Cricket as an Olympic Sport
Although cricket was one of the sports scheduled to take place at the first modern Olympic games in Athens in 1896, a sufficient number of teams could not be found for it to go ahead.
Although a little more interest was shown at the 1900 Olympics, only one match went ahead in the end: Great Britain vs France. Although the game came to be recognised as an official Olympic sport in 1912 it has not featured in any Olympics since!
Local teams
A number of Cambridgeshire villages had their own cricket teams by the mid-nineteenth century. A letter of 1846 opposes the inclosure of Folwmere on the grounds that it would make the recreation ground the wrong shape for cricket and rules of the Whittlesford Cricket Club survive from 1854. Pictured below is an extract from an early scoring book of Linton Cricket Club.
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Results of a match between Linton Cricket Club and Steeple Bumpstead in 1853. (Cambridgeshire Archives: R98/38)
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Parker's Piece, Cambridge
Cricket had been played on Parker's Piece (named after a cook who leased the land from Trinity College in 1587) long before the colleges began to acquire their own grounds. According to F.A. Reeve, it was a rough and marshy area until 60 square yards or so were levelled in 1831 'in order to afford greater facility for playing the manly game of cricket'.
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Cricket on Parker's Piece (Cambridgeshire Archives: 23/Z0598)
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Fenners
Cambridge University Cricket Club was founded around 1824. Its ground was originally located off Mill Road close to what is now the cemetery but in 1846 the club took over land in Gresham Road. This came to be known as ‘Fenners’ after F.P. Fenner who was renting the land and who himself played cricket for the town.
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An unusual view of a match being played at Fenners in 1951 (Cambridgeshire Archives: R99/85)
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Cambridgeshire Cricket Association
Cambridgeshire Cricket Association was founded in 1889 to encourage and support competitive cricket between amateur teams in the county. 22 teams competed for the first Senior Challenge Cup that year representing such diverse bodies as the YMCA, St. Andrew’s Catholic Church and College Servants.
Cambridgeshire Archives holds the Association’s rich archive which includes minute books from its formation; newscuttings; photographs and three embossed cricket balls.
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Cricket ball commemorating Dan Hayward's success in a match between Kimbolton and Keysoe in 1903.
(Cambridgeshire Archives: R99/85)
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W.G. Grace
Grace was described by Lillywhite’s Annual as being 'the most wonderful cricketer that ever held a bat'. Although not a local man, his son William Gilbert Grace, who attended Pembroke College, Cambridge was also a cricketer winning Blues against Oxford University in 1895 and 1896.
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Hand-written testimonial of W.G. Grace, 1897 from the archive of the Frost family of West Wratting.(Cambridgeshire Archives: 553/Z18)
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Jack Hobbs
Hobb’s Pavilion on Parker’s Piece was built in 1930 and named after Jack Hobbs (1882-1963) one of the country's most noted batsmen. His father, John also played cricket and in his later life was senior groundsman at Jesus College.
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A young Jack Hobbs (born John Berry) on the 1891 census living with his family at Rivar Place off Ainsworth Street, Cambridge.
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