Shropshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers 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

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. The team is a member of the Minor Counties Championship Western 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 ...

. Shropshire played List A matches occasionally from 1974 until 2005 but is not classified as a List A team ''per se''. The club plays at Shrewsbury and around the county at

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. Histor ...

, Oswestry,

Shifnal Shifnal is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, about east of Telford, 17 miles (27 km) east of the county town of Shrewsbury and 13 miles (20 km) west-northwest of the city of Wolverhampton. It is near the M5 ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, and Whitchurch.

Honours

* Minor Counties Championship (1) - 1973; shared (0) - * MCCA Knockout Trophy (1) - 2010

Origins

Cricket probably reached Shropshire in the 18th century. The first reference to cricket in the county was in August 1794, when a match was played on Kingsland then on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, by a 'Shrewsbury Cricket Society'.Published under Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. From Introduction. A county organisation existed in either 1819 or 1829, according to

Wisden ''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 ...

. In the latter year, according to Tony Percival, a club at

Atcham Atcham is a village, ecclesiastical parish and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It lies on the B4380 (once the A5), 5 miles south-east of Shrewsbury. The River Severn flows round the village. To the south is the village of Cross Houses and ...

was advertising to play county matches against teams from neighbouring counties but seemingly attracted little interest. The next revival occurred in 1844 when, following a letter from Shrewsbury solicitor G.M. Salt to ''

Bell's Life in London ''Bell's Life in London, and Sporting Chronicle'' was an English weekly sporting paper published as a pink broadsheet between 1822 and 1886. History ''Bell's Life'' was founded by Robert Bell, a London printer-publisher. Bell sold it to William I ...

'' asking for teams from neighbouring English counties or Wales to play Shropshire, Worcestershire played two matches both won by Shropshire. In 1862 a 'Shrewsbury Town and County Cricket Club' was announced to have been formed from an amalgamation of two clubs, by 1866 fixtures were being advertised in newspapers as Shropshire County alone. The Shropshire County Club of this creation lasted until November 1905 when it was resolved a 'Gentlemen of Shropshire' club be formed in its place.

History

The present county club is quite new, having been formed on 28 June 1956 and taking part in the Minor Counties Championship from 1957. Shropshire has won the Minor Counties Championship once, in 1973. This was the first time the county had even finished in the top 10 of the Minor Counties competition. Shropshire won the

, an annual competition that began in 1983, in 2010.

Notable players

The following Shropshire cricketers also made an impact on the first-class game: * Doug Slade (former Worcestershire slow left-arm bowler) *

Somachandra de Silva Dandeniyage Somachandra de Silva also known as D. S. de Silva (born 11 June 1942) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, who played Test and One Day International cricket in the 1970s and 1980s. He is the first ODI cap for Sri Lanka, second test cap ...

Bilal Shafayat Bilal Mustapha Shafayat (born 10 July 1984) is an English former first-class cricketer. He played as a middle-order batsman, bowler and wicket-keeper. Shafayat was a former captain of the England under-19 side. He was educated at the Nottingh ...

(played for

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

and

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

) * Andy Lloyd who played one test match for England * Ian Payne Also professional footballer Steve Ogrizovic played cricket for Shropshire.

Grounds

References

External links

Shropshire CCC

Minor Counties Cricket Association Official Site
National Counties cricket History of Shropshire Cricket clubs established in 1956 Cricket in Shropshire 1956 establishments in England {{England-cricket-team-stub