| Middlesex County Cricket Club | |||
| One-day name: | Middlesex Panthers | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Coach: | Richard Scott | ||
| Captain: | Neil Dexter | ||
| Overseas player(s): | Chris Rogers |
||
| Founded: | 1864 | ||
| Home ground: | Lord's | ||
| Capacity: | 30,000 | ||
| First-class debut: | Sussex | ||
| in 1864 | |||
| at Islington | |||
| Championship wins: | 10 (plus 2 shared) | ||
| Championship Division Two wins: | 1 | ||
| Pro40 wins: | 1 | ||
| FP Trophy wins: | 4 | ||
| Official website: | MiddlesexCCC | ||
Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the Middlesex Panthers, following complaints made by Muslim and Jewish communities.[1] Limited-overs kit colours are dark blue and pink quarters and from 2007, Middlesex have worn exclusive pink shirts during their Twenty20 matches in support of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity. To go along with their re-branding, Middlesex also introduced a new main sponsor for the 2009 season.
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. A project was introduced at Radlett Cricket Club in 2010 to offer the cricketers increased training facilities.
Currently Richard Scott is the Head Coach, Neil Dexter County Captain and Angus Fraser is Managing Director of Cricket. Vinny Codrington is Chief Executive and Secretary of Middlesex CCC.
In 2008, Middlesex became the Twenty20 Cup Champions and therefore also historically became the first County Cricket Club to qualify for both the Stanford Super Series and the Twenty20 Champions League.
Ignis asset management [2] is the principal club sponsor in a three-year deal with Middlesex County Cricket Club.
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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. It is a clear reference to "the two umpires" (the earliest mention of an umpire in what seems to be a cricket connection) and strongly suggests that the double wicket form of the game was already well known in London.[6]
The earliest known match in Middlesex took place at Lamb's Conduit Fields in Holborn on 3 July 1707 involving teams from London and Croydon.[7] In 1718, the first reference is found to White Conduit Fields in Islington, which later became a very famous London venue.[6]
The earliest known 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".[7] This was also the earliest known first-class match involving a Middlesex team.[8]
For information about Middlesex county teams before the formation of Middlesex CCC, see: Middlesex county cricket teams
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 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". Middlesex played at Lillie Bridge Grounds from 1869 before leaving in 1872 due to the poor quality of the turf. The club nearly folded at this time, a vote for continuing being won 7–6. They played at Prince's Cricket Ground from 1872 to 1876, and began using Lord's Cricket Ground in 1877.
The Club has produced several noted players, particularly the great batsmen Patsy Hendren, Bill Edrich and Denis Compton.
Bill Edrich scored 1000 runs before the end of May in 1938. He needed just 15 innings, with 4 centuries, and every run was scored at Lord's. Don Bradman gave him the chance to score the 10 runs he needed in the Australian tour match with Middlesex by declaring his team's innings early.
Middlesex won the County Championship in 1947 thanks to the unprecedented run scoring of Compton and Edrich. They both passed Tom Hayward's 1906 record of 3518 runs in a season with Compton making 3816 at 90.86 and Edrich 3539 at 80.43 with a dozen centuries. Compton's 18 centuries surpassed Jack Hobbs' former record of 16, set in 1925. Together with Jack Robertson's 2214 runs and Syd Brown's 1709 and the bowling of Jack Young, Jim Sims, Laurie Gray and Compton and Edrich themselves, the championship was won. The following season Compton and Edrich made their record unbeaten stand of 424 for the 3rd wicket against Somerset at Lords.
Middlesex's most successful period coincided with the captaincies of Mike Brearley and Mike Gatting from 1971 to 1997. Brearley proved as astute for his county as he did for his country between 1971 and 1982. His team included Gatting and England spin bowlers John Emburey and Phil Edmonds; and overseas fast bowlers such as Wayne Daniel.
In 2007 Middlesex had mixed fortunes in Domestic Cricket. In the 4-Day version of the game, the club finished 3rd of the nine teams in Division 2 of the Liverpool Victoria County Championship, narrowly missing out on promotion. However, 3rd place in Division 2 of the NatWest Pro 40 League was enough to earn them a place in the play-off final against Northamptonshire Steelbacks. Middlesex won that game comfortably and therefore gained promotion to Division 1 for the 2008 Season. There was less success in the two knockout cups where Middlesex failed to progress beyond the group stages of either tournament. In the Friends Provident Trophy they finished 7th of the ten teams in the Southern Division. Likewise in the Twenty20 Cup, 5th place of the six teams in the Southern Division was not good enough to see them progress.
In 2008, Middlesex won the Twenty20 Cup by beating Kent in the final at The Rose Bowl. As well as being the club's first major trophy for 15 seasons, the final was also memorable for Middlesex's record breaking 187/6 (the highest ever Twenty20 Cup Finals Day score) with Kent's retort of 184/5 (being second on the all-time list) and ensured that the Cup was decided on the last ball of the match. The victory is also made historic as Middlesex became the first County Cricket Club to gain entry to both the Twenty20 Champions League and the Stanford Super Series.
However 2008 also saw Middlesex suffer relegation in the Pro40 Division One (finishing in last place). And in a copy of their final standings from the previous season, Middlesex both failed to make it past the group stage in the Friends Provident Trophy and finished in 3rd place in the County Championship Division Two, again missing out on promotion by just one position.
Most runs for Middlesex
Qualification – 20,000 runs [9]
| Batsman | Runs |
|---|---|
| Patsy Hendren | 40,302 (1907–1937) |
| Mike Gatting | 28,411 (1975–1998) |
| Jack Hearne | 27,612 (1909–1936) |
| Jack Robertson | 27,088 (1937–1959) |
| Bill Edrich | 25,738 (1937–1959) |
| Clive Radley | 24,147 (1964–1987) |
| Eric Russell | 23,103 (1956–1972) |
| Denis Compton | 21,781 (1936–1958) |
| Peter Parfitt | 21,302 (1956–1972) |
Most wickets for Middlesex
Qualification – 1,000 wickets [10]
| Bowler | Wickets |
|---|---|
| Fred Titmus | 2,361 (1949–1982) |
| JT Hearne | 2,093 (1888–1923) |
| JW Hearne | 1,438 (1909–1936) |
| Jim Sims | 1,257 (1929–1952) |
| John Emburey | 1,250 (1973–1995) |
| Jack Young | 1,182 (1933–1956) |
| Jack Durston | 1,178 (1919–1933) |
| Alan Moss | 1,088 (1950–1963) |
| Frank Tarrant | 1,005 (1904–1914) |
Most dismissals for Middlesex
Qualification – 500 dismissals [11]
| Wicketkeeper | Dismissals |
|---|---|
| John Murray | 1,224 (1,024 catches & 200 stumpings) (1952–1975) |
| Fred Price | 940 (629 catches & 311 stumpings) (1926–1947) |
| Joe Murrell | 779 (516 catches & 263 stumpings) (1906–1926) |
| Leslie Compton | 596 (467 catches & 129 stumpings) (1938–1956) |
| Paul Downton | 547 (484 catches & 63 stumpings) (1980–1991) |
| Partnership | Runs | Players | Opposition | Venue | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st wicket | 372 | Mike Gatting & Justin Langer | v Essex | Southgate | 1998 |
| 2nd wicket | 380 | Frank Tarrant & Jack Hearne | v Lancashire | Lord's | 1914 |
| 3rd wicket | 424* | Bill Edrich & Denis Compton | v Somerset | Lord's | 1948 |
| 4th wicket | 325 | Jack Hearne & Patsy Hendren | v Hampshire | Lord's | 1919 |
| 5th wicket | 338 | Robert Lucas & Tim O'Brien | v Sussex | Hove | 1895 |
| 6th wicket | 270 | John Carr & Paul Weekes | v Gloucestershire | Lord's | 1994 |
| 7th wicket | 271* | Patsy Hendren & Frank Mann | v Nottinghamshire | Nottingham | 1925 |
| 8th wicket | 182* | Mordaunt Doll & Joe Murrell | v Nottinghamshire | Lord's | 1913 |
| 9th wicket | 160* | Patsy Hendren & Jack Durston | v Essex | Leyton | 1927 |
| 10th wicket | 230 | Richard Nicholls & William Roche | v Kent | Lord's | 1899 |
| Source: Highest Partnership for Each Wicket for Middlesex CricketArchive.com; Last updated: 17 July 2007 | |||||
* – Indicates that the partnership was unbroken
* Denotes not out/unbroken partnership
The Middlesex squad for the 2012 season consists of (players with international caps are listed in bold):
| No. | Name | National team | Date of Birth | Batting style |
Bowling style |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batsmen | ||||||
| 4 | Neil Dexter * | England | 21 August 1984 | LHB | RMF | County captain |
| Joe Denly | England | 16 March 1986 | RHB | LB | ||
| 19 | Adam London | England | 12 October 1988 | LHB | OB | |
| 29 | Dawid Malan * | England | 3 September 1987 | LHB | LB | |
| 77 | Scott Newman * | England | 3 November 1979 | LHB | RMF | |
| 12 | Sam Robson | England | 1 July 1989 | RHB | ||
| 1 | Chris Rogers * | Australia | 31 August 1977 | LHB | LBG | Former Australia Test player |
| 39 | Paul Stirling | Ireland | 3 September 1990 | RHB | OB | Ireland ODI and Twenty20 player |
| 6 | Andrew Strauss * | England | 2 March 1977 | LHB | LM | England Test and former ODI player. Current Test captain. |
| All-rounders | ||||||
| 8 | Gareth Berg * | England | 18 January 1981 | RHB | RMF | |
| 8 | Steven Crook | England | 28 May 1983 | RHB | RFM | |
| 24 | Josh Davey | Scotland | 3 August 1990 | RHB | RM | Scotland ODI player. |
| Wicket-keepers | ||||||
| Andrew Balbirnie | Ireland | 28 December 1990 | RHB | — | Ireland ODI wicketkeeper | |
| Stewart Poynter | Ireland | 18 October 1990 | RHB | — | Ireland ODI wicketkeeper | |
| Adam Rossington | England | 5 May 1993 | RHB | — | England Under-19 wicketkeeper | |
| 20 | John Simpson * | England | 13 July 1988 | LHB | — | |
| Bowlers | ||||||
| 32 | Corey Collymore * | Barbados | 29 December 1977 | RHB | RFM | Kolpak player & former West Indies Test and ODI bowler |
| 9 | Steven Finn * | England | 4 April 1989 | RHB | RFM | England Test player |
| Thomas Hampton | England | 5 October 1990 | RHB | RFM | ||
| 88 | Anthony Ireland | England | 30 August 1984 | RHB | RFM | Former Zimbabwe ODI and Twenty20 bowler. UK Passport |
| 34 | Tim Murtagh * | England | 2 August 1981 | RHB | RFM | |
| 16 | Tom Parsons | England | 2 May 1987 | RHB | RFM | |
| Ravi Patel | England | 4 August 1991 | RHB | SLA | ||
| Ollie Rayner | England | 1 November 1985 | RHB | OB | ||
| 21 | Toby Roland-Jones | England | 29 January 1988 | RHB | RMF | |
| Gurjit Sandhu | England | 24 March 1992 | RHB | LMF | ||
| 11 | Tom Smith | England | 3 September 1987 | RHB | SLA | |
| 21 | Robbie Williams | England | 19 January 1987 | RHB | RMF | |
Source: Middlesex CCC Players
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