Nottingham Cricket Club

Cricket in Nottinghamshire has been traced to a match between Nottingham Cricket Club and Sheffield Cricket Club at the Forest Racecourse, Nottingham in 1771.[1] This is the earliest known reference to cricket in the county.

The Nottingham team in this match is believed to have been an early "town club". In many sources, it is referred to as the "Nottingham Old Club" to distinguish it from Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, which evolved from it in either 1835 or 1841.

Several Nottingham matches in the 18th century have been recorded. Their opponents were usually Sheffield, Leicestershire & Rutland or MCC. The club grew in strength during the first thirty years of the 19th century and, by the time the county club was founded, Nottinghamshire was one of the "great counties" in cricket. A significant source for the original club is William North's 1832 book of Nottingham Old Club Match Scores.[2]

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 a top-level county team from 1835.

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.

See also

References

  1. ↑ J. Pycroft, The Cricket Field: Or the History and Science of the Game of Cricket (1868), p. 44.
  2. ↑ William North, Nottingham Old Club Match Scores, 1832.

Sources

Bibliography

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