THE FIRST FIFTY
(Photos extracted from
the club's 75th Anniversary brochure) |
Following it's formation the Stoics Club quickly gained a reputation for it's high standard of cricket and it's relaxed companionable style and began to attract several notable players and it soon established a considerable fixture list. Membership of the club was eagerly sought after and inevitably its scope broadened. It's playing status was much enhanced because it was fielding teams with many of the well known cricket personalities of the day. Among them were A E Stoddart of Middlesex and England, A P Lucas who had played for both Surrey and Middlesex, H G Owen, and C J Kortwright. The last named was greatly admired by none other than W G Grace and even today, is considered as perhaps the fastest bowler of all time. Amongst many other notable Stoics were Walter Robins who captained both Middlesex and England and Raman Subba Row who played for England, Cambridge University, Northamptonshire and Surrey and was the Wisden Cricketer of the Year, 1961 and later became the Chairman of the Test and County Cricket Board.
The club began to have two regular annual tours. The early season one scheduled matches, some of them being two-day events, in Sussex where schools like Lancing, Eastbourne, Brighton, Hurstpierpoint and Ardingly were notable opponents. The second tour took in Huntingdonshire, Northants and several of the colleges of both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Besides the tours, regular fixtures were also arranged against various famous old clubs including Hampstead, Southgate, Bank of England, Blackheath, Upper Clapton, Highgate, Finchley, Hornsey, Epsom College, St Marks in Windsor, St John's at Leatherhead, Forest School and Merchant Taylor's School. Other notable opponents were East Grinstead CC, Ascham St Vincent School CC, Sussex Martlets CC and St Andrews CC of Burgess Hill. Undoubtedly the most remarkable event of this period, indeed perhaps of the entire history of the Stoics, was their match against Hamstead CC on the 4th August 1886. This game was marked for ever in the annals of cricket for in it, Andrew Stoddart took the record for what is still the highest ever score in cricket with an innings of 485. At that time no declarations were allowed in the game and the Stoics, living up to their name, fielded all day without a chance to bat. Stoddart was seventh out, having batted for six hours and ten minutes during which he hit one eight, three fives, and sixty-four fours. The runs were scored at a rapid pace, the score was 370 for 3 at lunch after 150 minutes of play. Details of Hampstead's extraordinary innings that day are A E Stoddart c Kelly b Renny 485 W R Marshall b Oscar 6 J C Q Besch c Lavender b Fleming 98 M Smith-Turville b Kelly 5 E Swift c Kelly b Carter 92 A Russell-Parker c Kelly b Parker 4 F A K Doyle c and b Carter 27 P Dollar c Lavender b Renny 38 H G Booth c Carter b Kelly 1 T Stewart not out 0 E O'Dwyer absent 0 Extras (b 50, lb 6, w 1) 57 TOTAL (all out) 813 Fall of wickets:1-28,2-242,3-269,4-652,5-659,6-742,7-813,8-813,9-813. STOICS CC (did not bat): F Bigg, FF Kelly, J Renny, SD Fairless, GWT Daniel, Oscar, Lavender, Fleming, Wither, Thompson, F Harper Match drawn It should perhaps be noted that when taking the field against Hampstead for this match, Stoics were probably still reeling from their previous game, a match, played on 2 July 1886, when Brighton Brunswick CC had helped themselves to 544-5. During that same season four batsmen had scored centuries against them, W H Dudley (Brighton Brunswick) 174, T H G Welch (Northamtonshire Club and Ground) 146, G H Swinslead (Nornsey) 129 and C A Kingston (Northamptonshire Club and Ground) 122. In Hampstead's next match, just three days after the game with Stoics, Stoddart made 207 and two days after that, on 9 August while playing for Middlesex, he made 98, a grand total of 790 runs in a week. He was a man with a great zest for life in his younger days. He had danced then played cards till dawn before the Stoics game, batted almost through Hampstead's innings of 813, then he went on to play tennis, went to the theatre and turned in at 3 am. His next innings was against Kent when he posted his maiden first class century in scoring 116. |