Bedfordshire County Cricket Club

Bedfordshire County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Bedfordshire and competing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy.

The club have no fixed home, but most of their matches are played in Wardown Park, Luton. They have also played many matches at Bedford School. Other recently used grounds include:

* Ampthill Park, Ampthill
* The Vale, Flitwick
* Goldington Bury, Bedford
* Lancot Park, Dunstable
* Southill Park Cricket Club, Southill
* Bedford Modern School, Bedford

The Minor Counties play three-day matches at a level below that of the first-class game. At present, Bedfordshire competes in the Eastern Division of the Minor Counties Championship.

Honours

* Minor Counties Championship (2) - 1970, 1972; shared (1) - 2004
* MCCA Knockout Trophy (1) - 1999

Earliest cricket

Cricket had probably reached Bedfordshire by the end of the 17th century.

The earliest reference to cricket in the county is a match on Monday 10 August 1741 at Woburn Park between a Bedfordshire XI and a combined Northants and Huntingdonshire XI [Waghorn, "Cricket Scores", p.27.] . Woburn Cricket Club under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford was on the point of becoming a well known club. Incidentally this reference is also the earliest found about cricket in Northamptonshire.

The Woburn Club became prominent in the 1740s and took part in a number of great matches against opponents such as the famous London Cricket Club.

Origin of club

A county organisation has been traced back to May 1847. The present Bedfordshire CCC was founded on 3 November 1899 [Bowen, p.274] .

Club history

A Bedfordshire team competed in the very first Minor Counties Championship in 1895, with six other teams: it finished fourth. The county then missed the next four seasons before the present club rejoined the competition in 1900. It has not missed any seasons since.

Bedfordshire has won the Minor Counties Championship three times, one of them shared. It won outright in 1970 and 1972. Its most recent success was a shared title with Devon in 2004.

Bedfordshire has won the MCCA Knockout Trophy once since its inception in 1983. It won in 1999.

Famous players

The following Bedfordshire cricketers also made an impact on the first-class game:

* Louis Bookman
* Alf Gover
* Tom Clark
* Geoff Millman
* Wayne Larkins
* Alastair Cook
* Monty Panesar

Rex Alston, who captained the side in 1932, subsequently became famous as a BBC radio commentator on cricket and other sports.

References

External sources

* [http://bedfordshireccc.play-cricket.com/home/home.asp Bedfordshire CCC]
* [http://uk.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/NATIONAL/ENG/MINOR/MCCA/ Minor Counties Cricket Association Official Site]

Further reading

* Rowland Bowen, "Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development", Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
* H T Waghorn, "Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773)", Blackwood, 1899

* Playfair Cricket Annual – various editions
* Wisden Cricketers Almanack – various editions