Surrey County Cricket Club

Surrey County Cricket Club (SCCC) is an English domestic first-class cricket team based at The Oval in London.

SCCC has had two golden ages, in 1887 to 1895 and again in the 1950s. SCCC won the county cricket championship title eight times from 1887 to 1895 (including the first officially constituted Championship in 1890) and seven consecutive outright titles from 1952 to 1958, with a joint title (with Lancashire) in 1950. In 1952, SCCC won 20 of their 28 county matches, a record that stands to date.

The SCCC badge is the Prince of Wales' three feathers. Lord Roseberry obtained the permission to use the three feathers from the Prince of Wales in 1915.

Contents

1 Formation 2 Famous Surrey players 3 Notable former Presidents of Surrey 4 Competitions won 5 Reference 6 External link

Formation

SCCC was born late in the evening of 22 August, 1845 at the Horns Tavern, where around 100 representatives of cricket clubs in Surrey passed a motion put by William Denison (SCCC's first Secretary) "that a Surrey club be now formed". A further meeting at the Tavern on 18 October, 1845 formally constituted SCCC, appointed officers and began the enrolling members. A lease of Kennington Oval, a former market garden, was obtained by a Mr Houghton from the Duchy of Cornwall. Mr Houghton was of the old Montpelier club, 70 members of which formed the nucleus of the new Surrey club. The Honourable Fred Ponsonby, later the Earl of Bessborough was the first vice-president.

In the inaugural first-class county match against Kent was held at the Oval in June 1846. However, the Club did not do well, despite the extra attractions at the Oval of a Walking Match and a Poultry Show. By the start of the 1847 season the Club was £70 in debt and there was a motion to close. Ponsonby proposed that 6 life members be created for a fee of £12 each. His motion passed and the Club survived.

In 1857, all nine matches played by the county ended in wins. In 1864, SCCC was widely recognised as the first unofficial Champion County. SCCC were also unofficial Champion County in 1887 and 1888 and jointly in 1889 before the County Championship officially came into being in 1890.

From 1948 to 1959, SCCC were first or second in the county championship in 10 seasons out of 12. SCCC finished runners-up in 1948, shared the championship with Lancashire in 1950, won seven consecutive outright titles from 1952 to 1958, and were runners-up again in 1959. The margins of victory were usually large (for example, Yorkshire were runners-up in 1952, 32 points behind). Their success was built on a remarkably potent bowling attack, with the combative Tony Lock and Jim Laker, the finest orthodox off spinner of all time, making the most of helpful Oval tracks.

Eclipsed by Mike Brearly's outstanding Middlesex side in the late seventies and early eighties, Surrey have reasserted themselves as one of the strongest teams in first class cricket in recent years, producing England stalwarts such as Alex Stewart, Graham Thorpe and Mark Butcher. Adam Hollioake proved himself a match winning captain and, before his tragically early death in a car accident in Australia, younger brother Ben was tinged with greatness. Martin Bicknell, despite winning few test caps, has been the outstanding seam bowler in English cricket over the past decade and Ali Brown, remarkably without a test cap to his name, has proved himself time and again the outstanding one day batsman of his time.

Famous Surrey players

• Ken Barrington
• Alec Bedser
• Eric Bedser
• Mark Butcher
• John Edrich
• Percy Fender
• Jack Hobbs
• Adam Hollioake
• Ben Hollioake
• Douglas Jardine
• Jim Laker
• Peter Loader
• Tony Lock
• Peter May
• Mark Ramprakash
• Alec Stewart
• Micky Stewart
• Stuart Surridge
• Graham Thorpe

Notable former Presidents of Surrey

This list excludes those who are also listed above as famous players:

• Sir Paul Getty
• John Major

Competitions won

• County Championship Champions: 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1894, 1895, 1899, 1914, 1950 (shared with Lancashire), 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1971, 1999, 2000, 2002
• Sunday League Champions: 1996, 2000 (Division 2), 2003
• Benson and Hedges Cup Champions: 1974,1997,2001
• NatWest Trophy Champions: 1982
• Twenty20 Cup Winners: 2003

Reference

• A Social History of English Cricket by Derek Birley ISBN 1-85410-941-3

External link

• http://www.surreycricket.com/

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