Cambridgeshire Cricket
Cambridge University 1710
Wisbech 1744
March 1744
Eton v England 1751
Cambridge 1757
Royston 1764
Chatteris 1774
Newmarket 1788
Manea 1791
Thorney 1810
Newton 1812
Leverington 1812
Murrow 1812
Parson Drove 1812
Ickleton 1813
Bentwick 1815
Doddington 1815
Wimblington 1815
Elm 1816
Ely 1818
Bassingborn 1820
Tholomas Drove 1820
Wisbech St Mary's 1820
Bottisham 1821
Fulbourn 1821
Soham 1822
Abington 1822
Walsoken 1826
Longstowe 1826
Bourn 1826
Linton 1827
Chesterton 1828
Whittlesey 1829
Cambridgeshire 1832
Mepal 1833
Sutton 1833
French Drove 1834
Fordham 1834
Balsham 1838
Sawston 1838
Comberton 1839
Haslingfield 1839
Steeple Bumpstead 1839
Barrington 1839
Melbourn 1839
Willingham 1839
Camps 1840
Cheveley 1841
Newport 1841
Quy 1841
Chippenham 1843
Kirtling 1843
Grantchester 1843
Haddenham 1843
Over 1844
Littlington 1844
Foxton 1844
Swavesey 1844
Fowlmere 1844
Shepreth 1844
Harston 1844
Thriplow 1845
Elsworth 1846
Toft 1846
Ashley 1849
Eversden 1849
Wimpole 1849
Arrington 1849
Burrough Green 1849
Burwell 1849
Swaffham 1849
Six Mile Bottom 1849
Harston 1849
Caldecote 1849
Shudy Camps 1850
Aldreth 1850
Babraham 1850
Waterbeach 1850
Horseheath 1851
Swaffham Prior 1851
Cambridge Cricket Venues
From 1757
Jesus Green
From 1792
From 1792
Parker's Piece
From 1805
From 1805
Jesus Close
From 1820
Midsummer Common
1821-30
University private
ground Mill Rd
From 1846
Field behind Town Gaol
From 1848
Fenner's
What I am working on at the moment
I have two ongoing projects:
1) Cambridgeshire Cricket 1849-90
2) The Life of F P Fenner
Cambridgeshire Cricket 1849-90
Local newspapers provide much in the way of match reports, accounts of club meetings and letters etc which are of great help in making sense of cricket's progress in Cambridgeshire.
Another vital source is Haygarth's "Scores and Biographies" which contains many match scores as well as an informative bias in the compiler's irritation at the behaviour of several of the Cambridge professionals.
As the 20th century dawned autobiographies by Richard Daft, William Caffyn and W G Grace each threw personal light on the match statistics as did interviews by the likes of Old Ebor.
1849-56
This was a second period of retrenchment for Cambridgeshire cricket following the collapse of the Cambridge Town and County Cricket Club in 1848, especially in Cambridge.
A few Cambridge clubs such as the Britannia and Hope kept the game going, but most of Cambridge's professional cricketers had left the county to seek employment elsewhere.
There were several county sides in the late 40's and 50's but they did not play other counties and were mainly amateur only sides drawing from towns and villages around the county..
Cambridgeshire sides 1857-71
This period contains the most celebrated era of early Cambridgeshire cricket when for a while Cambridgeshire consistantly produced a reprasentative side that could take on the likes of Surrey, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire on equal terms.
Cambridgeshire matches of this period, however, were not the product of one Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club.
The first 1857 match against Surrey appears to have been basically a Cambridge University (CU) side with a few Cambridge town professionals. The return match of that season and the following year's match v Surrey look as though they were at least connected with that first match even if not strictly CU sides.
A Cambridgeshire County Club was formed in 1858 but initially played amateur only matches against mainly local clubs. In its first incarnation it played until 1863. It may have continued to exist but lay dormant until reforming in 1866 and lasting until 1868.
Sides now regarded as Cambridgeshire during this period were organised at various times by the CU, the County Club, the Cambridge Town Club, by individual players and by public subscription (and possibly by Lord's and Surrey and Kent CC's!).
The reasons for such a chaotic administration and its subsequent effects are crucial to an understanding of Cambridgeshire's loss of top-class status.
Although we have names from earlier years there is far more information available on the players of this time. The best known were Billy Buttress, Robert Carpenter, Alfred Diver, Thomas Hayward, John Smith and George Tarrant. Others included Charles Arnold, Frederick Bell, Henry and John Perkins, Frederick Pryor and Fred Reynolds.
George Tarrant - Cambridge & Cambridgeshire
1871-90
Post 1871 Cambridgeshire cricket appears to have retreated to small local clubs, apart from the CU of course, whose success now began to match its status.
Francis Phillips Fenner
F P Fenner is remembered now for the cricket ground which he leased to the Cambridge University CC in 1848. It is still the home of Cambridge University cricket and still bears his name.
In his time, however, Fenner had several other claims to fame. Before he took on ground management he had become Cambridge's leading batsman, bowler, captain and secretary of the "Cambridge Town" and "Cambridge Town and County" Clubs. He was generally regarded as one of the best players in the country and was hugely influential in promoting Cambridge and Cambridgeshire cricket.
Both in and away from cricket he was a businessman, running a tobacconist shop from about 1836-61. He was in many ways an archetypal Victorian entrepreneur. Early on in his business he seems to have been acutely aware of the benefits to trade afforded by the University. Accordingly he solicited the custom of university cricketers and clubs in respect of a supply of cricket equipment. He was later to boast that he was sole supplier of such equipment to the University.
This is a very brief and incomplete summary of Fenner's life. I am hoping to gather as much further information on him as I can in order to write a biography. See gaps.