1.
Ryan ten Doeschate
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Ryan Neil ten Doeschate is a Dutch professional cricketer who has represented the Netherlands at both One Day International and Twenty20 International level. Considered one of the finest players the non-Test world has ever produced, Ten Doeschate holds the highest batting average in ODI cricket by a batsman with more than 10 innings. Born and raised in South Africa, ten Doeschate signed with Essex CCC for the 2003 English season, at the latter tournament, ten Doeschate scored 119 runs against England, the first ODI century by a Dutch player against a full member of the ICC. At domestic level, Ten Doeschate first established himself as a regular for Essex during the 2006 season, Ten Doeschates domestic commitments have prevented him from playing regularly for the Netherlands, with his most recent international match coming in 2011. He matriculated at Fairbairn College in Goodwood, near Cape Town in 1998, while at school, he excelled at both rugby and cricket. In 2003, Gooch was on tour with Essex in South Africa, against Essex, he first excelled with the ball in a four-day game. He then did well with the bat in a one-dayer, in 2008, ten Doeschate became one of the cornerstones of a strong Essex team and enjoyed success with them by winning the Friends Provident Trophy and Pro40 Division 2. During a Clydesdale Bank 40 match against the Derbyshire Falcons, ten Doeschate managed 109 not out as the Essex Eagles won on the Duckworth-Lewis method. In 2010, ten Doeschate led the averages for Essex in Englands Friends Provident t20 this year. He also had best economy-rate for his side, conceding 6.81 runs an over, in 2010, he signed with Tasmania for the Twenty20 Big Bash in 2010/11. He was joined Pakistan fast bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan as Tasmanias two international players the season. He was also their joint fourth-highest wicket-taker, with 12 wickets in nine games at an average of 17.66 and played a key role in their wins over Wellington and Otago early in the competition. In January 2011, ten Doeschate was picked by the Kolkata Knight Riders team in the IPL2011 Auction for $150,000, Ten Doeschate also was the first Associate player to win an IPL contract. His selection made ten Doeschate the second Dutch player after Dirk Nannes to play in the Indian Premier League, in 2011, he smashed 121 not out off 58 balls to lead Mashonaland Eagles to the final of the Stanbic Bank 20 Series. Ten Doeschates hundred helped Eagles beat Matabeleland Tuskers by 23 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method in the qualifying final and he struck eight sixes and six fours in his innings and was unperturbed by wickets falling at the other end. In 2012, he signed Otago Volts in the HRV Cup, during the season ten Doeschate finished second on the runs-scorer list with 401 runs in 10 innings at an average of 50.12. In 2013, in the Bangladesh Premier League, The Kings needed one batsman to take charge, Ten Doeschate finished as the second highest run-scorer of the tournament. The form of Ravi Bopara had initially led to ten Doeschate being benched, ten Doeschate held firm, in 2013, ten Doeschate and Hamish Rutherford produced exhilarating performances with the bat as Essex beat Scotland by 125 runs at Chelmsford
2.
County Cricket Ground, Chelmsford
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The Essex County Ground, is a cricket venue in Chelmsford, Essex, England. It has been home to Essex County Cricket Club since 1967, Chelmsford is a small ground, and therefore suits big-hitting batsmen. Former Essex and England batsman Graham Gooch scored most of his first-class runs there, Graham Napier scored 152 off 58 balls in a Twenty20 match v Sussex at the ground. The success of Essex County Cricket Club in the versions of the game between 2005 and 2008 led to the attraction of many new fans. Eventually the ground was regularly selling out in Twenty20 and Friends Provident Trophy games, recent developments at the stadium include the building of new apartment blocks, new pavilion, cricket school, car park, public square and bridge. The Ford Motor Company had naming rights for the ground for between 2005 and 2013, from 2017 to 2019 the naming rights to the stadium have been bought by Cloudfm and therefor the ground will be known as the Cloudfm County Ground. The large amount of passionate support Essex receive at this ground has led to it being referred to as Fortress Chelmsford. List of cricket grounds in England and Wales
3.
Chelmsford
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Chelmsford is the principal settlement of the City of Chelmsford and the county town of Essex, in the East of England. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately 32 miles northeast of Charing Cross, London, the urban area of the city has a population of approximately 120,000, whilst the district has a population of 168,310. The communities of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Chelmsford, Ontario, and Chelmsford, Chelmsfords population consists of a large number of City and Docklands commuters, attracted by the 30–35 minute journey from Central London via the Great Eastern Main Line. The same journey takes approximately 60 minutes by road via the A12, on 14 March 2012, Lord President of the Privy Council and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced that Chelmsford, along with Perth, Scotland and St Asaph, Wales, was to be granted city status. The Letters Patent officially granting city status to Chelmsford from The Queen were received on 6 June 2012, the demonym for a Chelmsford resident is Chelmsfordian. An under-cover market, operating Tuesday to Saturday, is still an important part of the city centre over 800 years later, the citys name is derived from Ceolmaers ford which was close to the site of the present High Street stone bridge. In the Domesday Book of 1086, the town was called Celmeresfort and its position on the Londinium – Camulodonum Roman road ensured the early prosperity of Chelmsford. Before 1199, there were nearby from ancient times. A Neolithic and a late Bronze Age settlement have been found in the Springfield suburb, a Roman fort was built in AD60, and a civilian town grew up around it. The remains of a mansio, a combination post office, civic centre and hotel, lie beneath the streets of modern Moulsham, the town disappeared for a while after the Romans left Britain. The town became the seat of the local assize during the early 13th century and by 1218 it was recognised as the county town of Essex, a position it has retained to the present day. Chelmsford was significantly involved in the Peasants Revolt of 1381, the Sleepers and The Shadows, written by Hilda Grieve in 1988 using original sources, states, For nearly a week, from Monday 1st July to Saturday 6th July, Chelmsford became the seat of government. The king probably lodged at his manor house at Writtle. He was attended by his council, headed by the temporary Chancellor, Richard II famously revoked the charters which he had made in concession to the peasants on 2 July 1381, while in Chelmsford. It could be said that given this movement of government power, the road Saxon Way now marks the site. In the 17th century many of the victims of Matthew Hopkins spent their last days imprisoned in Chelmsford, before being tried at the Assizes, Henry VIII purchased the Boleyn estate in 1516, and built Beaulieu Palace on the current site of New Hall School. This later became the residence of his mistress, and later wife Anne. Soon after it became the residence of Henrys daughter, by his first marriage, during World War II Chelmsford, an important centre of light engineering war production, was attacked from the air on several occasions, both by aircraft of the Luftwaffe and by missile
4.
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
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Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the county of Leicestershire. It has also representative of the county of Rutland. The clubs limited overs team is called the Leicestershire Foxes, founded in 1879, the club had minor county status until 1894 when it was promoted to senior status pending its entry into the County Championship in 1895. In limited overs cricket, the kit colours are red with black trim in the Clydesdale Bank 40, the shirt sponsors are Oval Insurance Broking with Highcross Leicester on the top reverse side of the shirt. Leicestershire are in the division of the County Championship and in Group C of the Pro40 one day league. They recently finished bottom of the County Championship for the first time since the introduction of two divisions and their best showing in recent years has been in the Twenty20 Cup with the Foxes winning the trophy three times in eight years. A notice in the Leicester Journal dated 17 August 1776 is the earliest known mention of cricket in Leicestershire. But it was only a few years after that before a Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Club was taking part in important matches, mainly against Nottingham Cricket Club and this club was prominent from 1781 until the beginning of the 19th century. Little more is heard of Leicestershire cricket until the formation of the present club on 25 March 1879, Essex CCC versus Leicestershire CCC at Leyton on 14,15 &16 May 1894 was the initial first-class match played by either club. In 1895, the County Championship was restructured into a 14-team competition with the introduction of Essex, Leicestershires first 70 years were largely spent in lower table mediocrity, with few notable exceptions. In 1953, the motivation of secretary-captain Charles Palmer lifted the side fleetingly to third place, change came in the late 1950s with the recruitment of the charismatic Willie Watson at the end of a distinguished career with England and Yorkshire. Watsons run gathering sparked the home-grown Maurice Hallam into becoming one of Englands best opening batsmen, in bowling, Leicestershire had an erratically successful group of seamers in Terry Spencer, Brian Boshier, John Cotton and Jack van Geloven, plus the spin of John Savage. Another change was in the captaincy, Tony Lock, the former England, ray Illingworth, again from Yorkshire, instilled self-belief to the extent that the county took its first ever trophy in 1972, the Benson & Hedges Cup with Chris Balderstone man of the match. This was start of the first golden era as the first of five trophies in five years, a couple of runners up spots were also thrown in. The game when Leicestershire won their first ever County Championship, on 15 September 1975, batting on 51 not out against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, after close of play he changed into his football kit to play for Doncaster Rovers in an evening match 30 miles away. Thus he is the player to have played League Football. He then returned to Chesterfield to complete a century the following morning, to add to that seasons success for Leicestershire was a second Benson & Hedges victory
5.
Leyton Cricket Ground
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Leyton Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in Leyton, London. The ground has been used for cricket since the early 19th century, Essex County Cricket Club played their first game there on 15 and 16 June 1885 against Surrey, the game was lost by an innings. The captain of Essex, Charles Ernest Green, became convinced that the clubs ground at Brentwood was too small. In 1886, the club purchased the ground from its owner, an appeal was launched for £3,500 for the construction of a pavilion, other necessary buildings and general alterations. Lord Lyttelton was the first donor, contributing £200, although £2,900 had been raised by the appeal, the purchase of the Leyton Cricket Ground left the club in financial difficulty for decades. In 1921, the ground was sold to the Army Sports Central Board, Leyton Cricket Ground remained the headquarters of Essex County Cricket Club until 1933, when the lease expired and the club moved to the County Cricket Ground, Chelmsford, for the 1934 season. Essex returned to play matches at Leyton in 1957, by then owned by the local council, Essex are considering the possibility of playing some Twenty20 Cup games back at the ground. The ground is now used as a ground by local schools. A local cricket club, Leyton County Cricket Club, uses the ground for first team games during the summer, the wooden pavilion building still stands and has been a Grade II listed building since 1999. 1899, Essex beat Australia by 126 runs,1905, Essex beat the touring Australians by 19 runs. 1906, Essex beat the West Indies by 111 runs,1927, Essex beat New Zealand by five wickets. 1932, Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes of Yorkshire made a world record partnership for any wicket of 555 at Leyton. This remained the record for any wicket till 1945-6, and it was not until the 1976-7 season in Pakistan that it was beaten for the first wicket and it remains the record for any wicket made in England. 1962, Essex beat Pakistan by nine wickets, the ground has also been used for football. Millwall Rovers played London Caledonians at the ground in the East London FA Cup Final in 1886, the game finished 2-2 and both teams shared the cup for six months each. In 1895 Woolwich Arsenal played a Football League Second Division game against Leicester Fosse as their own Manor Ground was closed by the Football League following crowd trouble, Leyton Orient also occasionally played pre-season friendlies at the ground, in the 1900s
6.
County Championship
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The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. The competition consists of eighteen clubs named after, and originally representing, historic counties, seventeen from England, from 2016, the Championship will be sponsored by Specsavers, who replaced Liverpool Victoria after 14 years. In contrast, the term County Champions applies in common parlance to a team that has won the title since 1890. The most usual means of claiming the title was by popular or press acclaim. In the majority of cases, the claim or proclamation was retrospective, the unofficial title was not proclaimed in every season up to 1889 because in many cases there were not enough matches or there was simply no clear candidate. The concept of the title has been utilised ad hoc. The official County Championship was constituted in a meeting at Lords Cricket Ground on 10 December 1889 which was called to enable club secretaries to determine the 1890 fixtures. While this was going on, representatives of the eight leading county clubs held a meeting to discuss the method by which the county championship should in future be decided. A majority were in favour of ignoring drawn games altogether and settling the championship by wins, under this system defeats were subtracted from victories and the county with the highest total were champions. The new competition, which had official sanction, began in the 1890 season and at first featured Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex and it is difficult to know when the concept of a county championship originated. While early matches were often between teams named after counties, they were not the teams the usage would imply today. That may be so re the actual terminology but closer examination of the sources indicate a much earlier expression of the idea. The earliest known inter-county match was in 1709 between Kent and Surrey but match results are unknown until the 1720s. The first time a source refers to the superiority of one county is in respect of a match between Edwin Steads XI and Sir William Gages XI at Penshurst Park in August 1728, Steads XI won by an unknown margin although Gages XI needed just 7 in their second innings. The source says that the game could be called Kent v Sussex as the players were reported as 11 of each county, Sir William Gage was a Sussex landowner and Edwin Stead was a resident of Maidstone in Kent. Evidently Mr Steads Kent team also won two games earlier that season against the Duke of Richmonds XI, the source states that was the third time this summer that the Kent men have been too expert for those of Sussex. This clearly implies that Kent was considered to be the county at that time. In 1729, Sir William Gages Sussex team defeated Kent on 5 September, The latter got in one hand and this may have been the earliest known innings victory
7.
Twenty20 Cup
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The Twenty20 Cup was a cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties from 2003 to 2009. In 2010, it was replaced as the domestic Twenty20 competition by the Friends Provident t20, when the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the England and Wales Cricket Board needed another one-day competition to fill its place. The cricketing authorities were looking to boost the popularity with the younger generation in response to dwindling crowds. It was intended to deliver fast-paced, exciting cricket accessible to thousands of fans who were put off by the versions of the game. The first Twenty20 Cup was held in 2003 and was marketed with the slogan “I don’t like cricket and it was won by the Surrey Lions. The Twenty20 format, twenty overs for each team, means a game can be completed in three hours, making it more palatable for children and families than longer matches. Many games are played in twilight, again to enhance family spectator appeal and to allow attendance after work and they also feature numerous musical stings for exciting events, such as the dismissal of a batsman, or the hitting of a boundary. Most of the rules of cricket are retained, but the emphasis is on fast scoring. There are limits on fielding positions, and the boundaries are shorter, batsmen get a Free Hit if the bowler bowls a No Ball by overstepping the popping crease. There is also a strict 1 minute 30 second time limit on the amount of time a new batsman has to reach the crease. In the event of the scores being equal at the end of the overs of knockout matches, there is a bowl-off, similar to a penalty shoot out, the winners are the team with the most hits. As of the 2008 season, each county team will play 10 games, playing team in the group once home. Teams receive two points for a win, none for a defeat and one for a tie or a no result if the game cant be completed and this stage takes around three weeks to complete, with teams playing several ties each week. The top two from each division along with the two best third-place finishers qualify with for the quarter-finals, with the winners and best second place team having home ties. The winners of the go through to Finals Day, a bumper day of Twenty20 when the semi-finals. The first stage involves the eighteen counties being split into three divisions, based on their location in Great Britain, each division contains six counties and are divided up as follows, The event has been held annually towards the end of the cricket season in England since 2003. Surrey won the event against Warwickshire Bears, in front of a sell out crowd at Trent Bridge. Leicestershire Foxes are the team to have won the competition more than once
8.
Cricket
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Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket at each end. One team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a number of overs have been completed, the innings ends. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, at the start of each game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play. The striker takes guard on a crease drawn on the four feet in front of the wicket. His role is to prevent the ball hitting the stumps by use of his bat. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the end of the pitch near the bowler. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces him, the bowlers objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. An over is a set of six deliveries bowled by the same bowler, the next over is bowled from the other end of the pitch by a different bowler. If a fielder retrieves the ball enough to put down the wicket with a batsman not having reached the crease at that end of the pitch. Adjudication is performed on the field by two umpires, the laws of cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council and the Marylebone Cricket Club. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball. Although crickets origins are uncertain, it is first recorded in south-east England in the 16th century and it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the mid-19th century. ICC, the governing body, has over 100 members. The sport is followed primarily in Australasia, Britain, the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa, womens cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. A number of words have been suggested as sources for the term cricket, in the earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598 it is called creckett. One possible source for the name is the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, in Samuel Johnsons Dictionary, he derived cricket from cryce, Saxon, a stick
9.
England and Wales
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The devolved National Assembly for Wales was created in 1999 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom under the Government of Wales Act 1998 and provides a degree of self-government in Wales. The powers of the Assembly were expanded by the Government of Wales Act 2006, which allows it to pass its own laws, there is no equivalent body for England, which is directly governed by the Parliament and the government of the United Kingdom. During the Roman occupation of Britain, the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit, at that time, most of the native inhabitants of Roman Britain spoke Brythonic languages, and were all regarded as Britons, divided into numerous tribes. After the conquest, the Romans administered this region as a single unit and this aimed to replace Welsh criminal law with English law. Welsh law continued to be used for civil cases until the annexation of Wales to England in the 16th century, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 then consolidated the administration of all the Welsh territories and incorporated them fully into the legal system of the Kingdom of England. Prior to 1746 it was not clear whether a reference to England in legislation included Wales and this specified that in all prior and future laws, references to England would by default include Wales. The Wales and Berwick Act was repealed in 1967, although the definition of England it created is preserved for acts passed prior to its repeal. Since the Acts repeal what was referred to as England is now England and Wales, while references to England, England and Wales are treated as a single unit, for most purposes, because the two form the constitutional successor to the former Kingdom of England. The continuance of Scots law was guaranteed under the 1706 Treaty of Union that led to the Acts of Union 1707, thus, most laws applicable to England also applied to Wales. However, Parliament now passes laws applicable to Wales and not to England, examples are the Welsh Language Acts 1967 and 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998. Measures and Acts of the National Assembly for Wales passed since the Government of Wales Act 2006 also apply in Wales, following the Government of Wales Act, effective since May 2007, the National Assembly for Wales can legislate on matters devolved to it. Following a referendum on 3 March 2011, the Welsh Assembly gained direct law-making powers and this was the first time in almost 500 years that Wales had its own powers to legislate. Each piece of Welsh legislation is known as an Act of the Assembly, outside of the legal system the position is mixed. Some organisations combine as England and Wales, others are separate, some religious denominations organise on the basis of England and Wales, most notably the Roman Catholic Church, but also small denominations, e. g. the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Prior to the disestablishment of the Church in Wales in 1920, the Electoral Commission maintains a register of political parties, organised according to where the party operates. The order of precedence in England and Wales is distinct from those of Northern Ireland and Scotland, the national parks of England and Wales have a distinctive legislative framework and history. Courts of England and Wales Judiciary of England and Wales Cultural relationship between the Welsh and the English Geography of Wales Geography of England British Isles
10.
Historic counties of England
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The historic counties of England were established for administration by the Normans, in most cases based on earlier kingdoms and shires established by the Anglo-Saxons and others. They ceased to be used for administration with the creation of the counties in 1889. They are alternatively known as ancient counties or traditional counties, where they are not included among the modern counties of England they are also known as former counties. Counties were used initially for the administration of justice, collection of taxes and organisation of the military and they continue to form the basis of modern local government in many parts of the country away from the main urban areas, although sometimes with considerably altered boundaries. The name of a county often gives a clue to how it was formed, either as a division took its name from a centre of administration. The majority of English counties are in the first category, with the name formed by combining the central town with the suffix -shire, for example Yorkshire. Former kingdoms, which became earldoms in the united England did not feature this formulation, so for Kent, Counties ending in the suffix -sex are also in this category and are former Saxon kingdoms. Many of these names are formed from compass directions, the third category includes counties such as Cornwall and Devon where the name corresponds to the tribes who inhabited the area. County Durham is anomalous in terms of naming and origin, not falling into any of the three categories, instead it was a diocese that was turned into the County Palatine of Durham, ruled by the Bishop of Durham. The expected form would otherwise be Durhamshire, but it was rarely used, there are customary abbreviations for many of the counties. In most cases these consist of simple truncation, usually with an s at the end signifying shire, some abbreviations are not obvious, such as Salop for Shropshire, Oxon for Oxfordshire, Hants for Hampshire and Northants for Northamptonshire. Counties were often prefixed with County of in official contexts, such as County of Kent and those counties named after central towns lost the -shire suffix, for example Yorkshire would be known as County of York. This usage was sometimes followed even where there was no town by that name, the -shire suffix was also appended for some counties, such as Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, despite their origin. There is still a Duke of Devonshire, Great Britain was first divided into administrative areas by the Romans, most likely following major geographical features such as rivers. Before their arrival there were distinct tribal areas, but they were in a constant state of flux as territory was gained, the areas that would later form the English counties started to take shape soon afterwards, with the Kingdom of Kent founded by settlers around 445. Once the Kingdom of England was united as a whole in 927 it became necessary to subdivide it for convenience and to this end. The whole kingdom was divided into shires by the time of the Norman conquest, robert of Gloucester accounts for thirty-five shires and William of Malmesbury thirty-two, Henry of Huntingdon, thirty-seven. In most cases the counties or shires in medieval times were administered by a sheriff on behalf of the monarch, after the Norman conquest the sheriff was replaced and the shires became counties, or areas under the control of a count, in the French manner
11.
Essex
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Essex /ˈɛsᵻks/ is a county in England immediately north-east of London. It borders the counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, the county town is Chelmsford, which is the only city in the county. Essex occupies the part of the old Kingdom of Essex, before this. As well as areas, the county also includes London Stansted Airport, the new towns of Basildon and Harlow, Lakeside Shopping Centre, the port of Tilbury. Originally recorded in AD527, Essex occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what later became Middlesex and its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lea. In changes before the Norman conquest the East Saxons were subsumed into the Kingdom of England and, following the Norman conquest, Essex became a county. During the medieval period, much of the area was designated a Royal forest, including the county in a period to 1204. Gradually, the subject to forest law diminished, but at various times included the forests of Becontree, Chelmsford, Epping, Hatfield, Ongar. County-wide administration Essex County Council was formed in 1889, however County Boroughs of West Ham, Southend-on-Sea and East Ham formed part of the county but were unitary authorities. 12 boroughs and districts provide more localised services such as rubbish and recycling collections, leisure and planning, parish-level administration – changes A few Essex parishes have been transferred to other counties. Before 1889, small areas were transferred to Hertfordshire near Bishops Stortford, Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region. Two unitary authorities In 1998 the boroughs of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were granted autonomy from the county of Essex after successful requests to become unitary authorities. Essex Police covers the county and the two unitary authorities. The county council chamber and main headquarters is at the County Hall in Chelmsford, before 1938 the council regularly met in London near Moorgate, which with significant parts closer to that point and the dominance of railways had been more convenient than any place in the county. It currently has 75 elected councillors, before 1965, the number of councillors reached over 100. The highest point of the county of Essex is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, close to the Hertfordshire border, the pattern of settlement in the county is diverse. Epping Forest also acts as a barrier to the further spread of London. Part of the southeast of the county, already containing the population centres of Basildon, Southend and Thurrock, is within the Thames Gateway
12.
Marylebone Cricket Club
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Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London, founded in 1787. It owns, and is based at, Lords in St Johns Wood, MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket both in England and Wales as well as worldwide. In 1993 many of its functions were transferred to the International Cricket Council and its English governance passed to the Test. MCC revised the Laws of Cricket in 1788 and continues to reissue them, since its foundation, the club has raised its own teams which are essentially occasional and have never taken part in any formal competition. Depending on the quality of the opposition in any match, MCC teams have held important match status from 1787 to 1894. MCC has never played in a List A match, MCC teams play many matches against minor opposition and, on these occasions, they relinquish their first-class status. Traditionally, to mark the beginning of each English season in April, MCC plays the reigning County Champions at Lords, the exact date of MCCs foundation is lost but seems to have been sometime in the late spring or the summer of 1787. Many of its members became dissatisfied with the surroundings and complained that the site was too public. They asked Thomas Lord, a bowler at the White Conduit, to secure a more private venue within easy distance of London. When Lord opened his new ground in May 1787, the White Conduit moved there, there was a match at Lords starting on 30 July 1787 titled Marylebone Cricket Club v White Conduit Club. The England touring team wore the red and yellow stripes of the Marylebone Cricket Club as their colours for the last time on the tour to New Zealand in 1996/97. The true provenance of MCCs colours is unknown, but its players often turned out sporting Sky Blue, until well into the 19th century. Another theory, which chimes with the origins, is that MCC borrowed its colours from the livery colours of a founding patron, Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond. Although MCC remains the framer and copyright holder of the Laws of Cricket, in recent times the ICC has begun instituting changes to match regulations without much consultation with MCC. Also, in moving its location from Lords to Dubai, the ICC gave a signal of breaking with the past and from MCC, changes to the laws of cricket are still made by the MCC. Any changes to these require a resolution of the MCC committee. MCC has long had an involvement in coaching the game of cricket. As of 2013 the clubs head coach Mark Alleyne heads an operation involving the running of an indoor-cricket school
13.
Limited overs cricket
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The name reflects the rule that in the match each team bowls a set maximum number of overs, usually between 20 and 50, although shorter and longer forms of limited overs cricket have been played. Each team bats only once, and each innings is limited to a set number of overs, usually fifty in a One Day International, List A is a classification of the limited-overs form of cricket, technically as the domestic level. As mentioned above, in almost all competitive games, a restriction is placed on the number of overs that may be bowled by any one bowler. This is to prevent a side playing two top-class bowlers with extremely good stamina who can bowl throughout their opponents innings, the usual limitation is set so that a side must include at least five players who bowl. For example, the limit for twenty-over cricket is four overs per bowler, for forty-over cricket eight per bowler. There are exceptions, Pro Cricket in the United States restricts bowlers to five overs each, thus leaving a side requiring only four bowlers. The idea for a one-day, limited 50-over cricket tournament, was first played in the match of the All India Pooja Cricket Tournament in 1951 in the small town of Thrippunithura in Kerala. It is thought to be the child of KV Kelappan Thampuran, a former cricketer. The one day limited over cricket game was adapted and played between English county teams for the first instance on 2 May 1962. Leicestershire beat Derbyshire and Northamptonshire beat Nottinghamshire over 65 overs in the Midlands Knock-Out Cup, the following year, the first full-scale one-day competition between first-class teams was played, the knock-out Gillette Cup, won by Sussex. The number of overs was reduced to 60 for the 1964 season, League one-day cricket also began in England, when the John Player Sunday League was started in 1969 with forty over matches. Both these competitions have continued every season since inauguration, though the sponsorship has changed, there is now one 50 over competition, which is called the Royal London One-Day Cup. The first Limited Overs International or One-Day International match was played in Melbourne in 1971, for more details, see History of cricket. Twenty20, a form of one-day cricket with 20 overs per side, was first played in England in 2003. It has proven popular, and several Twenty20 matches have been played between national teams. It makes several changes to the laws of cricket, including the addition of a bowl-out to decide the result of tied matches. Every four years, the Cricket World Cup involves all the Test-playing nations and it usually consists of round-robin stages, followed by semi-finals and a final. The International Cricket Council determines the venue far in advance, the ICC Champions Trophy also involves all the Test-playing nations, and is held between World Cups
14.
Twenty20
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Twenty20 cricket, sometimes written Twenty-20, and often abbreviated to T20, is a short form of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2003 for the inter-county competition in England. In a Twenty20 game the two teams have a single innings each, which is restricted to a maximum of 20 overs, a typical Twenty20 game is completed in about three hours, with each innings lasting around 75–90 minutes and a 10–20-minute interval. This is much shorter than previously-existing forms of the game, and is closer to the timespan of other team sports. It was introduced to create a form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground. Since its inception the game has very successful resulting in its spread around the cricket world. On most international tours there is at least one Twenty20 match, the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 was played in South Africa in 2007 with India winning by five runs against Pakistan in the final. Pakistan won the tournament in 2009, and England won the title in the West Indies 2010. West Indies won in 2012, with Sri Lanka winning the 2014 tournament, West Indies are the reigning champions, winning the 2016 competition, and in doing so, became the first nation to win the tournament twice. When the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the ECB needed another one day competition to fill its place, cricketing authorities were looking to boost the games popularity with the younger generation in response to dwindling crowds and reduced sponsorship. It was intended to deliver fast paced, exciting cricket accessible to thousands of fans who were put off by the versions of the game. Stuart Robertson, the manager of the ECB, proposed a 20 over per innings game to county chairmen in 2001. The first official Twenty20 matches were played on 13 June 2003 between the English counties in the Twenty20 Cup, the first season of Twenty20 in England was a relative success, with the Surrey Lions defeating the Warwickshire Bears by 9 wickets in the final to claim the title. Thirteen teams from different parts of the participated in Pakistans inaugural competition in 2004. On 12 January 2005 Australias first Twenty20 game was played at the WACA Ground between the Western Warriors and the Victorian Bushrangers and it drew a sell-out crowd of 20,000, which was the first time in nearly 25 years the ground had been completely sold out. Starting 11 July 200619 West Indies regional teams competed in what was named the Stanford 20/20 tournament, the event was financially backed by billionaire Allen Stanford, who gave at least US$28,000,000 funding money. It was intended that the tournament would be an annual event, guyana won the inaugural event, defeating Trinidad and Tobago by 5 wickets, securing US$1,000,000 in prize money. On 5 January 2007 Queensland Bulls played the New South Wales Blues at The Gabba, a crowd of 11,000 was expected based on pre-match ticket sales
15.
Ilford
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Ilford is a large cosmopolitan town in East London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Redbridge. It is located 9.1 miles north-east of Charing Cross and is one of the metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Ilford forms a significant commercial and retail centre surrounded by residential development. It was historically a rural settlement in the county of Essex and its strategic position on the River Roding. Since 1965 it has formed part of Greater London, but it is considered by some to be in Essex because of the postal county. Despite the Royal Mail no longer using official postal counties, Ilford is part of the IG postcode area, though areas to the west of Ilford Hill and the A406 are part of E postcode area instead. Ilford was historically known as Great Ilford to differentiate it from nearby Little Ilford, the name is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ilefort and means ford over the Hyle, an old name for the River Roding that means trickling stream. The only complete skull of a mammoth discovered in the United Kingdom was unearthed in 1860 at the site where Boots the Chemist now stands in the High Road. The skull can now be seen in the Natural History Museum and other animal remains can be seen at Redbridge Museum, Central Library. Redevelopment has destroyed much of the evidence for early Ilford, but the oldest evidence for human occupation is the 1st and this was situated between the Roding and Ilford Lane and is recorded in 18th century plans. Roman finds have also made in the vicinity. A nearby mound called Lavender Mount existed into the 1960s, when it was removed during building work at Howards chemical works, excavation has shown that the latter may have been a 16th-century beacon-mound. Archaeological discoveries are displayed at Redbridge Museum, Ilford straddled the important road from London to Colchester. The Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust controlled and maintained the road from 1721, the River Roding was made navigable for barges as far as Ilford Bridge from 1737. Ilford remained largely rural until its expansion in the 19th century and this brought about brickworks, cement works and coal yards to service the new buildings, largely centred on the River Roding. In 1839, a station was opened on the line from Romford to Mile End. The early businesses gave way to new industries, such as making and services such as steam laundries and collar making. A number of businesses have been founded in the town, including the eponymous photographic film
16.
Garon Park
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Garon Park is a cricket ground and recreational Park in Southend, England. The ground was first used by the Essex 1st XI in 2005, the ground will host two games in 2008, against Glamorgan in the County Championship and Northamptonshire in the Pro40 League. The ground has hosted 3 first-class matches and 3 List A matches, cricinfo Website - Ground Page Cricket Archive page
17.
Southend
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It is bordered to the north by Rochford and to the west by Castle Point. It is home to the longest leisure pier in the world, London Southend Airport is located 1.5 NM north of the town centre. Originally the south end of the village of Prittlewell, Southend was home to a few poor fisherman huts, due to the bad transportation links between Southend and London, there was not rapid development during the Georgian Era like Brighton. It was the coming of the railways in the 19th Century, during the 19th century Southends pier was first constructed and the Clifftown development built, attracting many tourists in the summer months to its seven miles of beaches and bathing in the sea. Good rail connections and proximity to London mean that much of the economy has been based on tourism, Southend Pier is the worlds longest pleasure pier at 1.34 mi. It has suffered fires and ship collisions, most recently in October 2005, as a holiday destination, Southend declined from the 1960s onwards, as holidaying abroad became more affordable. However, about 6.4 million tourists still visit Southend per year, revenue & Customs, are major employers in the town, and the central offices for the collection of VAT are located at Alexander House on Victoria Avenue. An annual seafront airshow, started in 1986 when it featured a flypast by Concorde whilst on a charter flight, used to take place each May. The aircraft flew parallel to the seafront, offset over the sea, the RAF Falcons parachute display team and RAF Red Arrows aerobatics team were regular visitors to the show. The show has not been held since 2012 due to a lack of sponsorship, an attempt to revive the show for September 2015, as the Southend Airshow and Military Festival, failed. Sopot, Poland, has been Southend-on-Seas twin town since October 1999, Southend-on-Sea was formed as a municipal borough in 1892 with the functions of local government shared with Essex County Council. In 1913 the borough was enlarged by the area of Leigh on Sea Urban District. In 1914 the enlarged Southend gained the status of county borough, exempt from county council control, the county borough was enlarged in 1933 by the former area of Shoeburyness Urban District and part of Rochford Rural District. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Southend became a district of Essex with borough status, however, in 1998 it again became the single tier of local government when it became a unitary authority. Seventeen wards each return three councillors, a total of 51, councillors serve four years and one third of the council is elected each year, followed by one year without election. Following the 2016 election results, the composition of the council is and they maintained a minority administration after the 2012 local elections, however the council has been run by a coalition of Lib Dems, Labour and Independents since June 2014. Most day-to-day decisions are by an executive headed by the council leader. The town has been twinned with the resort of Sopot in Poland since 1999 and has been developing three-way associations with Lake Worth, areas of criticism were the use of consultants and the spending of £3.5 million on taxis during the 2006–07 financial year
18.
Artillery Ground
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The Artillery Ground in Finsbury is an open space originally set aside for archery and later known also as a cricket venue. Today it is used for exercises and, in the summer months, rugby. It belongs to the Honourable Artillery Company, whose headquarters, Armoury House, from 1498, about 11 acres of the 23-acre Bunhill Fields were set aside for the practice of archery and shooting. Todays 8-acre site was given to the Artillery Company in 1638, in the eighteenth century it was the home of the original London Cricket Club. Before the creation of the Hambledon Club in the 1760s, the Artillery Ground was the venue of all London cricket. In the 18th century sources, the Artillery Ground was said to lie between Chiswell Street and Bunhill Fields, the latter being a cemetery. It was referred to in reports as the old Artillery Ground. In a report dated 23 June 1722 in the London Journal, the earliest definite cricket match at the Artillery Ground took place on 31 August 1730 between London and Surrey. London won but no details are known. The ground quickly became Londons first choice home venue with five matches recorded there in 1731, a report in 1732 states that the playing area was staked out and roped off. This practice is first reported at Kennington Common the previous year, by the 1740s, the Artillery Ground had become the sports feature venue and for about twenty years it had a social status that only Lords Cricket Ground has subsequently equalled. Single wicket was especially popular in the 1740s and huge crowds gambling huge sums of money were attracted to the ground whenever these contests took place, the history of the ground is coloured by references to its keepers, or lessees. The first known reference is in The Craftsman dated Sat 26 February 1732 re Mr Christopher Jones, Master of the Artillery Ground, the keepers were responsible for maintaining order at the ground. If any persons get on the Walls, they will be prosecuted as the Law directs, obviously, by coming through the pub, many might well stop and buy a drink. Jones, as the landlord, would have no objection to that, the most charismatic keeper was George Smith who had frequent disputes with the HAC during his tenure. He also had problems and there are surviving reports of his attempts to pay off his debts by raising the ground admission. On 15 September 1784 Vincent Lunardi, flew a balloon from the Artillery Ground, the area is now used for rugby and football in the winter and cricket in the summer by HAC teams including HAC RFC. Notably, it hosted a rugby match between Saracens and the USA national team on 9 November 2010, won 20–6 by Saracens
19.
Leicestershire CCC
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Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the county of Leicestershire. It has also representative of the county of Rutland. The clubs limited overs team is called the Leicestershire Foxes, founded in 1879, the club had minor county status until 1894 when it was promoted to senior status pending its entry into the County Championship in 1895. In limited overs cricket, the kit colours are red with black trim in the Clydesdale Bank 40, the shirt sponsors are Oval Insurance Broking with Highcross Leicester on the top reverse side of the shirt. Leicestershire are in the division of the County Championship and in Group C of the Pro40 one day league. They recently finished bottom of the County Championship for the first time since the introduction of two divisions and their best showing in recent years has been in the Twenty20 Cup with the Foxes winning the trophy three times in eight years. A notice in the Leicester Journal dated 17 August 1776 is the earliest known mention of cricket in Leicestershire. But it was only a few years after that before a Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Club was taking part in important matches, mainly against Nottingham Cricket Club and this club was prominent from 1781 until the beginning of the 19th century. Little more is heard of Leicestershire cricket until the formation of the present club on 25 March 1879, Essex CCC versus Leicestershire CCC at Leyton on 14,15 &16 May 1894 was the initial first-class match played by either club. In 1895, the County Championship was restructured into a 14-team competition with the introduction of Essex, Leicestershires first 70 years were largely spent in lower table mediocrity, with few notable exceptions. In 1953, the motivation of secretary-captain Charles Palmer lifted the side fleetingly to third place, change came in the late 1950s with the recruitment of the charismatic Willie Watson at the end of a distinguished career with England and Yorkshire. Watsons run gathering sparked the home-grown Maurice Hallam into becoming one of Englands best opening batsmen, in bowling, Leicestershire had an erratically successful group of seamers in Terry Spencer, Brian Boshier, John Cotton and Jack van Geloven, plus the spin of John Savage. Another change was in the captaincy, Tony Lock, the former England, ray Illingworth, again from Yorkshire, instilled self-belief to the extent that the county took its first ever trophy in 1972, the Benson & Hedges Cup with Chris Balderstone man of the match. This was start of the first golden era as the first of five trophies in five years, a couple of runners up spots were also thrown in. The game when Leicestershire won their first ever County Championship, on 15 September 1975, batting on 51 not out against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, after close of play he changed into his football kit to play for Doncaster Rovers in an evening match 30 miles away. Thus he is the player to have played League Football. He then returned to Chesterfield to complete a century the following morning, to add to that seasons success for Leicestershire was a second Benson & Hedges victory
20.
Leyton
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Leyton is a district of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, located 6.2 miles north-east of Charing Cross in the United Kingdom. It borders Walthamstow and Leytonstone in Waltham Forest, Stratford in the London Borough of Newham and Homerton, the district includes part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which hosted the 2012 Olympic Games, as well as Leyton Orient Football Club, although it is predominantly residential. It consists mainly of terraced houses built between 1870 and 1910, interspersed with modern housing estates. Leyton is in the Lower Lea Valley, the river forming its western boundary, the area rises from low-lying marshland along the Lea to over 90 feet at Whipps Cross on the southern edge of Epping Forest. Leyton is partially bisected by the A12, with most of the district lying on the north-west side of busy traffic artery through east London. The High Road Leyton bridge crossing the A12 offers some of the best views in London of the Olympic Park and it borders Walthamstow along Lea Bridge Road and areas of the London Borough of Hackney via the River Lea. Paleolithic implements and fossil bones show that man hunted in Leyton. A Roman cemetery and the foundations of a Roman villa have been found here, from Anglo-Saxon times, Leyton has been part of the County of Essex. The name means settlement on the River Lea and was known until 1921 as Low Leyton. In the Domesday Book, the name is rendered as Leintun. at which time the population was 43, the ancient parish church of St Mary the Virgin was largely rebuilt in the 17th Century. The parish of Leyton also included Leytonstone, the old civil parish was formed into an Urban District within Essex in 1894 and it gained the status of Municipal Borough in 1926. The parish and urban district were known as Low Leyton until 1921. In 1965, the Municipal Borough of Leyton was abolished and was combined with that of Walthamstow and Chingford to form the London Borough of Waltham Forest, the main route through the town is the High Road, which forms part of the ancient route to Waltham Abbey. At the top end of the High Road is a crossroads with Lea Bridge Road and this junction and the surrounding district is known as Bakers Arms, named after the public house which has now closed down. The pub was named in honour of the almshouses on Lea Bridge Road built in 1857 by the London Master Bakers Benevolent Institution. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Leyton was a pretty retiring place from London for wealthy merchants and bankers, Leytons development from an agricultural community to an industrial and residential suburb was given impetus by the arrival of the railway. First at Lea Bridge Station in 1840, then at Low Leyton in 1856, finally Leyton Midland Road opened in 1894, after an elevated line had been built on brick arches across the already developed streets. However, not all the spaces were lost,200 acres of Epping Forest within Leytons borders were preserved by the Epping Forest Act 1878
21.
Warwickshire CCC
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Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the county of Warwickshire. Its 50 overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears and its T20 team the Birmingham Bears, Warwickshires kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor is Gullivers Sports Travel. The clubs home is Edgbaston Cricket Ground in south Birmingham, which regularly hosts Test, the Warwickshire & Staffordshire Journal was certainly aware of the sport in 1738 for it carried a report of a London v Mitcham game at the Artillery Ground on 11 August. The earliest confirmed reference to cricket in the county is an announcement in Aris’ Gazette on 15 July 1751. There was a prominent club in Coventry towards the end of the 18th century which played two well-documented matches against Leicester in 1787 and 1788, reports of both games are included in Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket by G. B. Leicester won both games by 45 and 28 runs respectively, Warwickshire CCC was officially founded on 8 April 1882 at a meeting in The Regent Hotel, Leamington Spa. The club developed so well that by the time of the first official County Championship in 1890 it was playing some of the top first-class counties such as Surrey, Warwickshire became first-class themselves in 1894 and surprised the cricket world with wins over Surrey at The Oval and Nottinghamshire. They competed in the County Championship from 1895 but despite being strong in batting, their bowling was, until the arrival of Sam Hargreave and Frank Field in 1899, very weak. In 1911 he headed both batting and bowling averages and, along with a fully fit Frank Field, enabled Warwickshire to take the Championship from the Big Six for the time between 1890 and 1935. In 1919, with Foster having had an accident that ended his short career, Warwickshire fell to last in the table. They did not improve a great deal until the 1930s when Bob Wyatts captaincy and the bowling of Mayer, Paine and Hollies moved them to fourth in 1934, but as Paine rapidly declined, they fell away. When Wyatt left for Worcestershire after World War II, they declined even further despite Hollies wonderful bowling in 1946 – with no support at all, he took 175 wickets for only 15 each. The acquisition of New Zealand speedster Tom Pritchard gave Hollies the necessary support and it was this bowling power, along with effective if not wonderful batting, that gave them the Championship in 1951. However, as with 1911, they fell off rapidly as their batting became unreliable over the rest of the decade, after Hollies retirement in 1957, there were some very poor seasons until Tom Cartwright emerged as a top-class seam bowler in 1962. The county came second in 1964, but did not establish itself at the top until the late 1960s, in 1971 Lance Gibbs magnificent bowling enabled them to come second, whilst brilliant batting gave them a clear Championship win in 1972. Yet again, though, a Championship win was followed by a decline, in 1981 and 1982, with Bob Willis doing nothing for them whilst producing match-winning form for England, they averaged over 45 runs for each wicket they took – still a record. Only under the coaching of Bob Woolmer and captaincy of Dermot Reeve did the team become consistently successful, in 1994 they secured a historic treble, winning the County Championship, Axa Equity & Law League and Benson & Hedges Cup
22.
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
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Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England. It is home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club, and is used for Test matches, One Day Internationals. Edgbaston has also hosted the T20 domestic finals day more than any other cricket ground, Edgbaston was also the first English ground outside Lords to host a major international one day tournament final when it hosted the ICC Champions Trophy final in 2013. Edgbaston was the venue of the first senior game under floodlights in English cricket, with permanent seating for 25,000 spectators, Edgbaston is the fourth-largest cricketing venue in the United Kingdom, after Lords, Old Trafford and The Oval. Edgbaston also has a variety of conference and banqueting halls available for a variety of events and has an award winning catering team, Edgbaston hosts an annual fireworks display during bonfire night week. The land that now makes up Edgbaston Cricket Ground was originally owned by the Calthorpe Estate, with the site only 20 minutes walk from New Street Station, Warwickshire agreed in 1885 to lease the land for £5 per acre over a 21-year period. A further £1,250 was spent on draining and enclosing the site and building a wooden pavilion. The new grounds first match took place on 7 June 1886 against the MCC, edgbastons first test match was the first in The Ashes series against Australia in 1902, for which the club erected a permanent stand, two temporary stands and facilities for 90 members of the press. These developments cost a total of £1,500, however, the first piece of development in the post-war era was the construction of the Rea Bank and the Thwaite Memorial Scoreboard in 1950. In 1956 an Indoor Cricket School was built and the Pavilion Suite was completed in the same year, by the time the William Ansell Stand opened in 1967 the facilities at Edgbaston were considered to rival those at Lords. In 1989 executive boxes were added to the rear of the Priory and Raglan Stands, in July 1997, Edgbaston was the scene of the first competitive floodlit day-night cricket match in Britain. Demolition of the pavilion – parts of which dated back to the 1890s –, ryder and William Ansell Stands took place in January 2010, with construction of the new South and West Stands starting in April 2010 and reaching completion 66 weeks later. 5 permanent floodlight pylons were erected around the ground at the same time, the new development was officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on 25 July 2011. Edgbaston is considered to be one of Englands leading cricket grounds, after the opening of the new South and West Stands in 2011 the England and Wales Cricket Board commented that the spacious facilities are cutting edge, marginally better than the Home of Cricket. The atmosphere at Edgbaston is reputed to be the most hostile in England for visiting teams, former England captain Alec Stewart recalled On a world level I would put it up there with Eden Gardens in Calcutta, which holds about 100,000. Its like having another man in your side, and the former England wicketkeeper Geraint Jones describes how The crowd here makes such a big noise when you are doing well. After winning the 2015 Ashes Test Match with Australia at Edgbaston, with some of the chants, even guys who have played a fair bit of cricket were looking at each other and realising how special it was. Edgbaston has been a venue for us
23.
Somerset County Cricket Club
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Somerset County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the county of Somerset. The clubs limited overs team was formerly the Somerset Sabres, but is now only as Somerset. Somersets early history is complicated by arguments about its status, there are, however, two matches involving W. G. Grace in 1879 and 1881 which are considered first-class by some authorities. In 1891, Somerset joined the County Championship, which had just become an officially recognised competition, Somerset have never won the County Championship, their highest finish being second, which they achieved in 2001,2010,2012 and 2016. The club won their first silverware in the late 1970s, winning both the Gillette Cup and John Player League in 1979. In the years since, Somerset have experienced success in one-day cricket. The team has reached the final of the Twenty20 cup competition on four occasions, the club has its headquarters at the County Ground, Taunton, where in the present-day almost all of its games are played at. Since 2005, Somerset also play at Taunton Vale against MCC Universities teams, the club have played at a number of other grounds in their past, with a significant number of matches at Clarence Park, Weston-super-Mare and at the Recreation Ground, Bath. In the seventeenth century, the sport of Stow-Ball, or Stob-Ball was being played in north Somerset, as in neighbouring Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. This sport most likely used either the base of a tree or its remaining stump as its wicket, however, stow could also refer to a frame used to support crawling tunnels in mines such as those lead mines in north Somerset, providing another possibility for the wicket. The earliest confirmed reference to cricket in Somerset is a match on 13 July 1751 that was played in memory of the late Frederick, Prince of Wales who was a noted patron of the sport. With a limited number of organised clubs to play, fixtures were few and far apart in the founding years, with matches being played against Clifton. Lansdown placed Somerset in the world, and played a number of matches against England XI in various forms. In 1865, the first attempt at a county side was made with the formation of Yeovil and they performed poorly in their opening matches against local club sides, and on one occasion, even lost three players to their opposition the day before the match was scheduled to begin. In spite of problems, they did play a county fixture, against the Gentlemen of Devon. The formation of Somerset County Cricket Club was decided in 1875 after the playing of one match between the Gentlemen of Somerset and the Gentlemen of Devon at Sidmouth in Devon. Somerset is the one of the present first-class counties in English cricket whose county cricket club was founded outside the boundaries of the traditional county
24.
A. P. Lucas
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Alfred Perry Lucas was an English first-class cricketer from 1874 to 1907, playing for Cambridge University, Surrey, Middlesex and Essex. He also played five Test matches for England, Lucas was educated at Uppingham School and Clare College, Cambridge. Lucas did play twice for Surrey and caused a sensation at Prince’s with an innings of 48 against Alfred Shaw and Fred Morley at their best. 1876 saw Lucas advance into the top league of batsmen, with 818 runs at an average of thirty being exceptional for the time and placing him among the top batsmen in the game. 1877 saw Lucas make an advance, being in average behind only the incomparable WG Grace. However, opinions as to the quality of Lucas’ bowling were not positive even then, at the end of 1882 Lucas moved away from Surrey and played for Middlesex under a birth qualification from 1883, when he remained near the top of the first-class batting averages. He achieved the feat of carrying his bat through an innings for the Gentlemen at the Oval. Lucas played in the first two Tests of the 1884 season without doing anything worthy of his reputation apart from a dour 15 not out on a wicket in the first match. Owing to his work for the London Stock Exchange, nothing more was seen of Lucas in first-class cricket until 1887, when despite an exceptional summer he was again disappointing. In 1889, coming to the aid of his good friend C. E. Green, Lucas began to play for Essex, in which he had been residing since 1883, and captaining the side until 1894. However, he played only two matches from 1890 to 1893 and when Essex joined the County Championship in 1895. He then played regularly for Essex until 1901, and if not quite the outstanding batsman of twenty years beforehand, Lucas still was a model of soundness. His work as a banker again began to restrict his cricket from 1902. Although known to his chums as “Bunny”, he is referred to in all sources, including contemporary reports. To the players under his leadership, he was simply “The Boss”. Cricinfo page on A. P. Lucas CricketArchive page on A. P. Lucas Brief profile of A. P. Lucas by Don Ambrose lucas lucas lucas lucas lucas lucas lucas lucas lucas lucas lucas lucas lucas
25.
Walter Mead (cricketer)
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Walter Mead was the principal bowler for Essex during their first two decades as a first-class county. As a member of the Lord’s ground staff, he was also after J. T. Hearne the most important bowler for MCC and Ground, who in those days played quite a number of first-class matches. A right arm bowler of slow to pace, Walter Mead always maintained an excellent length. He could vary his stock off break with a ball that turned the other way, even before Essex had been elevated to first-class status, Walter Mead already had a reputation as a bowler of class. In 1895, however, after a start, he became deadly when wickets became sticky during the middle of July. Only Tich Freeman has since taken seventeen wickets twice in matches of comparable importance,1896 and 1897, with most pitches unfavourable to him due to dry weather, were disappointing, but Mead gradually rebounded in the following years. An excellent performance against the Australians in 1899 saw Mead chosen for his only Test match at Lords, however, over the 1903/1904 winter Walter Meads career with Essex terminated temporarily as a result of a dispute over winter pay. They missed him badly in 1904 and 1905, and by 1906 he had agreed to return to the eleven. Considering the remarkable dryness of the 1906 summer in the Home Counties, he bowled very well, in 1908, however, Walter Mead declined so badly, taking only 48 County Championship wickets, that it was clear his best days were over. Mead left the Lords ground staff in 1918 and his son, Harold, also played some first-class cricket for Essex, although he died in 1921 after never fully recovering from wounds he sustained during World War I. Mead died at the age of eighty-five in 1954
26.
Hampshire CCC
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Hampshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the county of Hampshire. Hampshire teams formed by earlier organisations, principally the Hambledon Club, always had important match status, because of poor performances for several seasons, Hampshire then lost its status for nine seasons until it was invited into the County Championship in 1895. The club was founded in 1863 and played at the Antelope Ground and they relocated to the County Ground, Southampton until 2000, before moving to the purpose-built Rose Bowl in West End, which is in the Borough of Eastleigh. Hampshire played its first important match in 1864, losing to Sussex at the Antelope Ground, Hampshire had poor results for many seasons and lost its important match status in 1885. They achieved official first-class status in 1895 when they were invited to join the County Championship, the club has twice won the County Championship, in the 1961 and 1973 seasons. It has twice won the Benson & Hedges Cup, in 1988 and 1991, the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy once in 2005, having first played Twenty20 cricket in 2003, Hampshire won the Friends Provident t20 in 2010. The County Championship was restructured in 2000, and at the end of the 2002 Hampshire was relegated for the first time, the club remained in the second division for three seasons and since 2004 had competed in the top tier. However, the club was relegated once more in 2011, the club won both the Friends Life t20 and ECB40 in 2012, but it wasnt until 2014 before they were promoted to the first division again. They narrowly avoided relegation in 2015 before being relegated again in 2016, phil Mead is the clubs leading run-scorer with 48,892 runs in 700 matches for Hampshire between 1905 and 1936. Fast bowler Derek Shackleton took 2,669 wickets in 583 first-class matches between 1948 and 1969 which remains a club record. Alec Kennedy, whose career lasted from 1907 to 1936, was the first player to score 10,000 runs, Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie was both Hampshire last amateur captain and first professional captain. If authentic, this is the earliest known mention of cricket in Hampshire, but, with the sport having originated in Saxon or Norman times on the Weald, it must have reached Hampshire long before 1647. In 1680, lines written in an old Bible invite All you that do delight in Cricket, come to Marden, Marden is in Sussex, north of Chichester, and interestingly close to Hambledon, which is just across the county boundary in Hampshire. Hampshire is used in a name for the first time in August 1729. The origin of the legendary Hambledon Club is lost, Hambledon had presumably earned recognition as the best parish team in Hampshire, but no reports of their local matches have been found. We do not know when the Hambledon Club was founded and it likely that some kind of parish organisation was operating in 1756. The Sussex v Hampshire match in June 1766 is the earliest reference to Hampshire as a county team
27.
Surrey County Cricket Club
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Surrey County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the county of Surrey. The clubs limited overs team is called Surrey, Surrey teams formed from 1709 by earlier organisations always had senior status and so the county club is rated accordingly from inception, i. e. Home of the club since its foundation in 1845 has been the Oval, the club also has an out ground at Woodbridge Road, Guildford, where some home games are played each season. Surrey CCC has had three periods of great success in its history. In 1955, Surrey won 23 of its 28 county matches, to date, Surrey has won the official County Championship 18 times outright, more than any other county with the exception of Yorkshire. The clubs traditional badge is the Prince of Waless feathers, in 1915, Lord Rosebery obtained permission to use this symbol from the Prince of Wales, hereditary owner of the land on which the Oval stands. It is widely believed that cricket was invented by children living on the Weald in Saxon or Norman times, although not the games birthplace, Surrey does claim the honour of being the location of its first definite mention in print. Evidence from a January 1597 court case confirms that creckett was played by schoolboys on a plot of land in Guildford around 1550. In 1611, King James I gave to his eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales, the manors of Kennington and Vauxhall, to this day, the Prince of Waless feathers feature on the cricket clubs badge. Cricket became well established in Surrey during the 17th century and the earliest village matches took place before the English Civil War and it is believed that the earliest county teams were formed in the aftermath of the Restoration in 1660. The earliest known match in Surrey was Croydon v London at Croydon on 1 July 1707. In 1709, the earliest known inter-county match took place between Kent and Surrey at Dartford Brent with £50 at stake, Surrey would continue to play cricket against other representative teams from that time onwards. Probably its greatest players during the era were the famous bowler Lumpy Stevens and the wicket-keeper/batsman William Yalden. A further meeting at the Tavern on 18 October 1845 formally constituted the club, appointed officers, a lease on Kennington Oval, a former market garden, was obtained by a Mr Houghton from the Duchy of Cornwall. Mr Houghton was of the old Montpelier Cricket Club,70 members of which formed the nucleus of the new Surrey County club, the Honourable Fred Ponsonby, later the Earl of Bessborough was the first vice-president. Surreys inaugural first-class match was against the MCC at the Oval at the end of May,1846, the clubs first inter-county match, against Kent, was held at the Oval the following month and Surrey emerged victorious by ten wickets. However, the club did not do well that year, despite the extra public attractions at the Oval of a Walking Match, by the start of the 1847 season the club was £70 in debt and there was a motion to close
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Percy Perrin
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Percival Albert Perrin, known as either Percy or Peter, was an English cricketer, who played for Essex as a right-handed, middle-order batsman for more than thirty years from 1896. His total of 496 County Championship matches for Essex is a record for a player in English cricket. A tall batsman who initially relied on driving for most of his runs and he and Charles McGahey, a similarly tall amateur, played together for Essex for many seasons and were known as the Essex Twins. Perrin was the batsman, he scored 1,000 in 18 seasons. He scored 66 centuries, the third highest number – after John Langridge and Ken McEwan – of any player who never played Test cricket. Perrins biggest innings was a huge unbeaten 343, made out of an Essex total of 597 against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1904, on the strength of that innings, though, he was picked as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the almanack for 1905. Apparently a shy man, Perrin captained Essex only occasionally, serving happily under his friends McGahey and Johnny Douglas and deputising for them when needed. But in retirement, Perrins knowledge and his availability led him to become an England selector in 1926 and later from 1930 to 1939, chairing the committee in the last year
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Charles McGahey
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Charles Percy McGahey was a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Essex between 1894 and 1921. McGahey also played for London County between 1901 and 1904 and was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1902, McGahey played two Test matches for England during Archie MacLarens tour of Australia in 1901-02. McGahey played association football for Clapton, one of the amateur clubs of the day. McGahey died after a finger he damaged when he slipped on a wet pavement went septic, cricketArchive page on Charlie McGahey Cricinfo page on Charlie McGahey
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Johnny Douglas
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John Johnny William Henry Tyler Douglas was an English cricketer who was active in the early decades of the twentieth century. Douglas was an all-rounder who played for Essex County Cricket Club from 1901 to 1928 and he also played for England and captained the England team both before and after the First World War with markedly different success. As well as playing cricket, Douglas was an amateur boxer who won the middleweight gold medal at the 1908 Olympic Games. Douglas was the son of John H. Douglas and was born at Stoke Newington, London in what is now Belfast Road and he was educated at Moulton Grammar School and Felsted School and joined his fathers wood-importing firm, which supported his amateur status in cricket and boxing. Douglas also played once for the England amateur side. He served in the Bedfordshire Regiment throughout World War I, eventually as major, Douglas was an excellent Middleweight boxer becoming Olympic champion at the 1908 Games held in London. All three of his bouts, including the final, described by The Times as one of the most brilliant exhibitions of skilful boxing, allied to tremendous hitting, were held on the same day. The silver medal winner, Snowy Baker,44 years later claimed that Douglass father was the sole judge. Baker never publicly contested the close points verdict which Douglas, who scored a knockdown over him. The real ref was Eugene Corri who did not have to give a vote as the two judges agreed that Douglas was a narrow winner. Douglas Jr, his father and his brother, Cecil were all prominent referees and officials in the ABA. Douglas also won the 1905 ABA Middleweight title and he captained the school teams at Felsted and was a member of Wanstead C. C. He played for Essex in 1902 and for London County in 1903, in 1904 he returned to Essex where he remained, captaining the side from 1911 to 1928. He played for England before and after the First World War, Douglas was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1915, but play was suspended during the war years. After the war until 1923 had to carry Essexs bowling on his shoulders except when George Louden turned out and he took over 100 wickets in a season seven times with a best of 147 in 1920. The following year against Derbyshire he produced perhaps the most remarkable performance in English first-class cricket history. After taking nine for 47, Douglas stopped a breakdown against Bill Bestwick with an unbeaten 210 that tired him so much he did not bowl until the end of Derbyshires second innings and he then took two for none, giving him a match record of eleven for 47. Douglas captained England eighteen times, with a Test match record of won eight, lost eight, successful as stand-in captain in Australia in 1911, he won the series 4–1
denotes players with international caps.
England
South Africa
Netherlands
Pakistan
New Zealand
Australia
