Goodwood Cricket Club

Coordinates: 50°52′16″N 0°44′28″W / 50.871°N 0.741°W / 50.871; -0.741

Goodwood Cricket Club
Captain: James Mayne
Coach: None
Colors:

Red and Yellow

         
Owner: His Grace The Duke of Richmond and Gordon
Founded: 1702
Home ground: Goodwood Park
Chief executive: Richard Geffen
Official website: http://www.goodwood.play-cricket.com Goodwood Website

Goodwood Cricket Club is a Sunday village cricket team that play during the summer in the grounds of Goodwood Park, near Chichester. The ground overlooks Goodwood House and is owned by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon.

It is thought to be one of the oldest cricket clubs in the world. It had strong links with Lord's, as the 4th Duke was one of the original backers of Thomas Lord.

Today, the club and ground is owned by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon but run by a group of volunteers that make up the Goodwood Cricket Club . The Club has formed an alliance with Chichester Priory Park Cricket Club and their 1st and 2nd XIs play at the ground on Saturdays.

History

A receipt for brandy, given to the players, records Goodwood's earliest known game in 1702.

A view from the club pavilion, overlooking Goodwood House

In 1727 in Goodwood Park, a game was played between the 2nd Duke of Richmond and Mr Brodrick of Peper Harow Park, near Godalming (cricket is still played there today). As was common in those days there was a wager on the match and a set of rules was drawn up. These rules are the oldest set of written cricket rules in existence, today, in the world. The originals are kept in Goodwood House, with a copy in the club pavilion and at Lord's. The Club has a strong link with Lord's. The 4th Duke, was one of the original backers of Thomas Lord when he bought 'the rough piece of land' in St John's Wood and the 5th Duke was President of the MCC. The present Duke was President/Patron of Sussex CCC for 25 years. Another link with Lord's could be the club colours. These colours are the racing colours of the Dukes of Richmond, circa 1801. Sometime after their use by the Dukes, and the cricket club, they also became the colours of the MCC circa 1888. Although they could also have links to the Nicholson’s Gin Company. For much of the clubs history the enormous Cedar of Lebanon tree has looked on such players as James Lillywhite, Captain of England (employee of the Duke) and in more recent times Ray Lindwall, Sir Colin Cowdrey, Ted Dexter, Jim Parks, John Snow, Graham Gooch, Nasser Hussain, Devon Malcolm, Gladstone Small, Simon Jones, Adam Hollioake, Nick Compton and Sam Robson to name but a few. The tree was planted as a seed in 1752 and planted out on the ground in 1756. There has been one 1st class match at Goodwood, this was played on 22-23 July 1814 between Lord F Beauclerk’s XI and G Osbaldeston’s XI. The match was scheduled for three days but was over in two. A total of 265 runs were scored in 4 innings, 44 wickets taken and G Osbaldeston’s XI won by 17 runs.

The club has played host to a variety of players, including:

Club developments

The Ceder of Lebanon Tree that overlooks the club

An enormous Lebanon Cedar tree overlooks the club; it was planted in 1752 as a seed and planted out on the ground in 1756.

Grounds

Recent developments have seen the arrival of electric and a bar in 1989, showers in 1991, sightscreens and an enlarged social area in 1996, a new artificial net in 1997, a new scoreboard in 1998, a 3-ton roller in 1999, a roll-on roll-off covers in 2000, additional flat sheet covers in 2015 and a brand new roller in 2016. The square and pavilion are all maintained by voluntary help with support from the Estate.

Technologies

Recent activity


Special games & events

The Goodwood Cricket Team of 2008

One of the oldest fixtures is the all day game against London New Zealand which was first played in 1955. 2016 saw the reinstatement of a match against the Duke of Richmond's XI organised and captained by his grandsons.



Wikimedia Commons has media related to Goodwood Cricket Club.

References

  1. ↑ GWCC Website
  2. ↑ Photobucket Site
  3. ↑ Twitter Page
  4. ↑ Facebook Site
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.