Captain: | James Morris |
---|---|
Coach: | Tom Lambert |
Founded: | 1895 |
Home ground: | No fixed address |
MCCC wins: | 3 |
MCCAT wins: | 3 |
FP Trophy wins: | 0 |
Official website: | Berkshire County Cricket Club |
Berkshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Berkshire.
The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Championship Western Division and plays in the MCCA Knockout Trophy. Berkshire played List A matches occasionally until 2005 but is not classified as a List A team per se.
According to Rowland Bowen in his Growth and Development of Cricket, the first reference to cricket being played in the county of Berkshire was in 1751. Cricket certainly reached Berkshire much earlier than that for it originated on the Weald in Saxon or Norman times and was definitely being played in Berkshire's neighbouring county of Surrey in 1550.
The first definite mention of cricket in Berkshire relates to the famous all rounder Thomas Waymark who resided at Bray Wick, near Maidenhead in the 1740s, though there are earlier mentions of the game at Eton College. The first definite mention of cricket in Berkshire relates to a team called "Buckinghamshire, Berkshire & Hertfordshire" in September 1740, which played two matches against London Cricket Club at Uxbridge and the Artillery Ground. London won the first "with great difficulty" but no post-match report was found of the second. See H. T. Waghorn: Cricket Scores 1730–73.