Hollywood Cricket Club

The Hollywood Cricket Club (HCC) is an amateur cricket club in Los Angeles, California. It is a member of the Southern California Cricket Association. The club was formed in 1932 by British actor and cricketer C. Aubrey Smith.

Smith learned to play cricket at Charterhouse School and was on the same team as Lord Hawke and the three Studd brothers at the University of Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Smith also played for Sussex. In his prime, he played against W. G. Grace and with The Champion on the "Gentlemen versus Players" games held annually between the best amateur and professional cricketers in Britain at Lord's. In 1887 Smith toured Australia with an England team that included Andrew Stoddard. Both players resorted to playing Rugby in New Zealand to earn passage back to England. This was the start of British Lions tours to the Antipodes. Ref (Sentence, P.David, Cricket in America 1710-2000) In 1889 Smith captained the England team in South Africa which introduced the Currie Cup, a competition that continues to this day in South Africa.

Smith went to Hollywood in 1929 and teamed up with Boris Karloff of the Overseas Cricket Club to teach cricket at UCLA in 1932. The same year Arthur Mailey's Australian team captained by Vic Richardson played Smith's team of British actors at UCLA. Smith scored 24 runs against Don Bradman's team. The publicity from the Australians' North American cricket tour was put to good effect with the founding of the Hollywood Cricket Club and the securing of a permanent cricket ground at Griffith Park in Burbank (near the film studios).

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