- Sheffield Cricket Club
Infobox first-class cricket team
team =Sheffield Cricket Club
imagesize =
caption =
home venue = Darnall cricket groundBramall Lane
established = soon after 1751
last match = 1862
first title =
no. of titles =
notable players =Tom Marsden The Sheffield Cricket Club was founded in the 18th century and soon became important to the development of
cricket in northern England. The Sheffield club was the direct forerunner ofYorkshire County Cricket Club .Earliest cricket in Yorkshire
The earliest known references to
cricket inYorkshire are in 1751 [It is possible that cricket was played in North America before it reached Yorkshire. There are 17th century references to the game in America but the earliest known references to cricket in Yorkshire are as late as 1751.] . These relate to local matches inSheffield and to a game on or soon after Mon5 August at Stanwick, near Richmond, between theDuke of Cleveland ’s XI andEarl of Northumberland ’s XI (the same teams had earlier played inDurham and this is Durham's earliest cricket reference)G B Buckley , "Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket", Cotterell, 1935] .It is believed that the Sheffield Cricket Club was founded soon after that date and it began to play matches against teams from other northern towns, including some inter-county fixtures.
heffield cricket
Sheffield quickly became the main centre for cricket in Yorkshire. In September 1757 a match took place between between
Wirksworth and Sheffield at Brampton Moor, nearChesterfield . This is the earliest reference to cricket inDerbyshire [http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/cricket/main.html From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300–1787] ] .William White's "History & General Directory of the Borough of Sheffield" (1833) has the following information: "In 1757 we find the Town Trustees attempting the abolition of brutal sports by paying 14s6d to the cricket players on Shrove Tuesday "to entertain the populace and prevent the infamous practice of throwing at cocks". Mr White does not give the primary source from which he himself derived the information but it would likely be in parish or town records of some kind which may or may not still exist
H T Waghorn , "The Dawn of Cricket", Electric Press, 1906] .heffield v Leeds
On Tuesday
7 July 1761, the "Leeds Intelligencer" (now the "Yorkshire Post ") announced a game to be played at Chapeltown the following Thursday (9 July ) and this is the first game known to have been played in theLeeds area .On Thursday
5 September 1765, the "London Chronicle " reported a "great match" on Monday26 August : Leeds v Sheffield at Chapeltown Moor, near Leeds. Sheffield won "with great difficulty". As this game was highly rated and was reported by a London newspaper, it shows that cricket was well-established in Yorkshire only 14 years after it was first reported thereG B Buckley , "Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket", Cotterell, 1937] .heffield v Nottingham
In August 1771, the first of many matches between Sheffield and Nottingham was held. This one took place on the Forest Racecourse at
Nottingham and is surprisingly the earliest known reference to cricket in Nottinghamshire and involving aNottinghamshire team. The result of the game is unknown because "of a dispute having arisen by one of the Sheffield players being jostled"! The reports mention a Sheffield player called Osguthorpe ("sic") who "kept in batting for several hours together" .This match may tentatively be regarded as the beginning of county-level
first-class cricket in Yorkshire. The Sheffield club was representative of the county in a similar fashion to Nottingham and (much later) Manchester. Although standards of play in the south were much higher than in the north at this time, the same scenario can be observed re theHornchurch ,Maidenhead , Chertsey, Dartford and Hambledon clubs in their respective counties.In 1772, the "Daily Messenger" carried reports of a match in Sheffield on Monday
1 June in which Sheffield defeated Nottingham .19th century
The Sheffield club continued to play occasional first-class matches, mainly against other northern clubs. In September 1833 occurred the first use of "Yorkshire" as the team name instead of "Sheffield". This was in the Yorkshire v Norfolk match at Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield which Yorkshire won by 120 runs. The great
Fuller Pilch was still playing for Norfolk. But Yorkshire was by now finding star players of its own, especially the fast bowling all-rounderTom Marsden .Although the Sheffield and Manchester clubs had met previously, there was a significant development on 23, 24 &
25 July 1849 when the match was called Yorkshire "versus" Lancashire at Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield. This was the first match to involve a Lancashire county team and also, therefore, the first "Roses" match. Yorkshire won by 5 wickets.On
7 March 1861, a Match Fund Committee to run Yorkshire county matches was established in Sheffield, which had by then been the home of Yorkshire cricket for nearly 100 years. It was from this fund that Yorkshire CCC was founded two years later. This was an exact parallel with the formation ofSussex CCC from a similar fund (1836 – 1839).On
8 January 1863, the formation of Yorkshire County Cricket Club was agreed at a meeting of the Sheffield Match Fund Committee in the Adelphi Hotel, Sheffield. The club was originally based atBramall Lane , Sheffield. Yorkshire CCC played its initial first-class match "versus"Surrey CCC atThe Oval on 4, 5 &6 June 1863. It was a rain-affected draw, evenly balanced.For the history of Yorkshire cricket since the foundation of the current county club, see :
Yorkshire County Cricket Club heffield CC records (first-class matches only)
* Highest team total: 282 v Manchester, Botanical Gardens, Manchester, 1854
* Lowest team total: 39 v Nottingham, The Forest New Ground, Nottingham, 1829
* Highest individual innings: 125 byTom Marsden v Nottingham, Nottingham, 1828
* Best bowling: 7-38 byHenry Wright v Manchester, Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield, 1852References
External sources
* [http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/cricket/main.html From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787]
* [http://www.cricketarchive.com CricketArchive for early scorecards]Further reading
*
Derek Birley , "A Social History of English Cricket", Aurum, 1999
*Rowland Bowen , "Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development", Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
*Arthur Haygarth , "Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744-1826)", Lillywhite, 1862
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