Combined Services cricket team

Last updated

The Combined Services cricket team represents the British Armed Forces. The team played at first-class level in England for more than forty years in the mid-twentieth century. Their first first-class match was against Gentlemen of England at Lord's in 1920, while their last was against Oxford University at Aldershot in 1964. Combined Services have continued to play cricket thereafter, albeit at minor level.

Contents

They played only six first-class matches prior to World War II, but a further 57 afterwards, when the individual services had ceased to play at first-class level (apart from two matches by the Royal Air Force immediately after the War). Of these 63 matches, they won 7 (5 of them between 1946 and 1949), lost 34 and drew 22.

In the 1950s, most young men had to do two years National Service in one of the armed forces, so that Combined Services was able to field some reasonably strong sides. For example, in the 1951 match against the touring South Africans the side included Brian Close, who had already played for England, and Jim Parks, Fred Titmus and Alan Moss, who would all go on to do so. [1] In one of the later matches against Warwickshire at the Mitchells and Butlers' Ground in Birmingham, the county fast-medium bowler Jack Bannister took all 10 Services wickets in an innings for 41 runs. [2]

The Combined Services team continues to play at sub-first-class level. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Wyatt</span> English cricketer

Robert Elliott Storey Wyatt was an English cricketer who played for Warwickshire, Worcestershire and England in a career lasting nearly thirty years from 1923 to 1951. He was born at Milford Heath House in Surrey and died at Treliske in Truro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Les Ames</span> English cricketer

Leslie Ethelbert George Ames was a wicket-keeper and batsman for the England cricket team and Kent County Cricket Club. In his obituary, Wisden described him as the greatest wicket-keeper-batsman of all time. He is the only wicket-keeper-batsman to score a hundred first-class centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hampshire County Cricket Club</span> English cricket club

Hampshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Hampshire. Hampshire teams formed by earlier organisations, principally the Hambledon Club, always had first-class status and the same applied to the county club when it was founded in 1863. Because of poor performances for several seasons until 1885, Hampshire then lost its status for nine seasons until it was invited into the County Championship in 1895, since when the team have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England. Hampshire originally played at the Antelope Ground, Southampton until 1885 when 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. The club has twice won the County Championship, in the 1961 and 1973 seasons.

The Royal Navy Cricket Club is a cricket team representing the British Royal Navy and based at the United Services Recreation Ground, Portsmouth, Hampshire. The club was formed in 1863, although cricket is recorded as having been played by seamen since at least the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Badcock</span> New Zealand cricketer

Frederick Theodore Badcock was a New Zealand first-class and Test cricketer. Perhaps the best all-rounder in New Zealand in the inter-war period, he played seven Test matches for New Zealand between 1930 and 1933, including New Zealand's inaugural Test in 1930. He was the first players capped by New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeetan Patel</span> New Zealand cricketer

Jeetan Shashi Patel is a former New Zealand international cricketer. A right arm off spin bowler, he plays for Wellington in New Zealand and Warwickshire in England. He is also the spin bowling coach for the England cricket team.

John David Bannister was an English cricket commentator and former first-class cricketer who played for Warwickshire County Cricket Club. He was, for many years, a BBC television cricket commentator and later the Talksport radio cricket correspondent.

The Royal Air Force cricket team is a cricket side representing the British Royal Air Force. The team played 11 first-class matches: nine between 1922 and 1932, mostly against other branches of the Services, and another two in 1945 and 1946. Their home ground is the Royal Air Force Sports Ground, Uxbridge.

The Army cricket team is a cricket side representing the British Army.

The Malaya cricket team was a team that represented the combined territories of the Federated Malay States and the Straits Settlements in various international cricket matches between 1906 and 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egypt national cricket team</span>

The Egypt national cricket team was the team that represented the country of Egypt in international cricket matches. They were active from 1909 until World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Wilkinson</span> British Army officer and English cricketer

Colonel William Alexander Camac Wilkinson, was a highly decorated British Army officer and English cricketer. Australian-born, he served with the British Army in both the First and Second World Wars. After the Second World War he spent some time in Graz, Austria, as Senior Military Government Officer in the occupation forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Vigar</span>

Frank Henry Vigar was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Essex County Cricket Club between 1938 and 1954. A right-handed batsman, and leg break bowler, Vigar served as an all-rounder with 8,858 runs at 26.28 and 241 wickets at 37.90. From his rained-off debut in 1938, Vigar went on to play 257 matches for his county. His greatest success came in the "golden summer" of 1947, where he scored 1,735 runs and took 64 wickets. A partnership with Peter Smith of 218 for the final wicket remains an Essex record.

William Territt Greswell was an English first-class cricketer who played for Somerset from 1908 to 1930. But his career as a tea-planter with the family company in Ceylon meant that he appeared in only 115 first-class matches for the county in that period, and was a regular player in only five seasons, dotted over almost 20 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Boobbyer</span>

Brian Boobbyer played in nine Test matches for England at rugby union between 1950 and 1952. He also played cricket at first-class level, and was awarded Blues for both sports by the University of Oxford for appearing against Cambridge. But in 1952, at the age of twenty-four, he gave up playing both games, in order to devote his life to working for the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement.

Air Commodore Walter Karl Beisiegel, was an English career Royal Air Force officer who played first-class cricket for the Royal Air Force cricket team and also for Leicestershire. He was born at Uppingham, Rutland and died in the RAF hospital at RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire.

Maurice David Fenner was an English military airman and amateur cricketer. He rose to the rank of Group Captain in the Royal Air Force, played first-class cricket for Combined Services and Kent County Cricket Club and was secretary of the county club in later life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Diver</span> English cricketer

Edwin James Diver was an English first-class cricketer who played for Surrey and Warwickshire between 1883 and 1901. He was born in Cambridge and died at Pontardawe, Glamorgan, Wales.

Charles Frederick Roy Cowan was a Welsh-born English cricketer who played first-class cricket in 27 matches for Warwickshire between 1909 and 1921, and in two matches for armed forces cricket teams in 1919. He was born at Glangrwyney, Crickhowell, Brecknockshire and died in hospital at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

Clive Charlton Garthwaite CBE was an English first-class cricketer and British Army officer. He played one first-class game for the British Army cricket team in 1930. Garthwaite served in North Africa during the Second World War and was mentioned in dispatches in March 1945. He continued to be active in cricket, captaining the Army and Combined Services cricket teams into the 1950s. He retired as a Brigadier in 1963.

References

  1. ↑ Scorecard for Combined Services v South Africans, 1951
  2. ↑ "Scorecard: Warwickshire v Combined Services". www.cricketarchive.com. 27 May 1959. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  3. ↑ "Other matches played by Combined Services". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2017.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.