Cricket is still thriving in rural retreat passed by at first-class and also minor county level
Jeremy Blackmore discovers that the game is still part of the sporting scene even in areas that don’t have regular senior county participation
If Huntingdonshire can’t lay claim to the cricketing renown of other English shires, it’s determined that its rich heritage ensures it will not be the forgotten county of the game.
It’s true that Huntingdonshire has never played Minor Counties cricket and formally lost its county status in the local government boundary changes of 1974. Indeed, it now forms part of Cambridgeshire.
But cricket is well established in Huntingdonshire, last year marking 275 years since the first recorded instance of the game being played. More recently, the county is rightly proud of the legendary Charlotte Edwards who learned her cricket on the playing fields of Ramsey.
It’s a fascinating history which the county’s cricket development manager Kevin Clement has collected together in a recent book, appropriately called The Forgotten County: A History Of Cricket In Huntingdonshire.
Clement explains: “While Huntingdonshire is an ECB board, it has never ever played first-class cricket, it has never played Minor Counties cricket, it has produced some interesting cricket and cricketers over the years and it has had a stab at playing at a higher level without having the population or the infrastructure to support that.
“The wealth of material wasn’t documented anywhere, so I spent copious number of hours in libraries and archive centres to try and research the county. There were already existing scorecards on Cricket Archive, which kicked the whole project off, but the more I researched, the more cards I found and it’s one of these things the more you research you never ever finish.”
Scorecards only tell half the story and his book brings to life many of those who have played the game in the county including Edwards, who continues to inspire local youngsters.
“Charlotte was born in Huntingdon, lived most of her formative life in Pidley and learned her cricket in Ramsey,” Clements told The Cricket Paper. “I can recall playing cricket against her when she was 15 or 16 in a 2nd XI match between Godmanchester and Ramsey. A remarkable game, not least because it was the first time I’d seen her bat.
“The opening bowler, first ball he bowled an immaculate bouncer at Charlotte and she swayed out of the way like a true professional. Next ball, thinking that he’d intimidated her, he pitched one up and she cover drove him for four. Just class personified.”
The other England cricketer to hail from the county was Edward Winchester Clark, more widely known as Nobby, who represented Huntingdonshire in his youth before earning first-class honours with neighbouring Northamptonshire and England. In later years, Clark became a publican in St Ives and played county cricket for Huntingdonshire again, some 28 years after his first appearance.
Former England opener Wayne Larkins was indirectly a product of Huntingdonshire cricket. While born just over the county boundary in Roxton, his talent was discovered while at school in St Neots. At the end of his career in 2001, he donned Huntingdonshire colours during the county’s brief five-year run in the ECB’s 50-over competition.
These days, the county’s cricket board has an important remit to develop young talent and promote the game in a largely rural area, studded with attractive market towns and including the city of Peterborough to the north. The number of clubs has decreased markedly since the Second World War, yet there is still a thriving recreational scene, with more than 40 active clubs.
Clement explains: “In terms of a player pathway, our guys who are good enough at recreational club level will play Minor Counties cricket for Cambridgeshire. We, Huntingdon and Peterborough, generally supply half of the team. It’s a very positive relationship. Realistically, unless the Minor Counties restructure and allow us in, we’re never going to be in the position. Guys who are good enough to play at that level, that’s an outlet for them to play.
“As a county, we play about five matches against county 2nd XIs, the RAF and the Army and that provides an outlet for people who, perhaps, aren’t quite good enough at the moment to play Minor Counties or have played Minor Counties, but want to be in the shop window.
“As an ECB cricket board, we run our own emerging players pathway and have done for about eight years and the context there is to allow players with the opportunity to progress and two of our players have a first-class contract with Leicestershire and they’ve come through our pathway: Rob Sayer, and his brother David who has an academy contract, and James Sykes. He started playing cricket here when he was six, introduced to Kwik cricket, and we use him as an example at Godmanchester of where you can go. He’s gone through all the Huntingdonshire youth teams, played Minor County cricket for Cambridgeshire, played for Leicestershire academy, Leicestershire 2nd XI, first team, been on the television; he’s there.”
The county also runs an U25 team which takes part in a thriving regional U25 competition involving seven counties as well as five age groups at boys’ level and a further four age groups for girls.
“Girls’ cricket is thriving,” says Clement. “Some very talented cricketers are coming through. We have a great role model in Charlotte. She’s brilliant. She still comes back to the county as a Chance To Shine ambassador and will do a county training session usually for our U11s or 13s.
“The attendance at those is phenomenal.”
Clement has been researching his book for the best part of eight years. Perhaps his most surprising discovery came when he unearthed scorecards which disproved a general perception that no county cricket had been played between the wars.
“Clearly an outlet for me was the number of senior players who are still alive in their 80s and 90s. After the Second World War, Huntingdonshire had quite a good programme and they played regularly with 2nd XIs of firstclass counties and that produced some really good cricket. There is a wellknown character in the book called Bev Bradford, who played at Ramsey, nicest man you’ll ever meet.
“He was offered a contract by three counties, the last one being Lancashire, but he was a tenant farmer with a young family and what he was being offered by Lancashire for what was ostensibly a summer contract just didn’t stack up; he couldn’t take that gamble. And, rumour has it, when Bev declined, they signed a guy called Jack Simmons instead, who you might have heard of!
“If you talk to some of the spectators they will talk about the quality of cricket that was played in the Fifties in
particular and Sixties and how many good players there were in the area.”
Going further back he discovered the first recorded instance of cricket being played in Huntingdonshire in 1741: “It’s only a cursory glance. Huntingdonshire at the time was sparsely populated, and it’s a reference I think to a match between Gentlemen of Bedfordshire and Gentlemen of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire joined together, so that’s the first reference.
“And then club cricket in earnest began in the late 18th century. The oldest town to have played club cricket in Huntingdonshire was St Ives. Cambridge in the mid-19th century and earlier was a flourishing cricket area, so Cambridgeshire and Cambridge town played cricket in the mid-1850s at firstclass level and a lot of their pros, guys who were employed by the colleges, got seasonal work with clubs out as far as Huntingdon and Godmanchester, I understand.”
Indeed the colleges were regular opponents for Huntingdonshire in the 19th century with the first match against county opposition coming in the 1850s against Bedfordshire. The book recounts Huntingdonshire’s encounters with other county sides in the years since, but there is a fascinating insight into the game in the 19th century.
“What the book, hopefully, captures is a flavour of the type of Press reporting that there was in the 19th century in particular where to some extent what happened on the cricket field was incidental and the social gathering was the main part. Very often, when you look at a club report of, say, Huntingdon v St Ives, there’s a cursory report on the match and then you’ll get a comment about the local publican provided a luxury luncheon for all and sundry and a great time was had by all and there was a band playing. It’s a different world!”
Things may have changed over the years, but Clement and the Huntingdonshire board remain committed to growing the game in the county and ensuring there are plenty of opportunities for local people to play and enjoy cricket.
Copies of The Forgotten County are available from Kevin Clement at Huntingdonshire Cricket Board Offices, Unit 4D, Grange Farm, Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon, Cambs PE28 2PH for £10 made payable to Huntingdonshire County Cricket Club.
Profits from the sale of the book will go towards development of youth cricket in the county.
Club cricket in earnest began in the late 18th century – the oldest town to have played club cricket in Huntingdonshire was St Ives