Clevedon Cricket Club was established in 1874 and is one of the leading clubs around the Bristol and Somerset area. The club is located at the top of one of the 7 hills in Clevedon and delivers beautiful picturesque views of the Mendips and Bristol Channel from its ground at Dial Hill.
Pre dating Custer’s Last Stand, the invention of the telephone, the phonogram and the first internal combustion engine, Clevedon Cricket Club had already become a vital part of the fabric of the town, by at least 1874 when newspaper reports of competitive matches at Dial Hill began to appear. Just a few years after the opening of Clevedon Pier, while Gladstone and Disraeli were preoccupied with a general election, Clevedon Cricket Club was already playing a crucial community role.
In the forty year period leading up to the First World War, the members of the Club worked tirelessly to maintain and develop their Dial Hill ground. Contemporary reports list a wealth of fixtures against local Clubs and organisations throughout Somerset. One wonders how such opposing teams as Knowle And The Schools, Abbots Leigh, Long Ashton, Lodway, Yatton, Wrington Vale et al would have made the trek and negotiated the steep hill in a horse drawn age.
Sadly, the ranks of Clevedon Cricket Club were to be seriously depleted in The Great War when at least 7 first team players lost their lives. The four-year hiatus left the ground in a “sorry state” according to local reports but the members set too with a will and by the summer of 1919 the Club was ready again to host cricket matches.
By 1939, Clevedon Cricket Club had further progressed and fielded perhaps the strongest side in its history in the short season leading up to the declaration of WW2. The value of the Club to Somerset was shown as The Civil Defence and other local organisations arranged fixtures on the ground during war time in order to maintain morale and keep spirits up.
By 1948 Clevedon were able to host a benefit match against Somerset County Cricket Club which drew large crowds and the 1950s and 1960s saw an ever-expandingfixture list as Clubs throughout Somerset and Bristol looked for the opportunity to play on our beautiful ground. By 1970, Clevedon were one of the first local Clubs to elect a female Club secretary in Sally Newton and in 1973 entered league cricket for the first time. Towards the end of 1973 a dream was realised on Dial Hill with the erection of a new pavilion.
The Club celebrated its Centenary in 1974 with a week of festival cricket, this including women and girls from the town in what was then seen as a visionary initiative. Later matches against England Women – sides including Baroness Rachel Heyhoe Flint and Enid Bakewell MBE – confirmed Clevedon Cricket Club as a leader in all-inclusive sport.
The 1980s saw the establishment of an exchange scheme with Somerset County Cricket Club, where Clevedon supported young cricketers from the county looking to gain experience. As a result of this relationship, future stars of test cricket such as Andy Caddick, Geraint Jones MBE, Kyle Abbot, Mark Greatbatch, and Mark Douglas all played for the Club.
The strong reputation for the quality of the ground and the pitches maintained by Clevedon continues this reputation for excellence to this day – with Peter Trego, Ryan Higgins, Josh Davey, Chris Jones, and Somerset, Yorkshire and England player Dominic Bess all having played for Clevedon. The Club has a proud record of supporting black and Asian minority cricketers. Brent Augustus played several seasons for Clevedon as have current Pakistan national team psychologist Taimoor Ali Khan, Masoor Khan, Adeel Khan, Tabish Khan, Sri Lankan international Andy Solomons and latterly UAE international Adnan Mufti.
The Club continues to grow year on year, with future development of not only young men, but with the continuing growth of Girls and Ladies cricket, the latter of which are already trophy winners and are developing nicely in the hard ball arena, with over 30 regular players, one of them enjoys it so much, she has also joined the England and Wales Cricket board ( ECB) main executive committee. Friends in high places indeed!
The future of Clevedon cricket Club is firmly built on strong foundations both within the Club and the Community as the Club moves towards its 150thbirthday in 2024. We plan to build on recent success, we have designs on where we want to be over the next five to ten years. We are fortunate as a Club to have a date or time frame to achieve some of those ambitions and that would be our150th Anniversary in 2024.
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