Wiltshire Cricketers 1858-2014

INTRODUCTION The newspaper reports of cricket in Wiltshire date back to the latter part of the 18th century when there were references to matches at Upford in 1769 where 11 farmers beat their eldest sons by 23 notches; in 1772 when players from Downton combined with players from Hampshire in a match near Ringwood; in 1774 at Beckhampton Down where tradesmen of Marlborough beat those of Devizes and in 1776 again at Beckhampton Down where Devizes beat Calne by 10 wickets for a large silver cup and in 1783 Devizes beat Westbury by 85 notches. The first mention of a team from Salisbury was in 1775 when Salisbury defeated Wilton on Salisbury race course. Early nineteenth century matches can also be traced in Amesbury (1826), Chippenham (1837 - on formation of Club), Fovant (1826), Landford (1827), Plaitford (1816), Purton (1820), Swindon (1823), Trowbridge (club reorganised 1844), Whiteparish (1817), Willow West (1816) and in other towns and villages. The earliest mention of a team styled Wiltshire was in September 1798 when on Roundway Hill near Devizes, Wiltshire defeated Somerset. The return at Claverton Down near Bath caused much ill feeling as the Bath team hired five players (including Scott ” the best player in England”) from other counties and won the match. The next mention of the county team is in 1835 when two matches were played between Hampshire (raised by Thomas Chamberlayne of Cranbury) and a Wiltshire team raised by Sir Frederic Bathurst of Clarendon Park. Hampshire won the first match by 50 runs and the return at Stonehenge by 88 runs. There were a number of matches in the county when teams played against All England XIs commencing in the 1850s and friendly matches subsequently before the County Club was formed on 24 February 1881 at Trowbridge. The MCC were first met at Lord’s in 1874. After the Club’s formation, officers were appointed but for some years the Club appeared to be solely run by W S Bambridge, a master at Marlborough College. A reorganisation to put the Club on a better footing however, was agreed on 20 September 1888. Initially, home matches were played at the Savernake Forest Ground, Hilperton Road Trowbridge, and Marlborough College until 1887 when grounds at The Park and The Sands, Swindon and Bemerton Salisbury were included. Following the opening of the County Grounds at Swindon (in May 1893) and Trowbridge (in 1896) matches have tended to be predominately played there, but Chippenham, Devizes and Malmesbury subsequently staged matches together with Melksham and Westbury. On 27 October 1892 the Club was wound up but again reorganised on 3 January 1894 and has remained in continuous existence since. Wiltshire initially joined the Minor Counties Cricket Association on its formation in March 1895, and it played Minor County matches in 1895 and 1896 but it did not play sufficient matches to qualify for the Championship. It formally joined the Minor Counties Championship in 1897 and quickly found success, becoming champions in 1902 and 1909. These have, however, been the only Championship successes. It was one of few Minor Counties to play in 1919. It was runner up in 1904, beaten semi-finalists in 1908, runners up again in 1963 (when only drawing the Challenge Match with Cambridgeshire), in 1964 (when losing the Challenge match to Lancashire II) and 1982. Wiltshire was runner up in the Knock Out Competition in 1993. It was pleasing to see that the County reached the Championship final play-off in 2014 but were unfortunately beaten by Staffordshire by 28 runs in a closely fought match. It also reached the semi-final of the Knock Out in 2014. 3