Surrey County Cricket Club

From Free net encyclopedia

Surrey County Cricket Club (SCCC) is an English first-class cricket team, based at The Oval cricket ground in London.

SCCC has had two notable golden ages in its history, in 1887 to 1895 and again in the 1950s. SCCC won the county cricket championship title eight times from 1887 to 1895 (including the first ever officially constituted Championship in 1890) and a further seven consecutive outright titles from 1952 to 1958, with a joint title (with Lancashire) in 1950. In 1955, Surrey won 23 of their 28 county matches, a record that still stands. To date, Surrey have won the County Championship 22 times.

The club badge is the Prince of Wales' three feathers. Lord Rosebery obtained the permission to use this symbol from the Prince of Wales, owner of the land on which The Oval stands, in 1915.

The club colours are chocolate brown and silver.

Contents

[edit]

Formation and history

SCCC was born on the evening of 22 August, 1845 at the Horns Tavern in South London, where around 100 representatives of cricket clubs in Surrey agreed a motion put by William Denison (SCCC's first Secretary) "that a Surrey club be now formed". A further meeting at the Tavern on 18 October, 1845 formally constituted SCCC, appointed officers and began the enrolling members. A lease on Kennington Oval, a former market garden, was obtained by a Mr Houghton from the Duchy of Cornwall. Mr Houghton was of the old Montpelier club, 70 members of which formed the nucleus of the new Surrey County club. The Honourable Fred Ponsonby, later the Earl of Bessborough was the first vice-president.

Surrey's inaugural first-class county match against Kent was held at The Oval in June 1846. However the club did not do well that year, despite the extra public attractions at the Oval of a Walking Match and a Poultry Show. By the start of the 1847 season the club was £70 in debt and there was a motion to close. Ponsonby proposed that 6 life members be created for a fee of £12 each. His motion was duly passed, and the club survived.

In 1857, all nine matches played by the county resulted in victory. In 1864, SCCC was widely recognised as the first unofficial Champion County. SCCC were also unofficial Champion County in 1887 and 1888, and jointly in 1889, before the County Championship officially came into being in 1890.

From 1948 to 1959, Surrey finished either first or second in the county championship in 10 seasons out of 12. They finished runners-up in 1948, shared the championship with Lancashire in 1950, won seven consecutive outright titles from 1952 to 1958, and were runners-up again in 1959. Their margins of victory were usually large (for example, Yorkshire were runners-up in 1952 but were 32 points behind ). This success was built on a remarkably potent bowling attack, with the combative Tony Lock and Jim Laker, the finest orthodox off spinner of all time, making the most of helpful Oval tracks.

By the late 1990s, Surrey had reasserted themselves as the strongest team in English first class cricket, producing England international stalwarts such as Alec Stewart, Graham Thorpe and Mark Butcher. Adam Hollioake proved himself an inspiring match winning captain, and his younger brother Ben was tinged with greatness before his tragically early death in a car accident in Australia. Martin Bicknell, despite winning few Test caps, has been the outstanding seam bowler in English cricket over the past decade and Alistair Brown, remarkably without a Test cap to his name, has proved himself time and again the outstanding one day batsman of his time.

This recent run of success by Surrey came to an end in 2005, when they were relegated to Division Two of the Championship, having failed to secure enough bonus points to survive during their final first class match of the season, against local rivals Middlesex.

[edit]

Famous Surrey players

[edit]

Notable former Presidents of Surrey

This list excludes those who are also listed above as famous players:

[edit]

Competitions won

[edit]

Reference

[edit]

External link

Template:English first-class cricket clubs


Template:English first-class cricket clubs in 2005

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Surrey_County_Cricket_Club"