Suffolk County Cricket Club

Suffolk 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 Suffolk.

The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Championship Eastern Division and plays in the MCCA Knockout Trophy. Suffolk played List A matches occasionally from 1966 until 2005 but is not classified as a List A team per se.^[1]

Honours

• Minor Counties Championship (3) - 1946, 1977, 1979; shared (1) - 2005^[2]
• MCCA Knockout Trophy (1) - 2007^[2]

Home grounds

• Old London Road, Copdock
• The Park, Exning
• Ransomes and Reavell Sports Club Ground, Ipswich
• Victory Ground, Bury St Edmunds
• Wamil Way, Mildenhall
• Woodbridge School, Woodbridge

Former grounds

• Cemetry Road, Bury St Edmunds
• Denes Oval, Lowestoft

Earliest cricket

Cricket had probably reached Suffolk by the end of the 17th century. The earliest known reference to cricket in Suffolk was in 1743.^[3]

The first county match was Norfolk v Suffolk at Bury St Edmunds Race Course on Thursday 23 August 1764, which was won by Norfolk. This was reported in the Gazetteer & London Daily Advertiser on Tuesday 28 August.^[4] More games against Norfolk followed.

Origin of club

A county organisation was formed on 27 July 1864 and a county side took part in the Minor Counties Championship from 1904 to 1914, with no great success. The present Suffolk CCC was founded in August 1932 and rejoined the Minor Counties Championship in 1934.

Club history

Suffolk has won the Minor Counties Championship four times, one of them shared. It won outright in 1946, 1977 and 1979. Its most recent success was a shared title with Cheshire in 2005.

SCCC played their first game at Lord's on (bank holiday) Monday, 27 August 2007 in the Minor Counties Knock-out Final, winning the trophy for the first time.

Famous players

The following Suffolk cricketers also made an impact on the first-class game:

• Phil Mead
• Robin Hobbs
• Derek Randall
• Devon Malcolm
• Cyril Perkins

References

1. "List A events played by Suffolk". CricketArchive. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
2. "Minor Counties Roll of Honour". www.ecb.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
3. Bowen, p.263
4. Buckley, p.43

External sources

• Club website
• Minor Counties Cricket Association Official Site
• Play Cricket - Suffolk

Further reading

• Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
• G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
• Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 2 (1827-1840), Lillywhite, 1862
• Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 3 (1841-1848), Lillywhite, 1862
• Playfair Cricket Annual – various editions
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack – various editions