Vono played against some big stars
REFERRING to the cricket team photograph on page 27 of the Black Country Bugle dated August 19 [reproduced above].
This photograph was taken in 1964 in front of the pavilion on the newly developed sports field created within the area that the Vono factory occupied, situated on Sedgley Road East in the Dudley Port area.
Vono Limited was at that time one of the leading bed manufacturers in the UK.
Vono was established by the Vaughan family and made up of the initials Vaughan Only, No Other.
The occasion of the cricket picture was the first match to be played on the new ground and from memory the first ball was bowled by the very young son of the Managing Director, Malcolm Vaughan. The match was between a mixture of Vono first and second XI cricketers.
Dolly
Some time later that season we played Sunday matches against Worcestershire County Cricket Club. One match featured the very early appearance, his first game I believe, of Basil (Dolly) D’oliveira.
These games were always well supported and on this occasion there were certainly in excess of 1,000 spectators.
1964
I have also enclosed a photo of the 1964 Worcester County Cricket team, most of whom we played against that season. It was a great experience for us – long before Sunday Cricket came about!
The ground also staged charity football matches with various celebrities of the day kicking the games off. Today the site is a housing development.
I have managed to identify fifteen of the men in the photograph [above]
Back row: second from left Richard Plant; fifth from left Brian Woodall; tenth George Woodall; eleventh George Ozell.
Middle row: Harold Smith; Reg Unitt; Alan Pearson; sixth Len Oakley, eighth George Male, ninth Norman Page; twelfth Len Webster.
Front row: fourth from left John Sedgley; sixth Malcolm Vaughan, seventh Jack Wakeman, eighth Bert Smalley.
I hope this is a decent contribution and look forward to readers identifying more players.