AT the crease, Byron was making a stand. On the boundary, thoughts drifted back to the days of Kipling.

But, for poetry in motion, there was no finer example than Matt Allin.

History met the present as Allin celebrated his new status as Bideford Cricket Club's leading run scorer of all time by hitting a match-winning 70 on a day designed to celebrate memories of long ago.

Devon Dumplings were invited to be the opponents at Westward Ho! as the home team marked the 40th anniversary of the amalgamation of the Bideford, Westward Ho! and Littleham cricket clubs.

However, the pages of nostalgia were turned back not only as far as 1970, but to the 1880s after an outstanding piece of club treasure was brought to light.

Those were the days when the author and poet, Rudyard Kipling, then a pupil at the United Services College at Westward Ho!, would write from among the hedges overlooking the cricket field.

Andy Davies, who played in the amalgamated club's first season and is now the treasurer, was thinking back to the old days when he recalled putting a Bideford CC membership card dated 1881 in a drawer at home.

It had been there for decades after Davies, now 69, was given it by a former member some 40 years ago.

Now, in pristine condition, it stands as the most important item in a display cabinet housing significant club memorabilia.

"I had it given to me and, as a young man, I just put it in a drawer," said Davies. "But, as you get older, you think 'history of the club', so I got the card out."

Sitting by the boundary, Davies read aloud from the card: "There was one … two … three … four … five reverends on the committee — it appears they had a lot time on their hands to play cricket!"

Back then Bideford CC played in Bideford. It is thought that Kipling would have watched friends play on a ground then owned by the college.

"I think Bideford relocated here in the 1930s and Westward Ho! played along the road, but they just disappeared in the late 1950s," said Davies.

Bideford CC became Bideford and Westward Ho! CC, but their future looked grim, with a short-term tenancy and considerable financial losses, prior to the lifesaving amalgamation in 1970.

"There was a good chance we would have folded because they (Northam UDC) would give us only a six-month lease, but then they agreed to 28 years," said Davies.

Littleham had no ground but a more enthusiastic band of young players compared with Bideford's, so amalgamation seemed the obvious way forward.

It was, as then chairman Peter Adams wrote in the 1973 yearbook, "like a wedding where the members were the guests carefully looking each other over to see who would get the best of the bargain".

It turned out to be a bargain on both sides.

The decision to build a new pavilion "engendered a tremendous amount of spirit, completely removing any likely barriers between the original two clubs", wrote Adams.

The pavilion cost £5,000. The estimated cost of a new one which the club has in mind is £400,000.

What else has changed in 40 years? According to Davies, the season is better organised, with leagues now, and there is also the teas and transport.

"Prior to 40 years ago, teas were taken in the local café and, when we amalgamated, one of the first things we did was get a garden shed, fit it out, and the mums, wives and girlfriends did the tea rota," said Davies.

"And, because a lot of players didn't have cars, the people with cars got selected first."

Paul Argyle, the club fixtures secretary who co-ordinated the anniversary match, noted that it was now customary for record-breaking cricketers to receive the match ball.

The display cabinet, which Argyle donated, includes the ball with which Josh King took a hat-trick in 2007 but not the one from the only previous recorded hat-trick in league cricket, achieved by Kevin Fishleigh

"In those days I don't think much thought was given to presenting a cricketer with the match ball," said Argyle.

Fishleigh is now a club colts coach, and two 14-year-olds, Fred King and Dan Barratt, played in the anniversary match.

At that age you just want to play, never mind the history. But Fishleigh said: "I would like to think that if they don't appreciate it today, they will come to understand what they were part of."

The colourful history at Westward Ho! includes the appearance of two men who would go on to captain England, Brian Close and Ray Illingworth, putting on an undefeated third-wicket stand of 232 for Barton (Torquay) against Bideford in 1958, and the arrival on the outfield of Princess Anne by helicopter in 1985.

Travel was strictly by car for the anniversary match, which produced a tense finish.

Byron Kennedy (47) top scored as Dumplings reached 202 all out, Dave Staddon taking four for 31.

In reply, Bideford were 16 for two before 105 between Allin (70) and Alan Withecombe (53) took them to 121 for three. But they wobbled and passed the target nervously with only one wicket left, Kennedy taking three for 17.

Jeff Stander, the Dumplings fixtures secretary, said: "The closeness of the result was excellent for an anniversary match."

Hardly poetic but, without Kipling to turn to, Stander's summing up caught the flavour of the occasion perfectly well.