Staffordshire County Cricket Club

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

The club is based at Brewood near Cannock and plays matches around the county at Stone, Walsall, Longton, Audley and Leek.

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

Honours

* Minor Counties Championship (10) - 1906, 1908, 1911, 1920, 1921, 1927, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998; shared (0) -
* MCCA Knockout Trophy (2) - 1991, 1993

Earliest cricket

Cricket may have reached Staffordshire by the end of the 17th century. 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 (London won by 1 wicket) [Buckley, p.15] .

The earliest known reference to cricket being played in Staffordshire is as late as 1817 [Bowen, p.269] .

Origin of club

The present Staffordshire CCC was founded on 24 November 1871 and took part in the first Minor Counties Championship in 1895 [Bowen, p.284] . It then lapsed for four years, but has been a member continuously since 1900.

Club history

Staffordshire has won the Minor Counties Championship 10 times, more than any other county. It won the title outright in 1906, 1908, 1911, 1920, 1921, 1927, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1998. The 1914 title was disputed, but Wisden records it as also having been won by Staffordshire. Staffordshire's years of great success before and after the First World War were in part due to the great bowler, Sydney Barnes, who played for the county from 1904 to 1934 (when he was 61), and took 1,441 wickets at an average of 8.15 runs each. Barnes did not play, though, between 1920 and 1924, a period when Staffordshire won the Championship twice.

Staffordshire has won the MCCA Knockout Trophy twice since its inception in 1983. It won in 1991 and 1993.

Famous players

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

* Sydney Barnes
* Joey Benjamin
* Jack Ikin
* Nasim-ul-Ghani

References

External sources

* [http://staffordshireccc.play-cricket.com/home/home.asp Staffordshire CCC 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
* G. B. Buckley, "Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket", Cotterell, 1935
* E. W. Swanton (editor), "Barclays World of Cricket", Guild, 1986

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