Sussex County Cricket Club

Sussex County Cricket Club
One-day name: Sussex Sharks
Coach: Mark Robinson
Captain: Michael Yardy
Overseas player(s): Naved-ul-Hasan

Wayne Parnell

Founded: 1839
Home ground: The PROBIZ County Ground, Hove
Capacity: 7000
First-class debut: MCC
in 1839
at Lord's
Championship wins: 3
National League/Pro40 wins: 3
FP Trophy wins: 5
Twenty20 Cup wins: 1
Official website: SussexCricket

Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a whole. Its limited overs team is called the Sussex Sharks. The club colours are traditionally blue and white and the shirt sponsor is Farnrise Construction. As England's oldest county club, it is the world's oldest first class cricket club. The club's home ground is the County Cricket Ground, Hove. Sussex also play matches around the county at out grounds Arundel, Eastbourne and Horsham.

Sussex won its first ever official County Championship title in 2003 after a wait of 164 years, and subsequently became the dominant team of the decade, repeating the success in 2006 and 2007. In 2006 Sussex achieved "the double", beating Lancashire to clinch the C&G Trophy, before winning the County Championship following an emphatic victory against Nottinghamshire, in which Sussex outplayed their hosts by an innings and 245 runs.[1] Sussex then won the title for the third time in five years in 2007, when in a nail-biting finale on the last day of the season [2], Sussex defeated Worcestershire, with title rivals Lancashire narrowly failing to beat Surrey with the match going on to past 5 o'clock,[3] - prompting relieved celebrations at the County Cricket Ground, Hove [4]. Sussex enjoyed further limited overs success with consecutive Pro40 wins in 2008 and 2009 as well as beating Somerset at Edgbaston to lift the 2009 Twenty20 Cup. The south coast county ended the decade having won ten trophies in ten years.

Contents

Honours

Division Two (2) – 2001, 2010
Division Two (2) – 1999, 2005

Second XI honours

Earliest cricket

Sussex, along with Kent, is believed to be the birthplace of cricket. It is widely held that cricket was invented by children living on the Weald in Saxon or Norman times.

See : History of cricket to 1696

The first definite mention of cricket in Sussex relates to ecclesiastical court records in 1611 which state that two parishioners of Sidlesham in West Sussex failed to attend church on Easter Sunday because they were playing cricket. They were fined 12d each and made to do penance.

Cricket became established in Sussex during the 17th century and the earliest village matches took place before the English Civil War. It is believed that the earliest county teams were formed in the aftermath of the Restoration in 1660. In 1697, the earliest "great match" recorded was for 50 guineas apiece between two elevens at a venue in Sussex: it was possibly an inter-county match and it has been classified as the earliest known significant match in cricket history.[7]

Matches involving the two great Sussex patrons Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet were first recorded in 1725. The earliest known use of Sussex in a match title occurred in 1729. From 1741, Richmond patronised the famous Slindon Cricket Club, whose team was representative of the county.

After the death of Richmond in 1751, Sussex cricket declined until the emergence of the Brighton club at its Prince of Wales Ground in 1790. This club sustained cricket in Sussex through the Napoleonic Wars and, as a result, the county team was very strong in the 1820s when it included the great bowlers Jem Broadbridge and William Lillywhite.

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

Origin of club

Although Sussex had been a major cricket centre since the 17th century, there had apparently been no move towards a permanent county organisation until 17 June 1836 when a meeting in Brighton set up a Sussex Cricket Fund to support county matches. It was from this organisation that Sussex County Cricket Club was formally constituted on 1 March 1839.

Sussex CCC played its initial first-class match versus MCC at Lord's on 10 & 11 June 1839. Sussex CCC is therefore England's oldest county cricket club.

Sussex Crest

The Sussex crest depicts the mythological bird the Martlet, famous for having no feet. Capped players have six martlets on their sweaters whilst non-capped players have just the club crest on the left breast. When it comes to caps the capped players have a crest with gold trimming whilst non-capped have white trimming.

Sussex Grounds

The Club has used four cricket grounds in Brighton & Hove - matches were played on a ground donated by the then Prince Of Wales and the ground was fittingly called The Prince of Wales Ground (where Park Crescent now lies), Temple Fields (where Montpelier Crescent now lies), Royal Brunswick Ground (where Third and Fourth Avenues are situated) and finally in 1871 the ground in Eaton Road was acquired from the Trustees of the Stanford Estate. Turf from the Royal Brunswick Grounds was transferred and re-laid on the square.

The first County match was played at Eaton Road on 6 June 1872 against Gloucestershire. As well as the County Ground, Hove, the Club's First and Second XI regularly play around the County, the grounds at Arundel and Horsham playing host to First XI fixtures. Sussex have also played first class matches at grounds in Sheffield Park, Chichester, Worthing, Eastbourne and Hastings.

2011 Squad

Players with international caps are listed in bold.

No. Name Nat Birth date Batting Style Bowling Style Notes
Batsmen
3 Murray Goodwin 11 December 1972 (1972-12-11) (age 39) Right-handed Right arm leg break Kolpak registration
Vice-Captain
15 Matt Machan 15 February 1991 (1991-02-15) (age 21) Right-handed Left-hand medium pace
23 Chris Nash 19 May 1983 (1983-05-19) (age 28) Right-handed Right arm off break
24 Ed Joyce 22 September 1978 (1978-09-22) (age 33) Left-handed Right arm medium pace
25 Joe Gatting 25 November 1987 (1987-11-25) (age 24) Right-handed Right arm off break
31 Luke Wells 29 December 1990 (1990-12-29) (age 21) Left-hand Right arm off break
78 Lou Vincent 11 November 1978 (1978-11-11) (age 33) Right-hand Right arm medium pace British passport
All-rounders
10 Luke Wright 7 March 1985 (1985-03-07) (age 26) Right-handed Right arm medium-fast
20 Michael Yardy 27 November 1980 (1980-11-27) (age 31) Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox Club captain
16 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan 28 February 1978 (1978-02-28) (age 33) Right-handed Right arm fast-medium Overseas Player
Wicket-keepers
13 Matt Prior 26 February 1982 (1982-02-26) (age 29) Right-handed
26 Ben Brown 23 November 1988 (1988-11-23) (age 23) Right-handed
19 Andrew Hodd 12 January 1984 (1984-01-12) (age 28) Right-handed
Bowlers
21 Will Adkin 9 April 1990 (1990-04-09) (age 21) Left-handed Right arm fast medium
94 Wayne Parnell 30 July 1989 (1989-07-30) (age 22) Right-handed Right arm fast Overseas player
7 Monty Panesar 25 April 1982 (1982-04-25) (age 29) Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox
30 James Anyon 5 May 1983 (1983-05-05) (age 28) Left-handed Right arm fast-medium
11 Christopher Liddle 1 February 1984 (1984-02-01) (age 28) Right-handed Left arm fast-medium
18 William Beer 8 October 1988 (1988-10-08) (age 23) Right-handed Right arm leg break
8 Naved Arif Gondal 2 November 1981 (1981-11-02) (age 30) Left-handed Left arm fast-medium European passport
2 Amjad Khan 14 October 1980 (1980-10-14) (age 31) Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
22 Ollie Rayner 1 November 1985 (1985-11-01) (age 26) Right-handed Right arm off break

Noted Sussex players

This list includes those Sussex players who have played in Test cricket since 1877 and other players who made outstanding contributions (e.g., scoring most runs or taking most wickets in a season).

England

Australia

New Zealand

South Africa

West Indies

Zimbabwe

Pakistan

India

Netherlands

Sussex Women

Sussex Women have produced many England capped players. These include:

Sussex Women won the County Championship in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008.

Records

Most first-class runs for Sussex
Qualification - 20000 runs [1]

Player Runs
John Langridge 34150
Kenneth Suttle 29375
Jim Parks junior 29138
James Langridge 28894
Ted Bowley 25439
Joseph Vine 24120
George Cox junior 22687
Henry Parks 21692
Charles Fry 20626
Thomas Cook 20176
Alan Oakman 20117

Most first-class wickets for Sussex
Qualification - 1000 wickets [2]

Player Wickets
Maurice Tate 2211
George Cox senior 1810
Albert Relf 1594
Ian Thomson 1527
James Langridge 1416
Fred Tate 1306
Albert Wensley 1067
Jim Cornford 1019

Team

Batting

Highest partnership for each wicket

Bowling

Sussex Fact and Feats

Notes

  1. ^ BBC Sport article
  2. ^ http://content-uk.cricinfo.com
  3. ^ cricinfo.com
  4. ^ http://content-uk.cricinfo.com
  5. ^ Formerly known as the Gillette Cup (1963–1980), NatWest Trophy (1981–2000) and C&G Trophy (2001–2006)
  6. ^ Formerly known as the Sunday League (1969–1998)
  7. ^ Classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825

Further reading

External links