THE old sports pavilion down on the Evesham Sports Club alongside the River Avon and opposite Glovers Island was in the 1940s the meeting place for RAF men and women's XIs and Evesham mixed XIs both in hockey and cricket teams.

The photograph provided by Michael J Barnard is of one of those happy get-togethers that has, together with a sketch he made in 1945, triggered a fascinating look back to those wartime years and what memories.

"I spotted my Aunt Glad (Barnard) sitting on the pavilion steps, left middle, next to whom I'm sure is F/Lt W H Bill Hewitt RNZAF and his new bride WAAF Kaye Fraser having then recently been married at Honeybourne. Bill's best man was F/LT Jimmy Thompson RCAF and Kaye's bridesmaid WAAF Billy Fullerton. On their left, with the pipe, is my cousin John Byrd, of Harvington, making this photograph a happy jolt from the past that has given me great pleasure, thanks to the courtesy of the Brian Kedward collection."

Mr Barnard said many inter-service fixtures were arranged with the Evesham hockey and cricket clubs and the meetings down by the river were always very happy occasions.

"Our squadron also played on these riverside pitches but at football and it was on one sunny afternoon in 1944 that a flight over Evesham helped many of these fixtures to be arranged,"

Mr Barnard recalled. "A group of airmen and WAAFs in the canteen at RAF Pershore were wishing to arrange hockey and cricket matches with local teams from the Vale of Evesham.

"Not knowing where the pitches were in Evesham, the pilot of the Anson in my sketch suggested we flew over Evesham to show them the lie of the land."

Many games followed and after one game against an RAF Hospital Evesham XI when Mr Barnard's side beat them 4-0, the RAF captain offered his congratulations.

"You beat us well and truly, well done, you may like to play the WAAF nurses champion hockey team.

"Such excitement but sadly we never did play that game"

Mr Barnard added: "On seeing my sketch and the photograph together after 60 years and remembering that wonderful flight over Evesham's playing fields and having flown with many of these New Zealand and Canadian crews many times, this wartime view of the Vale of Evesham with its steam trains, its railway line to Bengeworth station at Hampton holds many memories of the Commonwealth service men and women with their Dominion shoulder flashes that we met for only fleeting hours during those troubled times."

Mr Barnard's aunt, Gladys Barnard was a stalwart of Evesham Ladies Hockey Club, playing in goal for them and Worcestershire for many years.

She was even selected to play for England but unfortunately the war intervened.