Nestled beneath Clarke?s Hill and overlooking Great Bay, St. David?s, lies a field of dreams.

A field where young cricketers once dared to dream of playing in Cup Match or the popular Eastern Counties Cup competition.

The old Black Horse Tavern Field, which has now been reduced to a car park for patrons of the popular restaurant, was once a thriving incubator for some of the finest cricketers ever to emerge from the East End.

During the early 1940s a concrete batting surface was laid at the venue by the late Charles (Warbaby) Fox who owned and ran the Black Horse and Blue Marlin bars located at the northern and south western ends of the small ground.

In 1960, Fox?s son Albert (Peter) Fox took over the Black Horse bar and added a restaurant to the facility before selling the business in 1980.

Only last year the property was sold to restaurant owner Gary Lambe, brother of Allen who still holds the Eastern Counties colts? batting record (103) set at Lords in 1973.

But although the venue no longer plays host to the sport and the concrete pitch itself has been removed, past memories linger on in the minds of those who had the courage to dream.

Well-known cricket umpire and former St.David?s all-rounder Wilbur (Bobcat) Pitcher is one such individual.

Between 1958 and 1981, Pitcher took 48 wickets at an average of 13.96 runs per wicket. In 1966 the right arm medium pacer featured in a record 106-run fifth wicket partnership with cousin Elliott Pitcher.

?All of our cricket began at Black Horse Field because in those days we had no other place to go,? Pitcher, 62, told ?This was the only place to play cricket at that time because the field at Lord?s had not yet been developed.?

The present pitch at Lord?s, in all its splendour and glory, was actually once marshland until Government had the water pumped out and filled with rubble to make way for St.David?s Primary School. In those days residents of the Ballast Point and Cassia City areas had to cross a wooden bridge to access their homes from Great Bay Road.

?The water from Great Bay used to go straight along through to the ocean before Government pumped it out,? Pitcher recalled.

?I remember Sam Paynter (former St.George?s Cup Match player) teaching Harold Millet (Eastern Counties president) and myself how to hold the bat at Black Horse Field. Back in the 1970s St.David?s had a very powerful side and most of the players on that team all practised at Black Horse Field under the watchful eyes of Warbaby.?

The pitch at Black Horse is also situated next to the St. David?s Post Office which was once a small bay before it too was filled in with rubble while directly across the street that used to be a US Air Force cemetery.

When the US Navy took over the facility all human remains were exhumed and sent back to the US for reburial.

Pitcher continued: ?Fox put a lot of effort into youth cricket in St. David?s. He used to supply all the cricket gear, food and beverages and we would play matches against teams from St.George?s and Devonshire every Saturday.?

Pitcher also assisted Fox?s son, Albert, at his Cassia City residence where he was responsible for oiling new cricket bats with linseed oil, cleaning cricket pads after matches and putting new rubbers on bat handles.

Meanwhile, other legends to have played at Black Horse Field include former Bermuda Cricket Board honorary president Alma (Champ) Hunt, St.George?s Cup Match skipper Neville Darrell, Lloyd Cartwright, the late Sidney (Cowboy) Hall and Sinclair (Bunkers) Bean and also Terry King. Hall represented St. David?s in the Eastern Counties between 1958 and 1972.

But due to limited space at the Great Bay venue, players were forced to bend the rules of the game a bit.

?In those days if you hit the ball for a four across the road you would get two runs for it while a six would be considered as a four,? Pitcher explained.

Then there was the old fish pond nearby where players would occasionally have to retrieve balls in turtle-infested waters, while gaining entry inside the guarded cemetery across the street in search of balls unnoticed proved to be a daunting task.

?If it was your turn to go and get the ball then you had to jump in and out of the fish pond very fast,? Pitcher smiled. ?And because the air force property was heavily guarded whenever we had to go and fetch the ball someone had to stand as lookout while we searched for the ball.?

The former St. David?s medium pacer also recalls playing in the Gosling?s Cup, a match played annually on May 24 between players from St. David?s and Somerset Cricket Club who were restricted to having only two Cup Match players in their team.

?We used to have eight ball overs in those days and I remember one match in which Bunkers (Sinclair Bean) hit Cowboy (Sidney Hall) for seven sixes before being cleaned bowled on the last delivery,? Pitcher recalled.

?Plus in those days we used half balls which swung a lot in the air. I actually think we might have played there longer than we did. But when people began building on Clarke?s Hill the balls would smash the windows and so eventually we had to move, though I am really surprised to see the strip go.?

Pitcher also recalled a match in which the legendary Champ Hunt refused to take his guard until wicketkeeper Osmond (Tinky) Fox ? who had a penchant for disturbing the bails illegally with his pads ? stood further away from the stumps.

?The atmosphere during those matches was tremendous and whenever the Gosling?s Cup was on lots of people would travel to the match by boat and anchor off in Great Bay and watch the match from there,? he added.

George Cannonier, the current coach of St.George?s Cricket Club, added: ?I remember coming to watch games with my uncles. And whenever the Gosling Cup was being played every child in the neighbourhood would come out and attend.

?Back then the field was situated a bit different than it is today, but I can recall players hitting the ball overboard and children going in the water to retrieve it.?

Cannonier is also a former St.David?s cricketer who possesses both West Indies Cricket Association and Marelybone Cricket Club (MCC) Level One coaching certificates among others.

Son of the late Charles Fox, Albert, helped his father to build the concrete batting strip at Black Horse Field from scratch in the early 40s.

?We built it all from rubble and we didn?t have any rods (concrete rods) back then,? the 81-year-old Cassia City resident told .

?My father owned Black Horse in the 1920s and 30s.?

In 1953 Albert Fox captained St. David?s? victorious Eastern Counties side that ended Bailey?s Bay?s 19-year-stranglehold on the 102- year-old cup.

In 1962 Albert Fox added a restaurant to the Black Horse bar.

?That?s when the cricket stopped,? Cannonier said, with a big grin.

Meanwhile, long-time friend Richard (Red) Carlington, added: ?I used to go there and play tennis ball cricket before all the houses were built on the hill (Clarke?s Hill). I actually lived nearby and can remember when they used to play the Gosling Cup and Uphill versus Downhill matches at Black Horse Field.?

Carlington, 54, is presently the assistant groundsman at Lords.

Jeff Pitcher, arguably one of the hardest hitters of the ball during his time, also has fond memories of past Uphill versus Downhill rivalries played Black Horse Field.

?All the players from Texas Road around to the Black Horse Tavern and back represented Uphills while players who lived around the Cassia City area played for the Downhill,? recalled Pitcher, 60.

In 1981, Pitcher scored 285 runs playing for Nationals against Southampton Rangers at Southampton Oval before smashing another double century (202) against Willow Cuts at Royal Naval Field four years later.

The Royal Naval Field in Somerset is the venue where the first ever Cup Match classic was played in 1902.

Pitcher added: ?We played quite a few games down there at Black Horse Field and I can remember spending a lot of time there just knocking the ball around.

?I also got quite a few wickets bowling slow spin.?