Founded by a brewery baron, refreshed and buoyant after Sport England reached the parts that other funding bodies cannot reach, Castle Eden Cricket Club is drinking to an unbeaten century. The nineties were pretty nervous, nonetheless.

That's when the council was asked to see what could be done about the roof of the club headquarters - a couple of prefabs bought second hand from Esh Winning - took one look and condemned the lot.

"We could have either closed down completely or got off our backsides and done something about a new pavilion," says club chairman Hughie Teasdale.

"I said there was no way we'd shut down, I'd been here too long. It's been a lot of hard work, but it's really paying off now."

A 1906 accounts book records a balance of £63 12s, oe1 10s a week for the groundsman, £4 10s for a grass mower and 1/1d for a player's return train fare to Stockton.

Now, though organisation and administration are manifestly professional, no one's paid a penny.

Hughie, 70, joined the east Durham village club as a 15-year-old and has been chairman for 20 years. Leo Taylor, with whom he frequently opened the bowling - "We'd think nothing of bowling 25 each in a 50 over match." says Leo - has been secretary for 22 years.

Between them, the kings of Castle Eden have unbroken service of 96 years and both played into their sixties. Leo, 64, reckons to spend seven days a week, 9am-11pm working at or on the Parklands ground.

"Mind," he concedes, "I usually get home for me tea."

Like everyone from cleaners to bar staff they're not just unpaid but adamantly decline expenses. Players stump up £3 a week for the privilege; there's no pro, no Olivers and no twisting.

"Our wives have got used to it because they've been brought up with cricket and used to make the teas, but we still take them out for a drink every Saturday night," says Hughie.

The venue, of course, is the cricket club.

"I've been playing cricket since I was 14, had many years of enjoyment out of it and I'm just trying to put something back, to ensure these lads have the best facilities possible. I just wish they'd been as good when we were playing," says Leo.

"It's just part of our lives, but we never in our wildest imaginings thought it would take off the way it has done," says Hughie, retired clerk of works at the Castle Eden Brewery.

The club was formed by William John Nimmo, he of the XXXX brewery, who became Durham County Cricket Club chairman from 1925-36, captained the county's "amateur" amd "members" sides and believed a brewer to be ever more valuable if he could bat and bowl a bit as well.

"It certainly helped you get a job," says Leo, who himself worked at ICI and reckons to spend more time at the cricket club than ever he did at the chemical works.

Brewery director Rudd Alderson made 30 Durham County appearances and also played rugby for the Barbarians. Keith Jackson, who married Nimmo's daughter - who still lives in the village - hit three centuries in 39 Durham matches and among his 68 victims took 9-105 against Yorkshire II.

Also in the clubhouse on Wednesday night, the day after his 66th birthday, was Durham cricket legend Stuart Young, said by Wisden to be one of the finest fast bowlers never to have played county championship cricket and to have declined several first class invitations to do so.

Stuart, the gentle giant, claimed 348 wickets in 115 county games and top scored with 129.

Colin Bell, better remembered in a football shirt, also played his cricket for Castle Eden. "He was tremendous," recalls Hughie. "If he hadn't decided on professional football, I'm sure he could have played county cricket.

"As soon as he'd finished with Manchester City or England, he'd be back home to play his cricket."

Leo and Hughie recall when cows grazed on the adjacent fields - no houses, no golf course, no Peterlee - and when they changed in a hut.

Opened in 1999, the magnificent new facilities cost around £250,000. The club was required to find a tenth of the money in two years but still maintained its charity work - recently including almost £1,000 for the parish church.

Five years ago there were just two teams. Now there are seven, three senior and four junior, with ECB "Club Mark" accreditation in the offing and a highly promising 15-year-old called Sarah Grufferty who could shortly chalenge for the senior sides.

"We've looked at the rules, we can't see any reason why not," says Leo.

On Sunday 12 teams contest a Kwik Cricket festival, on August 22 and 29 other matches help mark the centenary.

Ther are 240 members, 150 life members. The clubhouse has photographs of the 1906 side ("Leo's tied to be on there," said someone, unkindly) and, framed, the score card from the 1999 match against Ryhope when Michael Cuthbert claimed 10-20 in 12.4 overs, nine of his victims clean bowled. The tenth got his pad in the way.

Hughie and Leo have no plans to declare closed their own innings or to leave Parklands, their personal garden of Eden.

"It's time consuming but it's not hard because it's your life," says Hughie. "It's not a bad life, is it, when it all revolves around cricket?

Published: ??/??/2004