Team sports
Cricket
Sussex played a key role in the development of the sport of cricket and is generally held to have been invented or developed in the Weald of Sussex and Kent. Records from 1611 indicate the first time that the sport was documented in Sussex; this is also the first reference to cricket being played by adults. [6] The first reference to women's cricket is also from Sussex and dates from 1677; a match between two Sussex women's teams playing in London is documented from 1747.
Founded in 1839, Sussex County Cricket Club (Sussex CCC) is believed to be the oldest professional sports club in the world. [7] It is the oldest of the county cricket clubs and represents Sussex in the eighteen-club County Championship. Sussex players, including Jem Broadbridge and William Lillywhite were instrumental in bringing about the change from underarm bowling to roundarm bowling, which later developed into overarm bowling. For some time roundarm bowling was referred to as 'Sussex bowling'. [8] Sussex CCC have won the men's County Championship three times, while the Sussex Women cricket team has won the women's County Championship four times.
Recreational cricket is also popular in Sussex and is governed by the Sussex Cricket Board, which merged with Sussex CCC in 2015. Founded in 1971, the Sussex Cricket League is believed to be the largest adult cricket league in the world, with 335 teams in 2018. [9] From 2016 the Sussex Cricket League has also included a team representing Guernsey. The England and Wales Cricket Board has recognised the league's top division as a designated ECB Premier League since 1999. Notable Sussex cricketers include Jem Broadbridge, John Wisden, James Lillywhite, former England women's captain Holly Colvin and former England international Clare Connor.
Football
There is a long tradition of football matches taking place in Sussex although the game was different from the modern codes of association football and rugby football. Two references to medieval football matches come from Sussex in 1403 and 1404 at Selmeston and Chidham that took place as part of baptisms. On each occasion one of the players broke his leg. [10] Lancing College created its own code of football in 1856. Seen as a means of fostering teamwork, the code had 12-a-side teams. [11] Football is reported as having been played at Brighton College by 1859. [11] Brighton and Lancing Colleges are recorded as having played a football match in November 1860, the first by public schools in Sussex. [12] Brighton College are recorded as having played a Brighton schools team at football in 1861. [12] It appears that the venture was not successful, largely because people outside the college had difficulty understanding the particular rules which varied from college to college. [12] In 1865 a player of the Lancing rules game described a match as "not much of a game, rather an inchoate barging match". [13] The rules followed by Brighton College were related to the rules of Rugby School. [11] Brighton Football Club was founded in 1868 by former students of Brighton College. Brighton went on to follow the codes and laws of Rugby College and the Rugby Football Union which was set up in 1871. [14]
Association rules were adopted at Lancing College by 1871 and at Brighton College by 1873. Former Lancing pupil Jarvis Kenrick went on to score the first goal ever to be scored in the FA Cup [13] as well as winning the FA Cup three years running with London-based Wanderers F.C. The Sussex County Football Association was created in 1882; [3] the Sussex Senior Challenge Cup was set up from the 1882—83 season. By the end of the 19th century the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway fielded six different teams in Sussex - Juniors, Locomotive, Rovers, Strugglers, Wanderers and Wasps. [13] Several local leagues were set up within Sussex at the end of the 19th century - the West Sussex Football League in 1895, the East Sussex Football League in 1896, the Hastings League in 1897 and the Horsham League in 1898. [13] The Sussex County Football League was created in 1920. [4]
Sussex is represented in the Premier League by Brighton & Hove Albion and in the Football League by Crawley Town. Brighton have been a Premier League member since 2017 and were members of the Football League after they were elected to the Football League's new Third Division in 1920 — having previously been members of the Southern League. Crawley were promoted to the Football League in 2011. Sussex also had its own football league from 1920 to 2015 [15] following changes by the Football Association re-organising the structure of leagues in southern England when the Sussex County Football League was renamed the Southern Combination Football League. [16] The senior cup of the Sussex FA is the Sussex Senior Challenge Cup, the final of which has been held since 2011 at Falmer Stadium. In women's football, Brighton play in the FA Women's Super League and Lewes play in the FA Women's Premier League Southern Division. Notable football players from Sussex include five times FA Cup winner, Charles Wollaston, who played in the inaugural FA Cup Final in 1872 and former England international players George Brann, George Cotterill and Gareth Barry.
Rugby Union
The Sussex Rugby Football Union is the society responsible for rugby union in the county of Sussex, England and is one of the constituent bodies of the national Rugby Football Union. [17] [18] The first rugby club in Sussex was Brighton, formed in 1868. Sussex's highest rated club is Worthing. As of 2015/16 Worthing were playing in the fourth tier of the English rugby union league system, National League 2 South. Rugby union players from Sussex include New Zealand-born England captain Dylan Hartley, Joe Marler, Billy Twelvetrees, Tom Mitchell, Alex King, Ollie Richards and Ross Chisholm.
American football
Based in Brighton, Sussex Thunder play in the British American Football Association's BAFA National Leagues.
Basketball
Playing in the English Basketball League, Worthing Thunder is Sussex's highest placed basketball club. The club played in the top-tier British Basketball League between 2008 and 2011. Previously the Brighton Bears (in 1993) and Worthing Bears (in 2004) had won the top-tier British Basketball League. In Sussex basketball is administered by Basketball Sussex. [19]
Hockey
There are a number of field hockey clubs in East Sussex and West Sussex that are part of the South East Hockey league structure. [20] [21] [22] Some of these clubs have first XI teams that are in the Men's England Hockey League [23] and the Women's England Hockey League. [24]
Currently there are hockey clubs based in Brighton & Hove, Burgess Hill, Chichester, Crawley, Crowborough, East Grinstead, Eastbourne, Hailsham, Hastings, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Lewes, Littlehampton, Middleton, Southwick, Steyning and Worthing.
Netball
Netball is played by girls and women. In Sussex the sport is administered through the Sussex County Netball Association (often referred to as Sussex Netball). [25]
Polo
Cowdray Park near Midhurst has been home to the British Open or Gold Cup since 1967, the most important polo tournament in the UK and one of the most important in the world. [26]
Stoolball
The sport of stoolball is strongly associated with Sussex; it has been referred to as Sussex's 'national' sport [27] and a Sussex game [28] or pastime. [29] The first inter-county stoolball match took place between the women of Sussex and Kent in 1797 at Tunbridge Wells Common on the historic border between the two counties. [30] Sussex women wore blue ribbons to represent the county. [30] In 1866 the first recorded stoolball match took place between teams of named women representing villages as the Glynde Butterflies took on the Firle Blues. [31]
The sport's modern rules were codified at Glynde in 1881 where the two slightly different sets of rules in the east and the west of Sussex were brought together. [32] Modern stoolball is centred on Sussex where the game was revived in the early 20th century by Major William Grantham. [33] [34] First played in 1923, the League Championship Challenge Cup is open to the winning teams of the five leagues of the Sussex County Stoolball Association - North, East, West, Mid and Central. [35] Since 1938 Sussex and Kent have competed annually for the Rose Bowl, although sometimes one of Sussex's five leagues may represent the county against Kent. [30]
