Wikipedia / Nottingham Cricket Club
Wikipedia / Nottingham Cricket Club
Several Nottingham Cricket Club matches have been recorded from 1771 to 1848, and its team generally played historically important matcheses, depending on the quality of their opponents. The earliest reference to cricket in the county of Nottinghamshire is a match between Nottingham and Sheffield Cricket Club at the Forest Racecourse, Nottingham in August 1771. In many sources, the Nottingham team is called the "Nottingham Old Club" or as the "town club" to distinguish it from Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, which was founded in 1841. A team called Nottinghamshire had played since 1835 but is believed to have been organised by the town club and only using the county name in certain matches.
Nottingham's opponents in their important matches were most often Sheffield. They played several games against Leicestershire & Rutland Leicester. They had two matches against Cambridge Town Club, one against Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and one against a combined Leicester/Sheffield team.
Nottinghamshire as a county team played its first inter-county match versus Sussex at Brown's Ground in Brighton on 27, 28 & 29 August 1835. All the previous matches had involved Nottingham as a town rather than Nottinghamshire as a county. Nottinghamshire has been recognised as an important/first-class county team from 1835. The club grew in strength during the first thirty years of the 19th century and, by the time the county club was founded in 1841, Nottinghamshire was one of the "great counties" in cricket. In either March or April 1841, the formal creation of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club was enacted. The exact date has been lost. However, as noted above, an informal county club may have been active in 1835.
There is still a Nottingham Cricket Club, known as Nottinghamians and part of the rugby union club of that name. A significant source for the original club is William North's 1832 book of Nottingham Old Club Match Scores.
Important matches played by Nottingham Cricket Club
There are surviving references to fourteen matches involving Nottingham in the 18th century, between 1771 and 1800. After that, the next match in the records is dated 1813. Nine of the fourteen matches to 1800 must be considered important as they were eleven-a-side against MCC or one of the early Sheffield or Leicester teams. There are two matches against a team from Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, about whom little is known, and these have doubtful status. The other three matches were "odds" games in which either Nottingham or their opponents fielded 22 players against eleven. In the 19th century, many more Nottingham matches are known to have been played. Again, some were "odds" matches and others are deemed to lack importance because of the quality of the opposition.
Although it is an important match, the 1771 game against Sheffield is the earliest surviving reference to cricket in the county of Nottinghamshire. It is believed that the origin of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club lies in this same Nottingham town club that apparently came into existence by 1770. In 1835, its team was first styled as Nottinghamshire county, rather than Nottingham town, when it played against a county team. County matches to 1840 are included in the table because the Nottinghamshire teams were organised by the Nottingham club. The present Nottinghamshire county club was formally established in 1841.
date | match title | venue | result | sources |
26–27 August 1771 (M–Tu) | Nottingham v Sheffield | result unknown | ||
notes | The contemporary reports indicate that the game was not determined on account of "a dispute having arisen by one of the Sheffield players being jostled". It seems the intention was for each team to play three innings each. The end details known are that Sheffield were 60 ahead with Nottingham yet to bat. Sheffield scored 81, 62 and 105 for a total of 248, but it is not known if 105 was an all out total or not. Nottingham had scored 76 and 112 for a total of 188 with another innings in hand. The reports mention a Sheffield batsman called Osguthorpe (sic) who "kept in batting for several hours together", but his name is not among the two lists of players given in Scores & Biographies, one under 26 August 1771 and another under 1 June 1772 (see match below). The lists are evidently the same team but with slight differences for each match. As Osguthorpe is not included, they must be the Nottingham players only. The players are: Coleman (2 appearances), Turner (2), Loughman (2), Roe (2), Spurr (2), Stocks (2), Collishaw (2), Troop (2), Mew (2), Bamford (1), Gladwin (1), Huythwaite (1), Rawson (1). The Sheffield club organised county matches in Yorkshire from the mid-1700s, its teams in important matches being representative of Yorkshire as a county until in 1863 it was the main participant in the official formation of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. | |||
1 June 1772 (M) | Sheffield v Nottingham | Sheffield (exact venue unknown) | Sheffield won | |
notes | Nottingham forfeited the match after being dismissed for 14 and then seeing Sheffield score 70 with wickets still in hand. A pre-match announcement appeared in the (Nottingham) Daily Messenger on Tuesday, 25 May: "We are informed that the great Cricket Match which has been so long depending between the Society of Nottingham & that of Sheffield is to be finally determined at Sheffield on Mon., 1 June . . . . The Sherwood youths have been practising for some weeks past, and we are told, the odds at Nottingham are 2 to 1 in their favour". The paper followed up with a report on Friday, 12 June that bewailed the defeat of the Nottingham team. | |||
17–18 September 1781 (M–Tu) | Leicester v Nottingham | Loughborough (exact venue unknown) | incomplete due to dispute | |
notes | ||||
21 September 1789 | Leicester v Nottingham | Loughborough (exact venue unknown) | ||
notes | ||||
5 October 1789 | Leicester v Nottingham | Loughborough (exact venue unknown) | ||
notes | ||||
29 August 1791 | Nottingham v Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) | |||
notes | ||||
9 July 1792 | Leicestershire & Rutland v Nottingham | |||
notes | ||||
25 August 1800 | Leicester v Nottingham | St Margaret's Pasture, Leicester | ||
notes | ||||
29 September 1800 | Nottingham v Sheffield | Mansfield (exact venue unknown) | ||
notes | ||||
29 July 1822 | Nottingham v Holt (Norfolk) | |||
notes | No scorecard has been found. | |||
12 September 1825 | Bury St Edmunds v Nottingham | Rougham Park, Bury St Edmunds | Bury St Edmunds won by 33 runs | |
notes | ||||
24 July 1826 | Sheffield & Leicester v Nottingham | |||
notes | ||||
30 July 1827 | Sheffield v Nottingham | Darnall New Ground, Sheffield | ||
notes | ||||
20 August 1827 | Nottingham v Sheffield | Forest New Ground, Nottingham | ||
notes | ||||
1 September 1828 | Nottingham v Sheffield | Forest New Ground, Nottingham | ||
notes | ||||
22 September 1828 | Sheffield v Nottingham | Darnall New Ground, Sheffield | ||
notes | ||||
8 June 1829 | Nottingham v Nottinghamshire | Forest New Ground, Nottingham | ||
notes | ||||
6 July 1829 | Leicester v Nottingham | Barker's Ground, Leicester | ||
notes | ||||
27 July 1829 | Nottingham v Leicester | Forest New Ground, Nottingham | ||
notes | ||||
24 August 1829 | Sheffield v Nottingham | Darnall New Ground, Sheffield | ||
notes | ||||
7 September 1829 | Nottingham v Sheffield | Forest New Ground, Nottingham | ||
notes | ||||
30 August 1830 | Sheffield v Nottingham | Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield | ||
notes | ||||
29 August 1831 | Sheffield v Nottingham | Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield | ||
notes | ||||
15 October 1832 | Sheffield v Nottingham | Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield | ||
notes | ||||
22 July 1834 | Cambridge Town Club v Nottingham | |||
notes | ||||
26 August 1834 | Nottingham v Cambridge Town Club | Forest New Ground, Nottingham | ||
notes | ||||
8 September 1834 | Sheffield v Nottingham | Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield | ||
notes | ||||
27 August 1835 | Sussex v Nottinghamshire | |||
notes | ||||
7 September 1835 | Nottinghamshire v Sussex | Forest New Ground, Nottingham | ||
notes | ||||
24 July 1837 | Sussex v Nottinghamshire | Royal New Ground, Brighton | ||
notes | ||||
27 July 1837 | Kent v Nottinghamshire | Old County Ground, Town Malling | ||
notes | ||||
21 August 1837 | Nottinghamshire v Sussex | Forest New Ground, Nottingham | ||
notes | ||||
15 June 1840 | Sussex v Nottinghamshire | Royal New Ground, Brighton | ||
notes | ||||
18 June 1840 | Kent v Nottinghamshire | Old County Ground, Town Malling | ||
notes | ||||
27 July 1840 | Nottinghamshire v Sussex | Trent Bridge, Nottingham | ||
notes | ||||
21 September 1846 | Sheffield v Nottingham | Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield | ||
notes | No scorecard has been found. | |||
24 September 1846 | Manchester v Nottingham | Moss Lane, Manchester | ||
notes | No scorecard has been found. | |||
3 July 1848 | Sheffield v Nottingham | Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield | ||
notes | ||||
17 August 1848 | Nottingham v Sheffield | Trent Bridge, Nottingham | ||
notes |
Other matches
Records, or at least mentions, of several other matches played by the Nottingham club are in existence. These are not classed as important. Some were against minor club opponents and others were "odds" matches in which one team had more than eleven players. These matches are listed by Cricket Archive:
date | match title | venue |
1 September 1783 | Melton Mowbray v Nottingham | Melton Mowbray |
11 September 1783 | Nottingham v Melton Mowbray | The Forest New Ground, Nottingham |
30 August 1791 | Nottingham XXII v MCC | King's Meadow, Nottingham |
5 July 1792 | MCC v Nottingham XXII | The Park, Burley-on-the-Hill |
3 November 1800 | Nottingham v Sheffield XXII | Warsop |
15 November 1813 | Leicester XXII v Nottingham | Loughborough |
20 September 1814 | Rutland v Nottingham | The Park, Burley-on-the-Hill |
23 June 1817 | Nottingham XXII v England | The Forest New Ground, Nottingham |
7 September 1818 | Nottingham XXII v England | The Forest New Ground, Nottingham |
10 September 1821 | Leicester XVI v Nottingham | St Margaret's Pasture, Leicester |
26 August 1822 | Sheffield XV v Nottingham | Darnall Old Ground, Sheffield |
9 September 1822 | Nottingham v Sheffield XV | The Forest New Ground, Nottingham |
11 July 1823 | Nottingham v Fallow Field Club | The Forest New Ground, Nottingham |
25 August 1823 | Nottingham v Leicester XIV | The Forest New Ground, Nottingham |
2 September 1833 | Nottingham v Nottinghamshire Next XXII | The Forest New Ground, Nottingham |
4 September 1836 | New Forest Club v Nottingham | The Forest New Ground, Nottingham |
26 September 1836 | New Forest & Bingham v Nottingham | The Forest New Ground, Nottingham |
1 August 1842 | Sheffield Wednesday v Nottingham | Sheffield |
8 August 1842 | Nottingham v Sheffield Wednesday | Trent Bridge, Nottingham |
30 June 1843 | Nottingham v Hampshire (fill-up) | Trent Bridge, Nottingham |
29 July 1844 | Sheffield Wednesday v Nottingham | Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield |
See also
References
Bibliography
External links