History of Bucks CCC

During the barren years for Bucks there is evidence of adjoining counties playing a few matches. Occasional scores can be found in the Bucks Herald for Berkshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, but the last mention of a Bucks team comes in 1874, when the Gentlemen of Bucks let themselves down badly at Marlow. There was great disappointment that a weakened team should have been sent to play The Rovers in what the home club saw as a prestigious match. And it came as little surprise that the Bucks batsmen should buckle in both their innings and lose by nine wickets. One man who emerged with some credit was AC Bartholomew, who three years earlier had played for Cambridge in Cobden’s match. Now he made 34 ‘by boldness and dash’. By 1889 moves were afoot to set Bucks cricket back on the map. ‘We are glad to find that the movement for the encouragement of County Cricket in Bucks has been well taken up,’ reported the Bucks Herald of 25 May in noting that there had been a meeting of club secretaries from the south of the county at the Bear Hotel in Maidenhead. In mid-June their counterparts from the north gathered at the Bletchley Park Hotel where it was agreed to write to clubs inviting names of players who might wish to play for the North in the two trial matches that were planned for later that summer. On 31 July, in lovely weather and before a good crowd, the two sides met for the first match at Buckingham. The South, seen as clear favourites, made a poor start, collapsing to the bowling of 20-year-old WJ Gough, a Buckingham hotel-keeper, for 61; but the North’s batsmen could do little better, gaining a lead of just three runs. The South now showed their true ability as Percy de Paravicini, a former Middlesex player who was to become captain of Bucks in 1893, followed his first innings of 23 with 107. A target of 285 proved far beyond the capabilities of the North, whose batsmen surrendered meekly for 71. The return match on the Dolphin Ground at Slough provided the stage for a stylish 108 from CW Parry of Stoke Green CC as he dominated the South’s first innings of 154. AM Sutthery, who had won a blue at Cambridge two years earlier, made 36 for the North, but 19 from his brother was the only other double figure contribution as the ball dominated. Walter Hearne, another of that prodigious clan from Chalfont and the brother of JT Hearne, and who would soon gain a regular place in the Kent team, took eight for 43 as the North mustered only 107. Arthur Sutthery, with seven for 38, strove to keep his side in the match, but the South again ran out easy winners by 62 runs. There was now an appetite for county cricket and the next year Mr Leopold de Rothschild assembled a team at Ascott to take on Eleven of the County. The team included several members who would make their debut for Bucks the following year and they proved too strong for their host’s eleven, winning by an innings and 43 runs. Cecil Parry again underlined his credentials in top-scoring with 68. A few months later he would be one of the 14 gentlemen who assembled in London to ensure that 1891 would see a Buckingham- shire team back on the field and when the next summer came round he would be its captain at the age of 24. The demise of the first County Club 18