Middlesex County Cricket Club

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Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Middlesex, which has now been entirely absorbed by London. Its limited overs team is called the Middlesex Crusaders.

The club plays most of its home games at Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, which is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club. The club also plays some games around the county at the Walker Ground in Southgate which hosts the annual Middlesex County Cricket Festival, Uxbridge CC in Uxbridge and The Old Deer Park in Richmond (home of Richmond CC).

Middlesex CCC has an indoor school based in Finchley and the Middlesex Academy officially opened in October 2003 to provide specialist coaching to the 12 best county prospects.

Currently the former Middlesex and England spinner John Emburey is the director of cricket and first-team coach and Ed Smith has been appointed as County Captain for the 2007 season.

1 Honours
- 1.1 Second XI honours
2 Earliest cricket
3 Origin of club
4 Noted players
5 Presidents of the County
6 County Chairmen
7 County Captains
8 County Scorers
9 County Secretaries
10 Batsmen
11 Bowlers
12 Wicketkeepers
13 External links
14 See also

[edit] Honours

Champion County (1) - 1866; shared (1) - 1878
County Championship (10) - 1903, 1920, 1921, 1947, 1976, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1990, 1993; shared (2) - 1949, 1977
Gillette/NatWest/C&G Trophy (4) - 1977, 1980, 1984, 1988
Sunday/National League (1) - 1992

Division Two (1) - 2004

Twenty20 Cup (0) -
Benson & Hedges Cup (2) - 1983, 1986

[edit] Second XI honours

Second XI Championship (5) - 1974, 1989, 1993, 1999, 2000; shared (0) -
Second XI Trophy (0) -
Minor Counties Championship (1) - 1935; shared (0) -

[edit] Earliest cricket

It is almost certain that cricket reached London, and thereby Middlesex, by the 16th century. Early references to the game in London or Middlesex are often interchangeable and sometimes it is not clear if a particular team represents the city or the county.

See : History of cricket to 1696 and History of cricket 1697 - 1725

The first definite mention of cricket in London or Middlesex dates from 1680 and is recorded in Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket by G B Buckley as that book's first entry. The reference "is quite unfit for publication nowadays" but contains, nevertheless, a clear reference to "the two umpires" (it is also the earliest mention of an umpire in what seems to be a cricket connection) and, as Mr Buckley points out, the reference also strongly suggests that the double wicket form of the game was already well known in London.

The earliest known match in Middlesex took place at Lamb's Conduit Field in Holborn on 3 July 1707 involving teams from London and Croydon (see The Dawn of Cricket by H T Waghorn). In 1718, the first reference is found to White Conduit Fields in Islington, which later became a very famous London venue.

The earliest reference to a team called Middlesex is on 5 August 1728 when it played London Cricket Club "in the fields behind the Woolpack, in Islington, near Sadlers Wells, for £50 a side" (see Waghorn).

For information about Middlesex county teams before the formation of Middlesex CCC, see : Middlesex county cricket teams

[edit] Origin of club

There are references to earlier county organisations, especially the MCC Thursday Club around 1800, but the definitive Middlesex club is the present Middlesex CCC. The club was informally founded on on 15 December 1863 at a meeting in the London Tavern. Formal constitution took place on 2 February 1864. The creation of the club was largely through the efforts of the Walker family of Southgate, which included several notable players including the famous V E Walker, who in 1859 became the first player to take 10 wickets in an innings and score a century in the same match.

Middlesex CCC played its initial first-class match versus Sussex CCC at Islington on 6 & 7 June 1864. In the same season, the club was a contender for the title of "Champion County" and is regarded as a first-class team since that season (though numerous earlier Middlesex teams were also first-class).

[edit] Noted players

The club has produced a host of famous players, notably the batting greats Patsy Hendren, Jack Hearne, Jack Robertson, Bill Edrich and Denis Compton who dominated the English game with breathtaking stroke play after the Second World War.

Skipper Mike Brearley proved as astute for his county as he did for his country in the late 1970s and early 1980s and a team boasting the 'spin twins' of John Emburey and Phil Edmonds, the batting firepower of Mike Gatting and overseas fast bowlers of the quality of Wayne Daniel was hard to beat.

Mark Ramprakash, before his move to Surrey was an England team player while seamer Angus Fraser carried the attack through the 1990s. More recently, Andrew Strauss has become a fixture at the top of the England order and Owais Shah has made his Test debut in India. Jamie Dalrymple, Shah and Ed Joyce were named in the England Development Squad for 2006.