Norfolk County Cricket Club is one of twenty

minor county cricket The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

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 and Wales. It represents the historic county of Norfolk. 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 Championship, the MCCA Knockout Trophy and, from 2018, in the MCCA T20 competition.Wise C (2018
Norfolk aiming to keep up the good work in Manor Park double-header
'' Eastern Daily Press'', 2018-05-25. Retrieved 2018-05-27. Norfolk took part in limited overs competitions which included first-class counties between 1965 and 2004. The club's main home venue is

Manor Park, Horsford Manor Park is a cricket ground in Horsford, Norfolk. The ground is the main home ground of Norfolk County Cricket Club. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1986, when Norfolk played their first MCCA Knockout Trophy match on the groun ...

to the north of Norwich, although it has used other locations throughout the county.

History

Cricket may have reached Norfolk by the end of the 17th century. The earliest reference to cricket in the county is dated 1745. The first county match played by the team was Norfolk v Suffolk at Bury St Edmunds Race Course on Thursday 23 August 1764, which was won by Norfolk. This was reported in the ''Gazetteer & London Daily Advertiser'' on Tuesday 28 August. More games against Suffolk followed. A number of teams representing the county existed in the 18th and 19th centuries. The present club was founded on 14 October 1876 and played its first matches in 1877. The county joined the

when it was formed in 1895. It missed the 1896 season, and also did not compete in 1902 and 1903, but otherwise has remained at that level ever since.

Honours

Norfolk has won the Minor Counties Championship five times, two of them shared. It won the first Championship in 1895, sharing with Durham and Worcestershire. It won outright in 1905, 1910 and 1913. Its most recent success was a shared title with Herefordshire in 2002. Norfolk has won the MCCA Knockout Trophy a record five times since its inception in 1983, winning in 1986, 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2009.

First XI honours

* Minor Counties Championship (3) - 1905, 1910, 1913; shared (2) - 1895, 2002 * MCCA Knockout Trophy (5) - 1986, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009

Grounds

Norfolk's main ground since 2001 has been

on the northern fringes of Norwich. Prior to this the

County Ground, Lakenham The County Ground in Lakenham, Norwich, Norfolk was a cricket ground for over two hundred years, hosting both first-class and List A cricket. Five first-class games, all involving touring international sides, were played here between 1912 and 19 ...

close to the centre of the city had been used. This was redeveloped for housing in the early 21st century and the cricket pitch and historic pavilion destroyed.Lakenham's historic cricket ground pavilion demolished
BBC News website, 2015-03-10. Retrieved 2016-02-14. The club has played home matches on nine other grounds within the county.

Notable players

Players who represented Norfolk and who have subsequently gone on to play over 100 first-class matches or Test cricket include: *

Bill Edrich William John Edrich (26 March 1916 – 24 April 1986) was a first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex County Cricket Club, Middlesex, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Norfolk County Cricket Club, Norfolk and England cricket team, England. Ed ...

– 39 Tests for England between 1938 and 1954–5 * John Edrich – 77 Tests and seven

ODIs ODIS, or the Offender Data Information System is a web based, computerized records management software application to improve the capture, maintenance and quality of law enforcement data that is capable of running in any combination of centralize ...

for England between 1963 and 1976 * Geoff Edrich – 339 first-class appearances for Lancashire between 1946 and 1958 * Michael Barton –

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. ...

captain from 1949 to 1951. 147 first-class matches played. *

Peter Parfitt Peter Howard Parfitt (born 8 December 1936) is an English former cricketer. He attended Fakenham Grammar School, and King Edward VII Grammar School, in Kings Lynn, Norfolk. The cricket correspondent Colin Bateman noted, "he was a stocky, pow ...

– 37 Tests for England between 1961 and 1972 *

Clive Radley Clive Thornton Radley (born 13 May 1944) is an English former cricketer, who played eight Test cricket, Test matches and four One Day Internationals for England cricket team, England. He was selected as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the ...

– eight Tests and four ODIs for England in 1978. 559 first-class matches played. *

Martin Saggers Martin John Saggers (born 23 May 1972) is an English county cricket umpire and a retired English cricketer. He played international cricket for the England cricket team, including appearing in three Test matches and spent the majority of his f ...

– three Tests for England in 2003–04. 119 first-class matches played. Former Test Match Special commentator Henry Blofeld played one List A match and 44 times in minor counties competitions for Norfolk between 1956 and 1965.

References

External sources

Norfolk County Cricket Club
{{Authority control National Counties cricket History of Norfolk Cricket in Norfolk Cricket clubs established in 1876 1876 establishments in England