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Our Story......

Our story starts over 30 years ago in 1990.....we had just started a new baseball "club" which consisted of a group of friends based in and around Guildford....I can't really remember who's idea it was to start playing baseball but it seemed very popular and we soon had a fair few members who wanted to play. 

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Access to the internet was in its infancy back then (hard to believe - but true) but I was fortunate enough to have access to a computer and a modem (look it up) and discovered, to my surprise, that baseball was widely played in the UK and it was governed by a body called the British Baseball Federation (BBF)....I called them up and spoke to a really helpful guy called Kevin MacAdam and asked him how we would go about entering their Southern League and playing competitively. It was a fortuitous call because as we were chatting, Kevin happened to mention to me that there were a bunch of guys called the Wokingham Millers who were struggling with numbers and it looked like they were going to fold that season.....lightbulb moment!...... Why don't we invite them to come and join us?  Which is exactly what we did.  I remember our first meeting which was with Mike Burdett and that was the very moment that the Guildford Mavericks (the name came later) were formed!

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Early Mavericks game, home fixture at Bishop Reindorp (now Christs College)...Paul Skerrit and Richard watch on, Martin Roberts looking freezing cold waiting to go on - we loved the stirrups look!

Mike Burdett - the real brains behind the outfit!

Richard braving the wind trying to get Rowena interested in scoring...but failing miserably......Martin breaking into a car behind us!

Steve Porter showing a baseball who's boss!

So our club got going and played in Single A of the Southern League of the BBF....and it grew.....and grew up to the point that we had far too many players (which was a nice problem to have) so we started another team called the Mudcats to act as an overspill that could accomodate all the members that couldn't get to play for the Mavericks....It was around about this time that we had discussed forming a Junior team because even then, we knew that in order for the club to grow, we needed youngsters playing the game and so it was decided that we would get this project off the ground and we formed a junior team that would play the few other junior teams in the area.....

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The First Guildford Mavericks Junior team, showing that "street attitude"

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Richard Umpiring a Juniors Fixture

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A very young Henry Collins who later went on to pitch for Great Britain and has now returned to us with his son Harrison.....going full circle.....

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The Collins Boys.....

So that was the start of the Guildford Juniors and we have been consistent, unlike many other clubs within British baseball, in that we've always managed to run a Junior wing, many of those younger players eventually playing for the adult team and long may that continue with your support........there were so many people who helped us get where we are today, far too many to name here......but I will leave you with a photo album from our archives...

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Richard

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