The History of Selsey Cricket Club
Although there are mentions of Cricket being playing in Selsey as far back as 1647, Selsey Cricket Club itself was not founded until 1834.
The first recorded game was on July 9 1834 where Selsey beat Kingley Vale by 3 runs. Matches were played regularly through the 19th century and a 1899 newspaper report detailed a General Meeting of the Selsey Cricket Club held at the ‘New Inn’ (now The Neptune) with the Secretary’s report showing the Club to be in a prosperous condition, enabling the Club to start the financial year with a balance in hand of between two and three pounds.
Cricket continued into the 20th Century with a total pause for the First World War between 1914 and 1919, the sport and the club gradually gearing up again as the 1920’s continued. In 1922, Selsey Ladies’ cricket is mentioned for the first time with a game taking place between Selsey Lady Residents vs Lady Visitors. Our glorious Selsey Lady Residents were the victors in this game, winning by 7 wickets according to a report in The Chichester Observer on August 16th 1922.
Various reports suggest that raising a team of 11 Selsey residents was often not an easy task. A lot of male Selsey residents during this period would have been employed within either the fishing or farming industry, toiling for at least 6 days per week. Sunday was specifically reserved for worship. Indeed in 1922, Selsey Parish Magazine included an article writing by Rev. K H MacDermott stating “We hope all games in Selsey will flourish, as they are beneficial to health of body and mind but we earnestly hope that all members of the various Clubs will not forget that the human being is composed of soul as well as body, and surely the soul should come first, especially on the Lord’s Day, when the opportunity is afforded for worship to all”.
Selsey Cricket Club did not always have a permanent home at the Recreation Ground as they do now. Mention is made of games being played on a field near The Fisherman’s Joy, at Accommodation Meadow – a field to the left hand side of East Street facing seaward – as well as on a large stretch of sand in front of what was once Marine Hotel. Sadly this space has now been lost to coastal erosion. In 1948, Accommodation Meadow was sold leading to a new home being required and the Recreation Ground as we know it today was offered by a local farmer. In 1955, Selsey Parish Council agreed to pay the sum of £2450 for the purchase of Warner’s Field, Small Acres and Warner’s Yard and were able to lease the Recreation Ground to the Cricket Club.
So, Selsey now had a permanent pitch but no pavilion or changing facilities, changing was either done on the grass, in a lean-to at the back of the football club. When the club played at the Manhood School for a couple of seasons, due to the poor condition of the pitch, changing took place in the church rectory when Rev. Hugh Pruen was playing. Things started to improve when, in 1974, the Cricket Club were offered the assembly hall building from Broombank School when this closed, This had to be dismantled and re-erected by volunteers from the club, coordinated by Jim Crowley.
Among the members involved in this project was Sir Patrick Moore. Sir Patrick started playing for Selsey in the late 1960’s, mainly as a spin bowler whose cunning use of the setting sun meant his high floated deliveries deceived many a visiting batsman. Club committees were held in his study. He served as the Hon. Secretary for many years and was recognised as the life Vice President.
Sir Patrick remained with the club for more than 40 years. The pavilion was recently re-named after him and houses an exhibition in his honour.
To this day, the Patrick Moore Cup is played for annually in a fierce but friendly battle between Selsey Cricket Club and The Thespian Thunderers.
Selsey Cricket Club are very much a community club and are proud of their training programme for children, both boys and girls alike. They have a league team as well as a Sunday team, and colts teams. Until recently the club had a very successful ladies team that won both the league and the cup.
The club is run as non-profit making, run entirely by dedicated volunteers as a community amateur
club, and they work closely with the towns Sports Dream charity.
At the present time Selsey Cricket Club are working in partnership with Sports Dream and Sesley Football Club, raising money to build a new sporting facility for the two clubs and the Town. Selsey are proud of their Cricket Club and are always looking for new members, volunteers, coaches, playing, or social, as well as scorers or umpires, to secure the future of the club.
This article was put together by Bob Hoare of Selsey Cricket Club and much of the information comes from an informative and highly reseached book put together by a local historian and author, Ruth Mariner. Her full work, along with much more information about Selsey Cricket Club, can be found on their website at www.selseycc.co.uk
Very few matches are written about in newspaper reports from the very early years of the 19th Century, although with one notable exception.
On 22nd May 1889, a match report appears detailing a game between The Manhood and Priory Park. Appearing for Priory Park is one Jas. Lillywhite, actual name James Lillywhite, who was in fact the very first captain of the England Test Cricket team.
This game took place after his retirement from the professional game although he did achieve five wickets against The Manhood team.
