Hertfordshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty

minor Minor may refer to: * Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities. ** A person who has not reached the age of majority * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Music theory *Minor chord ** Barb ...

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

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. The team is currently a member of the

Minor 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 ...

Eastern Division and plays in the

MCCA Knockout Trophy The National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the National Counties in English cricket. At first it was known as the ''English Industrial Estates Cup'', before being called the ...

. Hertfordshire 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 from 1964 until 2004 but is not classified as a List A team ''per se''. The club is based at

Balls Park Balls Park in Hertford is a Grade I Listed mid-17th-century house. The estate and house are set in over 63 acres of parkland which is listed Grade II on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. The estate a ...

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...

and also plays matches around the county at

Cricket Field Lane Cricketfield Lane is a cricket ground in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. The earliest recorded match on the ground was in 1862 between Bishop's Stortford and an All-England Eleven. In 1895 Hertfordshire played their first Minor Counties Cham ...

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...

, Long Marston, Brunton Memorial Ground in

Radlett Radlett is a village in Hertfordshire, England, between Elstree and St Albans on Watling Street, with a population of 8,042. It is in the council district of Hertsmere in the south of the county, and is covered by two wards; Aldenham East and ...

and

North Mymms North Mymms is a civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. At the 2011 Census the civil parish had a population of 8,921. The village itself is an enclosure. North Mymms Park and Brookmans Park enclose large areas of the parish. Even t ...

Honours

* Minor Counties Championship (4) - 1936, 1975, 1983, 1990; shared (0) - * MCCA Knockout Trophy (1) - 1984

Earliest cricket

Cricket must have reached Hertfordshire by the end of the 17th century. The earliest reference to cricket in the county is dated 1732 and is also the earliest reference to

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

as a county team. On Thursday 6 July 1732, a team called Essex & Hertfordshire played

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 i ...

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...

"for £50 a side". The result is unknown.Buckley, ''Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket'', p. 6.ACS, ''Important Matches'', p. 20.

was never considered a first-class county but its teams did appear frequently throughout the 18th century and played against some teams that were normally considered first-class, so there must have been times when the status of a Hertfordshire match was "borderline". On 22 June 1814, Hertfordshire played against the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

in the first match to be staged on the current

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

ground. This fixture was repeated in 2014 to mark the

bicentennial __NOTOC__ A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to: Europe *French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...

of the ground.

Origin of club

There were a number of county organisations in the 18th century and one in 1838. The present Hertfordshire CCC was founded on 8 March 1876. It joined the Minor Counties Championship for the first season, 1895, and is the only one of the seven competing sides from that season to have maintained membership continuously ever since.Barclays, p. 490.

Club history

Hertfordshire has won the Minor Counties Championship four times, in 1936, 1975, 1983 and 1990. Hertfordshire has won the

once since its inception in 1983. It won in 1984.

Notable players

The following Hertfordshire cricketers also made an impact on the first-class game: * John Carr, sometime Middlesex player and son of

Donald Carr Donald Bryce Carr OBE (28 December 1926 – 12 June 2016) was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the so ...

* Bill Coleman, 619 wickets in minor counties cricket *

Jonathan Fellows-Smith Jonathan Payn Fellows-Smith (born 3 February 1932 in Durban, Natal, died 28 September 2013) was a South African cricketer who played in four Tests in 1960. Life and career Fellows-Smith, nicknamed "Pom Pom", was an aggressive right-handed mid ...

, South African Test cricketer *

Ian MacLaurin, Baron MacLaurin of Knebworth Ian Charter MacLaurin, Baron MacLaurin of Knebworth (born 30 March 1937) is a British businessman, who has been chairman of Vodafone and chairman and chief executive of Tesco. He is a former chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, a fo ...

, businessman and head of the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the Sports governing body, national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and ...

Jack Meyer John Robert Meyer (March 23, 1932 – March 6, 1967) was an American professional baseball right-handed pitcher, who appeared in all or parts of seven Major League (MLB) seasons (1955–1961) with the Philadelphia Phillies. Born in Philadelph ...

, later

Millfield School Millfield is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located in Street, Somerset, England. It was founded in 1935. Millfield is a registered charity and is the largest co-educational boarding scho ...

headmaster and captain of

Somerset CCC Somerset County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Somerset. Founded in 1875, Somerset was initially regarded as a minor ...

Trevor Morley Trevor William Morley (born 20 March 1961) is an English football manager, former professional footballer and pundit. As a player, he was a striker who notably played top flight football for Manchester City and West Ham United. He also playe ...

Gerald Smithson Gerald Arthur Smithson (1 November 1926 – 6 September 1970) was an English cricketer who played in two Tests for England in 1947–48. He was born at Spofforth, West Riding of Yorkshire and died at Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Life and career ...

, Yorkshire, Leicestershire and England Test cricketer * Joseph (Joe) Thorley, played for Gentlemen v Players in 1925 in same team as the Gilligans & Wally Hammond. Captained Herts CCC. * Steven Thomas Finn (born 4 April 1989). He is a right-arm fast bowler who at the age of 16 became Middlesex County Cricket Club's youngest-ever debutant in first-class cricket. He made his England Test debut in 2010 against Bangladesh. He has a bowling strike rate of around 50, one of the best for England bowlers. *

Mark Ilott Mark Christopher Ilott (born 27 August 1970) is a former English professional cricketer. Having previously played with the minor county Hertfordshire, Ilott began his career with Essex in 1988. A left-arm swing bowler in the mould of John ...

was the county's youngest debutant aged 16 before going on to open the bowling for Essex for 15 years. He was also capped for England, playing against Australia and South Africa.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

Playfair Cricket Annual ''Playfair Cricket Annual'' is a compact annual about cricket that is published in the United Kingdom each April, just before the English cricket season is due to begin. It has been published every year since 1948. Its main purposes are to revie ...

– various editions *

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

– various editions

External links

Hertfordshire County Cricket Club website

Minor Counties Cricket Association Official Site
{{minor counties National Counties cricket History of Hertfordshire Cricket clubs established in 1876 Cricket in Hertfordshire 1876 establishments in England