Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club

Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club
City: Royal Tunbridge Wells
Founded: 1782
Home ground: Nevill Ground
Kent Cricket League wins: 3

Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club are an amateur cricket club in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. They were founded in 1782[1] and play their home matches at the Nevill Ground. As of 2016 they play in the Kent Cricket League Premier Division.[2]

History

Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club was founded in 1782. They first started playing cricket on the Higher Common Ground in Tunbridge Wells.[3] In 1882, to commemorate their centenary, they played a match against Marylebone Cricket Club.[4]

Tunbridge Wells CC's Nevill Ground

In 1895, Tunbridge Wells CC purchased a lease alongside Bluemantle Cricket Club from William Nevill, 1st Marquess of Abergavenny to establish a cricket ground. As a result the Nevill Ground was established on a 99-year lease and named after the Marquess.[5] In 1902, Kent County Cricket Club started playing annually at the Nevill Ground, which became Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week.[6]

1913 fire

In 1913 the pavilion, including the club's archives, were destroyed in an arson attack by suffragettes, as part of a wider campaign to gain respect and votes for women.[7] The choice of Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club as a target may have been provoked by a comment from a Kent official who was reported to have said prior to the attack: "It is not true that women are banned from the pavilion. Who do you think makes the teas?"[8]

The arsonists left campaign literature and a photograph of activist Emmeline Pankhurst, to draw attention to her incarceration in Holloway Prison, and the practice of force-feeding her and others, when on hunger strikes. Cricket-loving Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle reacted angrily to the fire in a meeting of The National League for Opposing Women’s Suffrage, dubbing the arsonists “female hooligans” and comparing the attack to “blowing up a blind man and his dog.” The pavilion was rebuilt within nine weeks, in time for the Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week, helped by a series of fund-raising concerts at Royal Tunbridge Wells' Opera House.[9]

Recent history

In 1970 Tunbridge Wells CC were one of the founder members of the Kent Cricket League.[10] Tunbridge Wells CC hosted a 1983 Cricket World Cup match between India and Zimbabwe where India's Kapil Dev scored 175 not out.[11] They have won the Kent Cricket League three times, most recently in 1988.[12] In 2004 Tunbridge Wells CC were granted by the England and Wales Cricket Board the ECB Clubmark.[13] In 2016 Tunbridge Wells made it to the semi-final of the ECB National Club Twenty20.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club". Kentishtowns.com. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  2. ↑ Louis Sealey. "Kent Cricket League round-up: Hartley storm ahead while Blackheath and Bexley slip up". News Shopper. Retrieved 2016-09-03.
  3. ↑ Turcan, Robert (2013). "Higher Common Ground". Tunbridge Wells Through Time. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 1445631792.
  4. ↑ "Tunbridge Wells v Marylebone Cricket Club". CricketArchive. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  5. ↑ "A brief history of the Nevill Ground". ESPN Cricinfo. 9 January 2006. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  6. ↑ "Festival fun at Wells". Kent and Sussex Courier. 1 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  7. ↑ "Militancy and a Cricket Pavilion". The Times (40184). London. 12 April 1913. p. 10.
  8. ↑ Scott, Les (2011). "48: Kent". Bats, Balls & Bails: The Essential Cricket Book. Random House. ISBN 1446423166.
  9. ↑ Williamson, Martin (12 April 2008). "Blowing up a blind man and his dog". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  10. ↑ Bowen, Peter. "Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club". SAA. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  11. ↑ "Suffragettes burned down pavilion of Nevill Ground, Tunbridge Wells". Cricket Country. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  12. ↑ Kent Cricket League 2015 Handbook
  13. ↑ "Clubmark Accredited Clubs". ECB. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  14. ↑ "Tunbridge Wells reach National Club T20 Finals Day". Kent CCC. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
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