Worthing Cricket Club is a cricket club in the coastal town of

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

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 ...

. Founded in 1855, the club's first XI plays in the Sussex Cricket League which is the accredited ECB

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

for Sussex and is the highest level for recreational

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obs ...

in England and Wales.

History

Founded in March 1855 at the Steyne Hotel (now the Chatsworth Hotel) in Worthing, under the patronage of Lord Henry Paget,

Marquess of Anglesey Marquess of Anglesey ( cy, Ardalydd Môn) is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, a hero of the Battle of Waterloo, second in command to the Duke of Wellington. The Marqu ...

, and Lord Alexander Paget.Elleray, D. Robert (1998). A Millennium Encyclopaedia of Worthing History. Worthing: Optimus Books. The club first played on Broadwater Green, then the Pavilion Road sports ground until its closure in 1937. The Manor ground then became the club's main cricket ground. In the 19th century, Colonel Thomas F Wisden of Offington was president of the club. Arthur F Somerset of

Castle Goring Castle Goring is a Grade I listed country house in Worthing, in West Sussex, England about northwest of the town centre. One of Worthing's two Grade I listed buildings (deemed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to be of exc ...

became captain, his son Arthur PFC Somerset (also of Castle Goring) both played for Sussex and toured the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

with 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 ...

. The club was a founder member of the Sussex League, having been a member since its inception in 1971. In the 20th century, the club was able to attract such high-profile

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

players such as

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

captain

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

and

fast bowler Paul Jarvis. Current Hampshire CCC and England leg break bowler Mason Crane was a member of Worthing CC from the age of 10 and played in junior and senior sides, taking 54 wickets for the first XI until county duties with Hampshire took hold of his playing career. The club's only major honour to date was winning the Sussex League Cup in 1992 under the captaincy of Tim Dunn, who was the Club Chairman.

Teams

*1st XI Sussex Cricket League Division 2 *2nd XI Sussex Cricket League Division 5 West *3rd XI Sussex Cricket League Division 10 West (South) *4th XI Sussex Cricket League Division 12 West (South)

The club today

From 2008 to 2010, the club's first XI was captained by former Sussex,

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

and

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 ...

batsman Dominic Clapp. The club appointed Michael Gould as its first XI captain for 2011. Michael is the son of former

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

, Sussex and

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. ...

Ian Gould Ian James Gould (born 19 August 1957) is an English former first-class cricketer and a former member of the ICC Elite Panel of cricket umpires. He previously also served as the chairman of English football club Burnham FC. In April 2019, Go ...

, who is now on the

Elite Panel of ICC Umpires The Elite Panel of ICC Umpires is a panel of cricket umpires appointed by the International Cricket Council to officiate in Test matches and One Day Internationals around the world. The panel was first established in April 2002 when the ICC deci ...

. The current club captain from 2021 is Harry Dunn and the current chairman is Dominic Clapp. The club has a strong junior section and has

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the 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 County Cricket Board, ...

Clubmark status. The club runs four senior teams in league cricket on a Saturday as well as a Sunday XI. In 2011 the club won Division 2 of the Sussex Cricket League, and were promoted to the Premier league of the Sussex Cricket league; however, they were then relegated in 2013. In 2022 the club won Division 3 West, of the Sussex Cricket League, they are now back in Division 2 aspiring for Premier Division Cricket.

Honours

* Sussex Cricket League Division 2 ** Champions 2011 & 2015 * Sussex League Cup ** Winners 1992

References

{{reflist

External links