Middlesex County Cricket Club

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Middlesex
Established	1864
First-Class Debut	v Sussex at Islington on June 6, 1864
Captain	Ed Smith
Coach	Richard Pybus
County Titles	10 (plus 2 shared)

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. The county have appointed Richard Pybus, a former coach of Pakistan, as the 1st XI Coach and Ed Smith as County Captain for the 2007 season.

1 Honours
- 1.1 Second XI honours
2 Records
3 Earliest cricket
4 Origin of club
5 Recent History
6 Noted players
7 Presidents of the County
8 County Chairmen
9 County Captains
10 County Coaches
11 County Scorers
12 County Secretaries
13 Batsmen
14 Bowlers
15 Wicketkeepers
16 External links
17 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] Records

Highest Total For - 642-3 declared v Hampshire at Southampton 1923

Highest Total Against - 665 by West Indians at Lord's 1939

Lowest Total For - 20 v MCC at Lord's 1864

Lowest Total Against - 31 by Gloucestershire at Bristol 1924

Batting

Highest Score - 331 JDB Robertson v Worcestershire at Worcester 1949

Most Runs in Season - 2669 EH Hendren in 1923

Most Runs in Career - 40302 EH Hendren 1907-1937

Best Partnership for each wicket

1st - 372 MW Gatting and JL Langer v Essex at Southgate 1998

2nd - 380 FA Tarrant and JW Hearne v Lancashire at Lord's 1914

3rd - 424 WJ Edrich and DCS Compton v Somerset at Lord's 1948

4th - 325 JW Hearne and EH Hendren v Hampshire at Lord's 1919

5th - 338 RS Lucas and TC O'Brien v Sussex at Hove 1895

6th - 270 JD Carr and PN Weekes v Gloucestershire at Lord's 1994

7th - 271 EH Hendren and FT Mann v Nottinghamshire at Nottingham 1925

8th - 182 MHC Doll and HR Murrell v Nottinghamshire at Lord's 1913

9th - 160 EH Hendren and TJ Durston v Essex at Leyton 1927

10th - 230 RW Nicholls and W Roche v Kent at Lord's 1899

Bowling

Best Bowling - 10-40 GOB Allen v Lancashire at Lord's 1929

Best Match Bowling - 16-114 G Burton v Yorkshire at Sheffield 1888

Wickets in Season - 158 FJ Titmus in 1955

Wickets in Career - 2361 FJ Titmus 1949-1982

[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] Recent History

Having been recently promoted from the second division of the National League, Middlesex endured a torrid 2006 season, which saw them relegated from the top tier of both of the divisions of First Class Cricket. THe season took a turn for the worse after Middlesex narrowly missed out on getting into the final of the C&G Trophy, from which point, they seemed unable to put any sequence of wins together. It was widely accepted that it was the team's bowling weakness was what cost them the chance of staying up, as Many batsmen, in particular Nick Compton, contributed consistently well all season. This is a weakness that the club looked to solve during the close season, with the signings of Chaminda Vaas, and Murali Kartik.

[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.

Popular overseas players have included Frank Tarrant, Tuppy Owen-Thomas, Alan Connolly, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener, Nantie Hayward, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Irfan Pathan, Stuart Clark, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, Chaminda Vaas and Stephen Fleming.