Middlesex County Cricket Club

Second XI honours

• Second XI Championship (5) – 1974, 1989, 1993, 1999, 2000; shared (1) – 2013
• Second XI Trophy (1) – 2007
• Second XI T20 (2) – 2015, 2016
• Minor Counties Championship (1) – 1935

ʶ ′′′Strong 1974 winning side included a batting line up of international players in Roland Butcher,^[7] Ian Gould, Phillip Edmonds, John Embury, Mike Gatting, Graham Barlow, Rodney Ontong, Larry Gomes, R.P.Willows topped the batting and Phillip Edmonds the bowling, they also won the Warwick Pool Championship the same year.

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. 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.^[8]

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.^[9] In 1718, the first reference is found to White Conduit Fields in Islington, which later became a very famous London venue.^[8]

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".^[9] This was also the earliest known first-class match involving a Middlesex team.^[10]

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

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 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.

Early history

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.

20th century

The Club has produced several noted players, particularly the great batsmen Patsy Hendren, Bill Edrich and Denis Compton.

Bill Edrich scored 1,000 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 3,518 runs in a season with Compton making 3,816 at 90.86 and Edrich 3,539 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 2,214 runs and Syd Brown's 1,709 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.

Recent history

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.

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.^[2] On 24 October 2014, the club announced that the limited overs name will revert to Middlesex County Cricket Club (Middlesex CCC), with immediate effect.^[3]

2011 saw a dramatic improvement in form for Middlesex, as they won the LV= County Championship Division Two for the first time in their history, sealing promotion to Division One for the 2012 season. They narrowly missed out on a place in the CB40 semi-finals, after coming joint top of their group with the Sussex Sharks, missing out only via net run-rate.

In 2016, Middlesex were unbeaten in the County Championship and secured the title on the final day of the season when they defeated one of their main challengers Yorkshire in the title decider at Lord's. A defeat for Middlesex in that match would have meant the title going to Yorkshire and a draw would have meant it going to Somerset.

First-class

List A

Club presidents

Club chairmen

Club captains

Club coaches

Club scorers

Club secretaries

Chief executives

• Vinny Codrington 1997–2015
• Richard Goatley 2015 to date

Managing directors of cricket

• Angus Fraser 2009 to date

Notes

Bibliography

• Harry Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962
• Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
• Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
• Roy Webber, The Playfair Book of Cricket Records, Playfair Books, 1951
• Playfair Cricket Annual – various editions
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack – various editions