Wiltshire County Cricket Club

Last updated
Wiltshire County Cricket Club
WiltshireCCCLogo.svg
Personnel
Captain Ed Young
CoachTom Morton
Team information
Colours  
Founded1893
Home groundNo fixed address
History
Minor Counties Championship  wins2
MCCA Knockout Trophy  wins0
FP Trophy  wins0
Official website wiltshireccc.play-cricket.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
WiltshireCCCKit.svg

Wiltshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. Founded in 1893, it represents the historic county of Wiltshire.

Contents

The team is a member of the Minor Counties Championship Western Division and plays in the MCCA Knockout Trophy. Wiltshire played List A matches occasionally from 1964 until 2005 but is not classified as a List A team per se. [1]

The club is a member of Wiltshire Cricket Limited, the governing body for cricket in the county. [2]

Venues

The club is peripatetic, playing its matches around the county at: [3]

Honours

Earliest cricket

Cricket probably reached Wiltshire by the end of the 17th century. The earliest known reference to cricket in the county is dated 1769. [4]

John Major points out that "cricket did not spread evenly across whole counties" but had a tendency towards "local adoption". He mentions a match at Stockton, Wiltshire in 1799 which was reported as "an event so novel in the county of Wiltshire". But cricket was being played by then at several other venues in the county including Calne, Devizes, Marlborough, Salisbury and Westbury. [5]

Origin of club

A county organisation was formed on 24 February 1881. The present Wiltshire CCC was founded in January 1893, and joined the Minor Counties Championship for the 1897 season, competing every season since then.

History

Wiltshire has won the Minor Counties Championship twice, in 1902 and 1909. The Edwardian years were the club's "most successful period" and a 1903 report described the team as "the equal of any first-class county". [6] Wiltshire's original captain, until 1920, was Audley Miller, also of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), who had played a Test match for England in South Africa in 1895–96.

Miller was succeeded as captain by Robert Awdry, who had played first-class cricket for Oxford University through 1902–04. Awdry led the side until 1934 and the next captain from 1935 to 1939 was William Lovell-Hewitt, who made 3 first-class appearances for the Minor Counties through 1938–39.

The team experienced some lean seasons after the Second World War but improved during the 1950s under the captaincy of James Hurn. The best players at this time were opening batsman John Thompson, formerly of Warwickshire, who played regularly for Wiltshire from 1955 to 1958; and seamer Anthony Marshall, who played occasionally for Kent and was a Wiltshire stalwart from 1955 to 1970.

David Richards, who played for Wiltshire from 1949 to 1965 was captain in the last three years of his career and the team were championship runners-up in both 1963 and 1964. Long-serving batsman Ian Lomax, who played for Wiltshire from 1950 to 1970, captained the side in the mid-sixties and played first-class for Somerset and MCC. He was succeeded in 1968 by Brian White, who served the county even longer, for 28 seasons from 1964 to 1991. White relinquished the captaincy after the 1980 season.

All-rounder Richard Gulliver succeeded White and was captain until he retired in 1983. In Gulliver's last season, Wiltshire lost the Minor Counties Championship in the final match when they were beaten by Dorset and that enabled Oxfordshire to "pip them at the post". [6]

Wiltshire has never won the MCCA Knockout Trophy since its inception in 1983. The team was the beaten finalist in 1993, losing to Staffordshire by 69 runs; and in 2005, losing to Norfolk by 6 wickets. Wiltshire has reached the semi-finals on four other occasions. [7]

Wiltshire has played numerous matches against first-class opponents, including touring teams, but none of these matches have themselves been classified as first-class. [8] The team has played in several List A matches since 1964, all of them in the various incarnations of the ECB's limited overs knockout tournament. [9] Wiltshire's best performance in these matches was a victory over Scotland by 7 wickets in 2000, but Wiltshire has never beaten a first-class team.

Notable players

The following Wiltshire cricketers also played with distinction in first-class cricket:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Counties of English and Welsh cricket</span> Counties in English or Welsh cricket without first-class status

The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes under the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). There are currently twenty teams in National Counties cricket: nineteen representing historic counties of England, plus the Wales National County Cricket Club.

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

Somerset 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 Somerset. Founded in 1875, Somerset was initially regarded as a minor county until official first-class status was acquired in 1895. Somerset has competed in the County Championship since 1891 and has subsequently played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England. The club's limited overs team was formerly named the Somerset Sabres, but is now known only as Somerset.

James Andrew Tomlinson is an English former cricketer. A left-arm medium pace bowler, capable of producing swing at a brisk pace, Tomlinson first appeared in senior cricket for the Hampshire Cricket Board in List A cricket in the 2000 NatWest Trophy. He first appeared for Hampshire in first-class cricket in 2002, at this stage of career he had to work his cricket career around his studies at Cardiff University. In 2003 he was Hampshire's recipient of the NBC Denis Compton Award. His early career with Hampshire was beset by injury, which limited his appearances. By 2008, Tomlinson had established himself in the Hampshire team, mostly as a specialist first-class player. It was in this season that he became the first Hampshire bowler since Malcolm Marshall to end the season as the leading wicket taker in the County Championship, finishing with 67 wickets.

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

Devon County Cricket Club is one of 20 minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Devon.

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

Hertfordshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Hertfordshire.

Kevin St John Dennis Emery is an English former first-class cricketer.

Roskear is a street and area on the eastern edge of Camborne, Cornwall. In the early 1900s, the area had a tram loop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trowbridge Cricket Club Ground</span> Cricket ground in England

Trowbridge Cricket Club Ground is a cricket ground in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. The ground is the main home ground of Wiltshire County Cricket Club. The ground is made up of 2 full size cricket pitches, 2 huts used for scoring, artificial pitches with cricket nets, a car park and a pavilion.

Christopher Richard John Budd is a former English cricketer. Budd was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm off break. He was born in Bristol.

Philip David North is a former Welsh cricketer. North was a right-handed batsman who bowled slow left-arm orthodox. He was born at Newport, Monmouthshire.

Jeremy Richard Goode is a former English cricketer. Goode was a left-handed batsman who bowled leg break. He was born in Northampton, Northamptonshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Blackburn</span> English cricketer

Kevin Richard Blackburn, more commonly known as Blackers, is a former English cricketer. Blackburn was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace.

The Wiltshire County Cricket League (WCCL) is the feeder cricket league for the Wiltshire section of the West of England Premier League (WEPL). As of 2020, the league has nine divisions of ten teams, who play 45-over matches on Saturdays. The winner of Division One is promoted into the WEPL.

Robert 'Bob' Ian Dawson is a former English cricketer. Dawson is a right-handed batsman who bowls both leg break and right-arm medium pace. He was born in Exmouth, Devon.

Andrew Russell Clarke is a former English cricketer. Clarke was a right-handed batsman who bowled leg break. He was born in Patcham, Sussex. A late starter to county cricket, not making his debut for Sussex until he was 26, Clarke played for Sussex for 3 seasons. He later played Minor counties cricket for Buckinghamshire and Norfolk, before retiring in 2003.

Mark Davies is a former Welsh cricketer. Davies was a right-handed batsman who bowled slow left-arm orthodox. He was born in Neath, Glamorgan.

Robert Malcolm Hamilton Bell is a former English cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace. He was born in Hugh Town on the Isles of Scilly.

Andrew Graham Salter is a Welsh cricketer. Salter is a right-handed batsman who bowls right-arm off break. He was born at Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, and was educated at Milford Haven School.

References

  1. ↑ "List A events played by Wiltshire". CricketArchive. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  2. ↑ "About Us". Wiltshire Cricket. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  3. ↑ CricketArchive – Wiltshire matches and venues. Retrieved on 30 May 2010.
  4. ↑ Bowen, p.265.
  5. ↑ Major, p.117.
  6. 1 2 Barclay, p.494.
  7. ↑ CricketArchive – Wiltshire's MCCA Trophy matches. Retrieved on 30 May 2010.
  8. ↑ CricketArchive – Wiltshire's non-Minor Counties matches. Retrieved on 30 May 2010.
  9. ↑ CricketArchive – Wiltshire's List A matches. Retrieved on 30 May 2010.

Bibliography

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.