History of Bucks CCC

The Early Years First evidence of cricket in Bucks When was cricket first played in Buckinghamshire? There can be no simple answer to this question; and what, in any case, do we mean by ‘cricket’? This is still the word we might use today to describe the game that we see played on the beach: a soft ball game without teams, probably with one batsman rather than two, some under-arm bowling, perhaps a picnic box or a couple of children’s spades acting as the wicket, with the incoming tide as an ever-shifting boundary and a dog as a supernumerary fielder. Of course such games conform to few of MCC’s Laws, yet in many ways they may be closer to the cricket most likely to have been played in the 16 th century, a form of competitive amusement, perhaps borrowing elements from other games that never flourished as cricket has done - games where participants hurled missiles and others struck them, in defence or attack, with some crude stick or bat. We are talking principally of a game played by youngsters or by manual labourers at the end of their working day. There were no scores to report and no matches to advertise to the wider world in the hope of mustering a crowd of paying spectators, so it is hardly surprising that most early references to cricket should be found when the players started to make a nuisance of themselves. Cricket is most widely mentioned in the 17 th century in records of court cases relating to injuries and damage to property caused in the course of playing the game, whilst high among the other misdemeanours for which the earliest cricketers risked prosecution was that most heinous of crimes, Sabbath breaking. From such hazily charted origins our national game took root in the 17 th century in The Weald, the area between the North and South Downs, primarily in Sussex but spilling over into Surrey and Kent. By the turn of the century it was gaining popularity in London, and it received an important boost as wealthy noblemen raised teams to compete for substantial purses with side bets adding to the importance attached to the outcome of the matches. The leading players of the day were found jobs on the great estates of their patrons, and cricket was dubbed a ‘manly exercise’ as those of social standing gave it their support. As the game gained ground in aristocratic circles it began to find its way to the great public schools in the south of the country. Pupils at Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Westminster will have been caught up in its growing popularity. Horace Walpole, who was at Eton from 1727 to 1734, made reference to cricket being quite widely played at the school during his time there, though it had little appeal for him. It was not until the 19 th century that success on the cricket field started to become a barometer of a school’s prestige but, with Eton in those days lying within the boundaries of Bucks, the informal games of Walpole’s time and previous decades will have been among the earliest cricket to be played in the county. The first newspaper record of a match in Bucks came in October 1730 when ‘a match of cricket was played by persons of distinction, on Datchett (sic) Heath, for £50’. We 9