Norfolk county cricket teams were the teams that represented the historic county of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

before the first official formation of

Norfolk County Cricket Club Norfolk County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county cricket clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Norfolk. The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Champion ...

in 1876.

18th century

Cricket had probably reached Norfolk by the end of the 17th century. The earliest known reference to cricket in Norfolk was in 1745. The first mention of a Norfolk representative team is in 1764, playing against

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

at Bury St Edmunds racecourse (today the location of Rougham Airfield) on 23 August. Norfolk won this match, which was reported in the '' Gazetteer & London Daily Advertiser'' on Tuesday, 28 August.Buckley, p. 43. Norfolk played two further matches against Suffolk on 10 and 12 September at

Scole Scole () is a village on the Norfolk– Suffolk border in England. It is 19 miles south of Norwich and lay on the old Roman road to Venta Icenorum, which was the main road until it was bypassed with a dual carriageway. It covers an area of and h ...

19th century

The first

important Importance is a property of entities that matter or make a difference. For example, World War II was an important event and Albert Einstein was an important person because of how they affected the world. There are disagreements in the academic li ...

Norfolk club of the 19th century was that based at

Holt Holt or holte may refer to: Natural world *Holt (den), an otter den * Holt, an area of woodland Places Australia * Holt, Australian Capital Territory * Division of Holt, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives in Vic ...

and an 1820 Norfolk v

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 ...

(MCC) match, in which William Ward made a then-record score of 278, was in fact the Holt Club with

E. H. Budd Edward Hayward Budd (23 February 1786 – 29 March 1875) was a noted English cricketer and all-round sportsman. He was a prominent right-handed batsman and an occasional medium pace lob bowler. He was a good fielder who played in some matches a ...

, Thomas Vigne and Felix Ladbroke as

given men A given is a statement or a condition assumed to be true or known, often to explain or give an example of something; for related topics, see: * Presumption (in law) * Axiom (in formal logic) * Givenness (in discourse) * Conditional probability, u ...

.ACS, pp. 32–34. This was perhaps a "borderline" match in terms of its status but, because of its historical importance in the light of Ward's record and the addition of the three given men, the standard was above the general run of Holt/Norfolk matches. The Holt club declined from the mid-1820s. After that, the centre of county cricket was

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

and a prominent club was founded there on 11 January 1827. For a few seasons, prior to

Fuller Pilch Fuller Pilch (17 March 1804 – 1 May 1870) was an English first-class cricketer, active from 1820 to 1854. He was a right-handed batsman who bowled at a slow pace with a roundarm action. Pilch played in a total of 229 first-class matches for a ...

's departure for

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

about 1835, Norfolk could put a fairly strong eleven into the field. Their only major county opponent, however, was

Sheffield Cricket Club The Sheffield Cricket Club was founded in the 18th century and soon began to play a key role in the development of cricket in northern England. It was the direct forerunner of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and some of the teams fielded by Sheffi ...

(playing as Yorkshire) and the five games they played in 1833, 1834 (twice), 1835 and 1836 are important. Apart from the games against Yorkshire, the main opponents of the Norwich/Norfolk team were Bury/Suffolk and MCC. These games however were not quite in the class of the Yorkshire matches. Norfolk played Cambridge Town Club (a.k.a.

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

) in the 1840s but Norfolk generally fared very poorly and by 1852 the team had lost important status. After the present

was founded in 1876, the county did not regain important status and it joined 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 ...

when it was formed in 1895.

References

Bibliography

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18th century

19th century

References

Bibliography

Further reading