Diss Cricket Club has caused controversy with its plans for a fence round Rectory Meadow to help reduce the vandalism and acts of anti-social behaviour it says are blighting its plans for the future.
But 41 years ago the club was being hailed as saviours of the Meadow, having prevented plans to build on it.
A copy of the Diss Express, dated February 16, 1968, was brought in by a reader to show how Rectory Meadow might not now exist but for the
foresight and hard work of the cricket club.
The club had begun a fight a year earlier to preserve the Rectory Meadow as an open space after plans were unveiled to build a school on the site.
The 1968 newspaper reported: "In a letter to Ald Harold Jeffery – who gave considerable support to the club in its efforts – the chief education officer for Norfolk, Dr F Lincoln Ralphs, wrote: 'We are exploring the possibility of obtaining an alternative site for the new school. The object is to leave the Rectory Meadow available for recreational facilities'."Elsewhere on the front of that week's eight-page broadsheet Diss Express, was news of council house rents going up by five shillings and the story of 19-year-old John Speirs, of 22 Frenze Road, who was en route to Barbados after answering an advertisement in The Times for crew members for an ocean adventure.Mary Rigg, of the Paddocks, Palgrave, was pictured with the 50th pint of blood she had donated. The story also commemorated her retirement as secretary of the British Goat Society.Mellis couple Lancelot and Gladys Rush were celebrating their golden wedding, alongside a report on the marriage of Eileen Hubbard, of Willbye Avenue, Diss, and George 'Tubby' Garland, of Oakley.The Miss Senior Citizen of 1968 was crowned at the first birthday party of the Salvation Army's senior citizens' club.Mrs L Nunn was chosen for the award by a panel of judges and crowned by Mr C Gardner, chairman of Diss Town Charities.
On Page 3, Valerie Garnham, of Burston, was pictured twirling her way to victory in a hoopla competition at the annual re-union of the South Norfolk Labour Party.