The print hit harder times in the coming decades.
The decline was overseen by media mogul Robert Maxwell, who apparently landed his helicopter on the Purnell cricket pitch when he bought the company in the 1980s.
Suffering from what it described as a combination of under investment in new technology and increasingly stiff foreign competition, the print works finally closed in 2005, with the loss of 400 jobs.
The cricket club – which kept its name – kept going, just.
“We didn’t think we were going to make 100,” said chairman Harvey Burgess.
“We had a big meeting where the club seriously could have folded, but we fought back and the next season we got promotion into the division that we play in today.”
He added: “We’re on the up now, which is good.”