Category: Club Histories

The earliest mention of Taunton Deane CC dates back to just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Although little is known about the club’s activities at the time, it is recorded that the team reached the Baker Cup final in 1938, where they were defeated by Somerset Constabulary. Despite the loss, they became the first recipients of the Arthur Hayward Trophy. The original club was disbanded in 1940.

A brief history of Broadway and Horton Cricket Club, with many thanks to those who have contributed to this piece of research – Jon Pike,  Jim Sainsbury, Maurice Baigent et al. Photographs courtesy of Mr Jim Sainsbury.

The full history of Hestercombe Cricket Club, is recorded on the Hestercombe House website which can be viewed here.

In the early 1900’s there are many reports in the newspapers of a cricket team in Ilton and, as with most village teams back then they seemed to stop and start over the years. In 1905 a report tells us that they were sat down to their annual dinner and their guest speaker commented that ‘he was not aware of a more flourishing club than the Ilton Cricket Club and he hoped that it would continue’ yet just 4 years later it was announced that the club was to re-start.

The present Staplegrove Cricket Club was founded in 1919 as part of Staplegrove Sports Club, also formed in the same year, when a local landowner allowed the Sports Club to use two fields off Manor Road, Staplegrove for local people to play both cricket and football.

The origins of Wedmore Cricket Club, go back to a meeting in Porch House, West End, Wedmore in 1850 though the first match there are recorded details for took place on 30th July 1858 against Wrington. The Weston Mercury of 7th August 1858 shows complete scorecards of a two innings game. The match report stated that “the whole party adjourned to the Golden Lion (in Wrington) where most present played a ‘good innings’ “. Clearly the after match socialising was important even then.

Saltford Cricket Club was founded in 1916 and played at several locations in the village before moving to its current ground.

The club joined the Bristol and District League before moving to the Somerset League where it climbed to Division III.

Priston Cricket Club was founded in 1984, when just 4 away matches were played. After several nomadic years, we got the chance to have our own pitch at Priston Mill, starting each season only after the silage was removed from the outfield.

Cricket has been played at the North Somerset Village of Wrington since the beginning of the 19^th century. For years the Club Fixture Card stated the club was formed in 1817 but although there are records of games organised by The Chapel, Farmers matches and even Ladies V The Gentlemen it is more likely that the actual club was formed in 1870 and 1817 was a printing typo.

Barrow Gurney Cricket club was founded in 1874 in the North Somerset village, by a group of local people. Copies of the founding documents are displayed in our pavilion.

Initially cricket was played in a field just off the main road in Barrow Gurney village but in the 1930s the club arrived at its current ground in Hobbs Lane, leasing the land from the local landowners, the Gibbs family.

Mark Cricket Club was established as a part of village life in 1885, with a cricket match at the annual Mark Village Festival which also incorporated a village tea in the afternoon and dance in the evening. In 1894, the evening’s entertainment was supplied by the Weston-Super-Mare Band. The annual village festival is believed to have been the forerunner of the now renowned Mark Harvest Home. The club’s original home ground, and that of the annual festival was the field on the corner of the Causeway opposite the White Horse Inn which was later to become popularly known as the Harvest Home Ground.

Burnham-on-Sea cricket club was established in 1861 and has played continuously since then, although this date seems to be at variance with other reports. It has been stated both as 1861 (which appears to be supported by contemporary newspaper reports) and 1857, in articles from the same source (H.G. Wheeler), the latter statement leading to a centenary celebration in 1957.

Churchstanton Cricket Club (later to become Churchinford Cricket Club) was founded in April 1891. At the first known Annual General Meeting 29th April 1891 the Rev. A.D. Taylor was elected President, Dr. Barker, Captain and the Rev. F.E.W. Langdon Sub-captain/ Treasurer, the first ground was kindly lent by Mr. Westlake.

Established in 1982, the Club played friendly matches during their first season and having joined the North Somerset Cricket League in the autumn of 1982 the Club first played league matches in 1983.

Fielding both men’s and women’s Senior teams plus age group teams for both boys and girls, Shapwick and Polden Cricket Club is now the only cricket club in the Polden Hills and provides the opportunity for adults and children to participate in sport in a welcoming and safe environment.

Uphill Castle Cricket Club has been inextricably linked with the Graves-Knyfton family ever since its first tenuous steps in 1893.

It was a great social occasion when the family took up residence in the Uphill Manor a year earlier in 1892 and they celebrated their arrival by inviting the whole village including 150 children to a tea and concert at the Castle.

Stratton on the Fosse CC was founded in the early part of the 1900s and played at Downside School until 2015. The 1913 Midsomer Norton CC Fixture list below shows fixtures between both Stratton on the Fosse and the original Chilcompton club. The Club also hosted a County match between  Somerset and Glamorgan in 1934.

The Club played friendly cricket until the late 80s when it joined the North Somerset League, and won several divisional titles in the late eighties and early nineties.

Portbury CC was founded in 1889 and amalgamated with Failand CC 5 years later to form the club we know today.

Cricket has been played on Combe Down since the mid nineteenth century, various teams have played matches as Combe Down as far back as 1857, the first reported match against Box Cricket Club appeared in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, possibly by workers from the stone quarries of both villages. The following year 1858 a match report appeared against Chippenham. Fixtures were listed at times during the 1880’s -1890’s but no official club was formed until the summer of 1897 when as part of the rugby club a cricket section was created.

Minehead Cricket Club (MCC) was formed in 1865 under the direction of a George Thrissell, host of the Plume of Feathers Hotel in the centre of Minehead. It is thought that the club first played on a ground in the Ponsford Road/Tregonwell Road area and some years later moved to the current Minehead Recreation Ground.

Pre 1914, it is believed the team travelled to away matches by horse and cart and a donkey was kept to help with ground preparations.

Village cricket is part of the quintessential British summer scene.

There has been a club in the Harptrees since at least 1871. The 1897 fixture card shows that, like many villages, the club officers and captains were the elite of the village.  The president was the squire, Mr Kettlewell whose son, H W Kettlewell had turned out for Somerset in 1899: in his only match, he made seven runs and bowled 40 balls for 30 runs and no wickets,

Queen Camel CC – Established in 1871

A few years ago, we were able to find this article in the April 14th, 1871 edition of the Western Gazette showing the committee meeting that launched Queen Camel Cricket Club. The first match was played on Monday 10th April. We also were able to find several match reports and scorecards printed in same newspaper for games played that season against West Camel, Rimpton and South Barrow.!!

In 1924 a recently qualified young man with a Cricket Blue from University was employed as Land Agent to the Milton’s Estate on Exmoor.

Roy Nesfield was a cricket fanatic who had played three times for Worcestershire and although playing for The Somerset Stragglers and Somerset 2^nd X1 he wanted to raise his own Cricket Team in Bridgetown. Not an easy task as he had to find a fairly level field which is not easy on Exmoor and find players drawn from mostly rural farming folk who had probably never watched a cricket match let alone played.

The exact date of the formation of Timsbury Cricket Club remains a mystery but an insertion in the Western Gazette on July 25th 1873 talks of a match between Timsbury and Radstock and so in 2023 Timsbury will be at least 150 years old. 

It moved to its present headquarters on the Recreation Field in 1965 but prior to that had been based on the Glebe field which is now a housing estate and during its history had also played on the school field which is now the home of the third eleven and youth teams and on the beautiful grounds adjoining Pendogget House.

Our club is the result of a very successful merger in 2017, which created a thriving and very successful community-based club.

There has been a cricket club at Lympsham, a village halfway between Weston and Burnham, for many years, playing its cricket on what was no more than a field with a very small run-down cricket pavilion/shed.   In 1992, with the help of a local landowner, the village created a brand new cricket pitch, together with a proper cricket pavilion and hard tennis courts, all of which was opened by HRH the Princess Royal on the May Bank Holiday with Somerset CCC (Trescothick, Caddick and all) coming to play the first match (and losing, of course!).  

1998 was very important year In the life of Cleeve Cricket Club, The Club committee have been very busy organising events for their 50th year celebrations. Since the Club reformed in 1948 it had progressed steadily over the years, on and off the field. Every year brought new challenges and additionally now the Club was to play in the Senior Division of the Bristol & District Cricket League for the first time in their history.

Fry’s CC may be one of Bristol’s oldest cricket clubs but it is not old by cricketing standards, only having been founded in 1872 as part of the Fry’s Sports and Social Club, as the Cricket section for employees working for the company.

The club was formed under the shade of a Hawthorn Bush in Pembroke Road, Clifton and was called Caracas Cricket Club, something the current team acknowledge on the badge of current Fry’s CC cricket shirts. Caracas was the name of the new cocoa JS Fry was making at the time.

Cricket has been played at The Park, Stourhead from at least the 1880s. There was an active team in Stourton in the 1920s and a successful team in the 1930s (we have several scorebooks from this time) and photos from the 1880s and 1920s.  We have no information about what happened in the 1940s and assume that the club may have folded for a few years at this time.

Whitchurch Cricket Club was formed in 1922 when a group of local people got together to plan the seeds that has grown into the club we know today. Things would have been a lot different then as few people would have had cars so most of their early games would have been local fixtures. 

There has been a cricket club in Langport since at least 1838, although it has had a chequered history. At some periods it was joined with Somerton, as the Langport & Somerton Cricket Club; at others with Curry Rivel, as the Curry Rivel & Langport Cricket Club, and since 1946 it has been known as the Huish & Langport Cricket Club. (Reference Langport Heritage).

It is believed the club was founded around 1851, although the exact date remains a mystery. There are some recollections and a few records of matches played on the field across the Migh Bridge on the River Chew.

Courtesy of the Hoskyns family, North Perrott has been privileged to play cricket at Willis Lane since 1946.

Not all clubs have 100 year plus histories, the Shaftesbury Road Cricket Club was founded in the summer of 2015, when a spontaneous game of cricket broke out between friends at 71, Shaftesbury Road in Milton, Weston-super-Mare.

The home of the Palairet Family – an appreciation written by Michael Hill (Somerset County Cricket Club) – July 1994.

The village of Kidmore End, a few miles north of Reading may seem an unlikely place to have a close connection with Somerset County Cricket Club. However the first captain of its cricket club, founded in 1863, was one Henry Hamilton Palairet, a talented all round sportsman, five times archery captain of All England and useful cricketer

The earliest records of the club begin at 1847, although we were undoubtedly extant before that date. By 1851 we were fielding two teams, and the name “Grace” was appearing in the scorebook.

Temple Cloud Cricket Club was after the First World in 1919 by local residents of the parish of Cameley as they planned for the future and the return of sport.

Kilve Cricket Club was founded sometime before 1860 when the first edition of the West Somerset Free Press, the local newspaper for this district of the County, recorded a reference to the Club.

With a proud tradition going back over 140 years Stogumber Cricket Club is one of the preeminent clubs in West Somerset with without doubt one of the best grounds in the area.

Article contributed to by Stogumber CC and Richard Walsh

This beautiful ground lies behind Watts House, now known as Cedar Falls. Watts House was built by the Winters family and was completed in 1831.the family lived there until about 1890.

Wombat Cricket Club was established in 1984 by a small group of primary school teachers from the Taunton area who decided that they would like to play some social cricket.  A meeting was arranged in the bar of the Colin Atkinson Pavilion (Somerset County Cricket Club) to discuss the type of club we wanted.

First reference to a Chard Cricket Club is found in the “Chard Union Gazette” of May 1841. A Club was formed during this month” for the practice of that truly English game…. Cricket”. 

Taunton Cricket Club was founded in June 1829 when a group of men met at a pub in the town to discuss forming a club. Their first ground was at Orchard Portman Great Field, now the Taunton Racecourse. 

The Castle Cary and Ansford Cricket Club was founded in 1837, but then had folded by 1840 when the Hadspen club was started. In 1859 the Castle Cary Cricket Club was formed although its headquarters were at Hadspen until 1870 when it acquired a field at South Cary where a pavilion was built in 1881.

The Somerset Women cricket team is the women’s cricket team for the county of Somerset. They play their home games at various grounds across Somerset, most often in Taunton, and are partnered with the regional team Western Storm.

The Cricket Club was formed in 1920 when a number of employees who worked at ‘Clark Son & Morland Ltd’ (sheepskin tanners of Glastonbury) set up a side to represent the Company.

Formed in 1892 we believe, after 130 years of competitive cricket, Spaxton Cricket Club to be one of Somerset’s longest standing village cricket clubs. The Club is fully affiliated to the Somerset Cricket Foundation and play in the Monmouth Scientific League.

Founded in 1860, Ilminster Cricket Club has been a central part of the local community for over 150 years.With recent refurbishments to our beloved bar area (aptly nicknamed ‘the shed’) and recently renamed the Tony Rice Bar after one of the clubs longest and most devoted servants- Tony Rice- the club is continually looking towards the future.