Related links:

| History of Cricket | Sport

Join in

Send page to a friend

Search hotels

Check-in date

Check-out date

Cricket Clubs

Is there any more British pastime than cricket? Quite possibly, as the Dutch who still play the game have a reasonable claim to being its inventors, back in the days when it was played with curved bats not dissimilar to today’s hockey sticks, the ball at that time rolled along the ground rather than bounced towards the wicket.
Whatever its origin, cricket has been played here since the Tudor era, and is part of the sporting lifeblood of many suburbs, towns and villages up and down the country. For many the village cricket game is something that would be included in their ideal view of British life, preferably with the local butcher bowling at the village GP while tea and sandwiches await them in the pavilion, and after the game a pint of bitter at the pub.
At a higher level there is no more keenly contested series than the Ashes, dating back to the very first match between England and Australia that began on March 15 1877. We lost that one too.
But for test matches to be played – and won - we need club cricket to prosper, nurturing raw young talent ready to progress to the county game. Not that all aspire to such heights. For most of us bowling left-arm mysterious for a few overs every weekend is quite enough, the memory of our best innings and bowling figures engraved on our hearts a little above the names of our children and spouse – and with women’s cricket ever stronger that could be husband or wife these days.

England
Bath | Bedfordshire | Bedfordshire | Berkshire | Berkshire | Bristol | Buckinghamshire | Buckinghamshire | Cambridgeshire | Cheshire | Cleveland and Teesside | Cleveland and Teesside | Cornwall | County Durham | County Durham | Cumbria | Derbyshire | Derbyshire | Devon | Devon | Dorset | Dorset | East Yorkshire | Essex | Essex | Gloucestershire | Gloucestershire | Greater Manchester | Hampshire | Hampshire | Herefordshire | Hertfordshire | Isle of Wight | Kent | Kent | Lancashire | Lancashire | Leicestershire | Leicestershire | Lincolnshire | Lincolnshire | London | London | Merseyside | Norfolk | Norfolk | North Yorkshire | Northamptonshire | Northamptonshire | Northumberland | Nottinghamshire | Nottinghamshire | Oxfordshire | Oxfordshire | Rutland | Shropshire | Shropshire | Somerset | Somerset | South Yorkshire | Staffordshire | Suffolk | Surrey | Surrey | Sussex | Sussex | Tyne and Wear | Warwickshire | West Midlands | West Midlands | West Yorkshire | West Yorkshire | Wiltshire | Wiltshire | Worcestershire | Worcestershire |

Scotland
Angus and Dundee | Ayrshire and Arran | Borders | Edinburgh and the Lothians | Glasgow | Grampian | Stirlingshire |

Wales
Mid Wales | North Wales | South Wales | South Wales | West Wales |

Offshore
Isle of Man |

Northern Ireland
County Antrim | County Armagh |


Recommended Books:
Village Cricket
Village Cricket
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2004
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2004
The Cricketers' Who's Who
The Cricketers' Who's Who
Playfair Cricket Annual
Playfair Cricket Annual

Recommended Books:

A Picture of Britain
A Picture of Britain
Ashes Fever
Ashes Fever
Coast
Coast
Churchill
Churchill

Brit Quote:
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. - William Blake
More Quotes

On this day:
Tolpuddle Martyrs Sentenced - 1834, Argentine Forces land on South Georgia - 1982
More dates from British history

click here to view all the British counties

County Pages