

In the run up to the season the club arranges and subsides net practice sessions for its members. We are currently running sets of sessions at two different locations; one at the Latchmere Leisure Centre, Battersea and the other at the Surrey Cricket school in Burpham, Guildford.

I have been asked to write a few words introducing the club to the outside world. Over the years the club has expanded from a popular audience of approximately five to its new potentially wider audience via the web site of about ten billion. Because of this new responsibility I will be writing in a factual style only and will be keeping personal opinions to myself. Since the Club has now been in existence for twenty years it may be that the actual facts of a situation may have slipped my memory - I will however in these circumstances, quite simply make them up.

Club colours: pink and green   Both stylish and elegant!

The Surbiton Imperial was founded in 1987 by a group of desperates who wanted to play cricket but could not persuade other teams to let them join their sides. The first season was according to the records, which I haven’t got, a catalogue of missed opportunities. Large amounts of beer were drunk and if you want to know about those early years speak to either Jon or Mike Hendy, who vividly recall the batting performance against Popes Grotto. Since I have the records of this game I will give The Imperial’s Batting figures, which were published under the national headline "Popes Grotto humiliated Surbiton Imperial at Grosvenor Park". Chasing 89 all out the batting went as follows.

The captain at the time made the following match report:

The batting was truly dismal, young Tuttle scored a quarter of the runs in one stroke. Six batsmen achieved ducks. This in retrospect was the difference between the two sides.

The club has produced magazines over the years which contain such gems as above, however these have not been produced since 1994, and that was a compilation of 1990-1994, since it took so long to get all the articles in. Copies are however still available. The next one will hopefully encompass the years between 1994 upto the present, a bumper edition, any volunteers?

I hope this has given you all a brief insight into the club and I leave you with the Club motto:

Huddo - your president