Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club

Buckinghamshire 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 Buckinghamshire and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy.

The club has its administrative headquarters at Little Chalfont and plays matches around the county at Aylesbury, Beaconsfield, Burnham and Gerrards Cross. In 2006, it also played matches at Slough and at Ascott Park, the home of the Rothschild family which was prominent in the club's foundation. Matches were played regularly at Ascott until 1979.

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

Honours

* Minor Counties Championship (8) - 1922, 1923, 1925, 1932, 1938, 1952, 1969, 1987; shared (1) - 1899
* MCCA Knockout Trophy (1) - 1990

Earliest cricket

A match in October 1730 on Datchet Heath ("aka" Datchet Common), outside the village of Datchet which is near Windsor, is the first reference to cricket in Buckinghamshire. Note that Datchet is nowadays in Berkshire but was historically part of Buckinghamshire.

In September 1740, a team called "Buckinghamshire, Berkshire & Hertfordshire" played two matches against the famous London Cricket Club at Uxbridge and the Artillery Ground. London won the first "with great difficulty" but no post-match report was found of the second [H T Waghorn: "Cricket Scores 1730 - 1773"] .

In 1759, an All-England team that played three matches against the noted Dartford Cricket Club included a player called Gill of Buckinghamshire, who was the team's wicket keeper. The same player almost certainly featured in another All-England team in 1772 [Arthur Haygarth, "Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744-1826)"] .

A number of games involving Buckinghamshire teams are mentioned in newspapers of the late 18th century. Unlike neighbouring Berkshire, Buckinghamshire was never considered first-class.

Origin of club

The present Buckinghamshire CCC was founded on 15 January 1891 as "Bucks County Cricket Club" with the Rothschild family prominent in its formation.

Club history

Buckinghamshire joined the Minor Counties Championship in the competition's second season, 1896. It has won the Championship eight times, and also once shared the title. It won outright in 1922, 1923, 1925, 1932, 1938, 1952, 1969 and 1987. It shared the accolade in 1899 with Northamptonshire. In 2006, it won the Eastern Division, but lost in the final to Devon.

Buckinghamshire has won the MCCA Knockout Trophy once since its inception in 1983. It won in 1990.

Buckinghamshire declined an invitation to join the first-class County Championship in 1921 because of the lack of first-class facilities in the county at the time.

Famous players

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

* Ben Barnett
* Hartley Alleyne
* Wilf Slack
* Phil Newport
* Keith Medlycott

References

External sources

* [http://bucksccc.play-cricket.com/home/home.asp Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club website]
* [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
* E W Swanton (editor), "Barclays World of Cricket", Guild, 1986

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