Dorset Cricketers 1845-2016

In 1907 the Championship was reorganised and Dorset was put in the Western Division, in 1908 and 1909 in the Southern Division and moving to the South West Division for the following two years before a further change back to a full table with all counties. Before 1982 the highest positions the County achieved were joint third in 1923, third in 1959 and 1982. In 1983 the Championship was divided into two divisions Dorset being in the Western initially playing matches against Berkshire, Buckinghamshire (who were replaced by Herefordshire in 1992), Cheshire, Cornwall, Devon, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Wiltshire, Somerset II (to be replaced by Wales in 1988). Since, Dorset has won the Championship twice in 2000 and 2010. A new Knock Out competition was also started in 1983 and Dorset have won this once (in 1988). Matches have been played at a considerable number of grounds around the County after the demise of the old Kingston Park club. In 1903 a ground was established in Poole Park which was originally intended to be the permanent county ground but in 1911 the management of the ground was passed from the county club to Poole Park Cricket Club. Sherborne and Sherborne School were also early grounds used to be followed later by Wimborne (Merley Park, St Giles, Canford School, and Hannams), Dorchester and Blandford Recreational Grounds, Weymouth College and later Redlands Sports Club Weymouth, St Mary’s Field Bridport and Bournemouth Sports Club. In 1994 the former Hampshire county ground at Dean Park, Bournemouth was refurbished and became the Dorset county ground until 2014 when the lease was taken over by a private school and Dorset have had to find new clubs to host home fixtures. “Although Sherborne School cannot compare with some of the cricketing schools” it has “turned out some splendid cricketers” according to an article on Sherborne Cricket in the magazine Cricket in 1911. The School has provided over 80 cricketers for the County team. Also to a lesser extent Queen Elizabeth’s School Wimborne, The Thomas Hardye School Dorchester and Canford School have also provided a fair number of County cricketers. I have been assisted initially in obtaining missing scores and player details by Christine Drew the Dorset Scorer, Andy Martin the Dorset Cricket Centre Manager, Roy New, Keith Walmsley, Julian Lawton Smith, Peter Wynne Thomas, Cyril Waite and especially Tony Webb, and I thank them all wholeheartedly for their support. I have also been helped by a number of former county cricketers who have been able to give me much information on former players and these include Bill Kempton, Patrick Gent, Barry Lewis and the late former County officials Derek Bridge, Ken House and Brian Newbery. Rachel Hassall the Sherborne School Archivist has provided a wealth of information which has helped tremendously with completing the biographies and other school and university archivists have also responded to my enquiries. I am greatly indebted once again to Peter Griffiths and CricketArchive for their input and to Philip Bailey for providing the averages which has not been an easy task with so many missing scores having to be traced. The format is similar to previous counties in the series, the players’ biographies and averages include details from the following two day friendly county matches played between 1845 and 1959 and Championship matches between 1897 and 2016. The odds matches against the England XI’s, early matches against wandering clubs and some matches which have been termed Club and Ground or ‘A’ matches are not included. The biographies section also lists separately players who have played only in List A matches, MCCA Knockout matches and these follow the main biographies. Unfortunately it was not possible to obtain full bowling details in a number of 19th and early 20th century matches. 4