Suffolk Cricketers 1827-2018

4 the Suffolk County Cricket Club. Trial matches were held in 1933 and the Club entered the Minor Counties Championship in 1934, winning the competition in 1946, 1977, and 1979. The Championship was reorganised in 1983 and Suffolk were placed in the Eastern Division with Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Cumberland, Durham, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northumberland, and Staffordshire. The other counties were in the Western Division. Buckinghamshire replaced Durham in 1992. Results were mixed but the County did become runners up in in 1985, and finally in 2005 won the Division drawing the final with the Western Division leaders Cheshire. Also in 1983 a Knock- out competition was instigated and this was won in 2007. At the AGM in December 1969 the Club changed its title to the Suffolk County Cricket Association. After playing earlier matches at the Town Ground Felixstowe and Portman Road Ipswich, the Championship matches have been staged at a number of different Clubs around the County mainly the Victory Ground in Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich School, Denes Oval in Lowestoft and Ransomes in Ipswich. In 1964 the five top Minor Counties from the previous season alongside seven first class counties were put into a draw for the first round of the second year of the Gillette Cup, a knock-out competition of 60 overs competed for previously by the first class counties. Suffolk first took part in 1966 against Kent and went on to play a further 23 matches in the competition. The matches were classed as List A matches and in 1981 the competition was renamed the NatWest Trophy when thirteen Minor Counties and all the first class counties participated. The competition was subsequently renamed again in 2001 as the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy and the format changed once again before the Minor County involvement finished after the 2005 season. I wish to wholeheartedly thank Colin Munford who from his vast knowledge of Suffolk cricket has proved invaluable in completing this publication. Before his death in 1974 the County scorer D.F. Durham kept a card index of many of players and this has also helped with some of the biographies and completing scorecards during the Minor Counties era. As with previous publications in the series Tony Webb’s collection of County scores has enabled the completion of many missing match details. I would also like to thank Norman Atkins the Suffolk Cricket Association Chairman, Toby Pound the Suffolk Secretary, ACS members particularly Peter Wynne Thomas, Stephen Musk and Philip Defriez and the many former players, schools and colleges who have responded to my enquiries. My thanks also to Cricket Archive and Philip Bailey who are responsible for the statistics. The players’biographies and averages include details from the two day County friendly matches played from1827to1982aslistedbelowandChampionshipmatchesfrom1904to2018.Thecareerspanofthese players in the biographies also covers List A, Knock Out and T20 matches. The early “odds” matches against various England XIs are not included. The biographies section lists separately the players who have played in only List A, Knock Out and T20 matches and are listed after the main entries but their averages are not included. All Holland 2 1973, 1974 Bedfordshire 3 1880 (2), 1881 Sir Julien Cahn’s XI 1 1936 Cambridgeshire 2 1902 (2) Cambridge Town and County Club 2 1844 (2) Cambridge University 4 1865, 1978, 1980, 1982 Essex 18 1854, 1866(2), 1876 (2), 1877 (2), 1878 (2), 1879 (2), 1880 (2), 1881 (2), 1882 (2), 1883 Essex II 15 1903, 1933 (2), 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982