Berkshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

clubs within the domestic

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

structure of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It represents the historic county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

. The team is currently a member of the

National Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

Western Division and plays in the

NCCA Knockout Trophy The National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the National Counties of English and Welsh cricket, National Counties in English cricket. At first it was known as the ''English Ind ...

. Berkshire played

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

matches occasionally until 2005 but is not classified as a List A team ''per se''.

History

According to

Rowland Bowen Major Rowland Francis Bowen (27 February 1916 – 4 September 1978) was a British Army officer and a cricket researcher, historian and writer. Educated at Westminster School, Bowen received an emergency commission in April 1942 into the In ...

in his ''Growth and Development of Cricket'', the first reference to cricket being played in the county of Berkshire was in 1751. Cricket certainly reached Berkshire much earlier than that for it originated on the

Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

in Saxon or Norman times and was definitely being played in Berkshire's neighbouring county of Surrey in 1550. The first definite mention of cricket in

relates to the famous all rounder

Thomas Waymark Thomas Waymark (probably born 17 June 1705) was an English professional cricketer in the first half of the 18th century. He is one of the earliest known players on record and is widely accounted the sport's first great all-rounder. Cricket car ...

who resided at Bray Wick, near

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

in the 1740s, though there are earlier mentions of the game at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

. The first definite mention of cricket in

relates to a team called "Buckinghamshire, Berkshire & Hertfordshire" in September 1740, which played two matches against

London Cricket Club The original London Cricket Club was formed in 1722 and was one of the foremost clubs in English cricket over the next four decades, holding important match status. It is closely associated with the Artillery Ground, where it played most of it ...

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbrid ...

and the

Artillery Ground The Artillery Ground in Finsbury is an open space originally set aside for archery and later known also as a cricket venue. Today it is used for military exercises, cricket, rugby and football matches. It belongs to the Honourable Artillery Co ...

. London won the first "with great difficulty" but no post-match report was found of the second. See

H. T. Waghorn Henry Thomas Waghorn (11 April 1842 – 30 January 1930), was a cricket statistician and historian. He is best known for his two classic researches into cricket's early history: ''The Dawn of Cricket'' and Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730 - 1773 ...

: ''Cricket Scores 1730–73''. By the late 18th century, Berkshire had achieved first-class status. Its strength was in the prominent Old Field Club of Bray, near Maidenhead, which had a team representative of Berkshire as a county and was capable of taking on other leading teams of the time. The first time Berkshire is recorded as a county team is in a match against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

in June 1769 and the county was top-class from then until August 1795 when, after losing to MCC at Lord's, it abruptly ceased to appear in first-class matches.

Club origins

The Oldfield Club was effectively a Berkshire county team but it was not formally constituted as a county club. Rowland Bowen's researches discovered evidence of a county organisation by 1841, but it may only have been a loose association of local clubs, as was sometimes the case elsewhere. Berkshire CCC was founded on 17 March 1895, the same year that the Minor Counties Championship began. It did not compete in the first year of the competition but joined for 1896.

Current squad

* * denotes the team captain * denotes players who have played first-class cricket. *Squad information correct as of 14 February 2019

Notable players

International

This list includes those Berkshire players who have played in

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

since 1877,

One Day International cricket A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of over (cricket), overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cr ...

since 1971, or a

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

since 2004. England *

Danny Briggs Danny Richard Briggs (born 30 April 1991) is an English cricketer who currently plays for Warwickshire County Cricket Club, previously playing for Hampshire County Cricket Club and Sussex County Cricket Club. Briggs is a right-handed batsman w ...

Percy Chapman Arthur Percy Frank Chapman (3 September 1900 – 16 September 1961) was an English cricketer who captained the England cricket team between 1926 and 1931. A left-handed batsman, he played 26 Test matches for England, captaining the side in 17 ...

* Tom Dollery *

John Emburey John Ernest Emburey (born 20 August 1952) is a former English first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Western Province, Berkshire and England. According to cricket writer Colin Bateman, Emburey's participation in two So ...

Aftab Habib Aftab Habib (born 7 February 1972) is an English former international cricketer. Habib was formerly the Hong Kong national coach, having been appointed on a three-year contract, including Hong Kong's appearance in the 2008 Asia Cup in Pakista ...

Alan Igglesden Alan Paul Igglesden (8 October 1964 – 1 November 2021) was an English Test cricketer. He played three Test matches and four One Day Internationals (ODIs) for the England cricket team between 1989 and 1994 as a fast bowler. He played most of h ...

Richard Johnson Richard or Dick Johnson may refer to: Academics * Dick Johnson (academic) (1929–2019), Australian academic * Richard C. Johnson (1930–2003), professor of electrical engineering * Richard A. Johnson, artist and professor at the University of ...

Peter May Peter May may refer to: *Peter W. May, American businessman *Peter May (cricketer) (1929–1994), English Test cricketer *Peter May (writer) Peter May (born 20 December 1951) is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist, and crime writer. H ...

Albert Relf Albert Edward Relf (26 June 1874 – 26 March 1937) was a professional cricketer who played for Sussex and England. Relf was an all-rounder who batted in the middle order and bowled off-breaks at medium pace with great accuracy. He played Min ...

Graham Roope Graham Richard James Roope (12 July 1946 – 26 November 2006) was an English cricketer, who appeared in twenty-one Tests and eight ODIs for England between 1973 and 1978. He also played for Surrey, Berkshire and Griqualand West in a career s ...

Shaun Udal Shaun David Udal (born 18 March 1969) is an English cricketer. An off spin bowler and lower-middle order batsman, he was a member of England's Test team for their tours to Pakistan and India in 2005/06. International career He played in ten ...

Netherlands *

Billy Stelling William Frederick Stelling (born 30 June 1969), better known as Billy Stelling, is a former South African-born Dutch cricketer who played fifteen ODIs. An allrounder, he bowls right arm fast medium and is a right-handed batsman who was born at J ...

South Africa *

Charl Willoughby Charl Myles Willoughby (born 3 December 1974) is a retired South African cricketer who played two Tests and three One Day Internationals for South Africa between 2000 and 2003. He played for Boland and Western Province before spending two sea ...

West Indies *

Jimmy Adams James Clive Adams OD (born 9 January 1968) is a former Jamaican cricketer, who represented the West Indies as player and captain during his career. He was a left-handed batsman, left-arm orthodox spin bowler and fielder, especially in th ...

Other

Honours

* Minor Counties Championship (8) - 1924, 1928, 1953, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 * MCCA Knockout Trophy (5) – 2004, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019

Grounds

References

External links

Berkshire CCC website

Minor Counties CA website