Beckenham CC - 1866

In 1966, while the rest of the country was celebrating World Cup glory on the football field, Beckenham Cricket Club was celebrating its centenary year. In addition to the many events organised, the club produced a pamphlet of its history. It contains details of all the sections associated with the club and is an interesting read but with far too much information for these pages. I have collated some of the more salient points to create a potted history of the cricket section, largely from the words of Ronnie Bryan.

In early 1866 the Beckenham Cricket Club was founded by Mr AC Wathen and friends who had the permission of Mr Peter Hoare to use the private cricket ground at Kelsey. After the first season at Kelsey the ground on Foxgrove Road was leased where play has continued ever since.

The first recorded game was on 19th May 1866 between a Married X and a Single X. Even taking into account the fact that the game was only 10-a-side, scoring was low. Single made 95 batting first and. in reply. Married mustered a rather hen-pecked 71 including 21 wides! The Beckenham Cricket Club played its first game the following week against the Saturday CC, losing by 137 runs to 51, and had to wait until 23rd June 1866 for its first win against South-Eastern Railway.

To the left here is a sketch by JHB depicting early cricket at Beckenham. The fielders were required to stand still and if they were struck, the batsman was deemed out (hence they are all covering tender parts of their anatomy!). Silas "The Finger" Squeeres is umpiring at square leg holding a stick to protect himself from irate batsmen. However will the sketch depicts the very early days of Beckenham cricket it is possible to make out the Crystal Palace television mast in the background therefore dating it at the earliest in the 1950s.

These were early days for club cricket in general and fixtures were hard to come by. There are several references to interesting experiments simply in order to get a game. For example the Club's first 7 played against the next 14 (the 7 winning easily, 149 runs to 39). There was another easy win for the Club against a 22 from the Village, a game that became an annual fixture until the First World War, although by then the Village side had been reduced to 17 players!

Several notable fixtures took place between 1885 and 1895 between Beckenham, Bexley and Bickley Park. In 1885 Beckenham replied to Bexley's 77 all out with 470 for 0, but, it wasn't always so easy. Bexley returned the favour the following year and in June 1894 Beckenham suffered their largest ever defeat against a Hampstead side containing AE Stoddart of England and FR "The Demon" Spofforth of Australia. Hampstead made 269 and promptly dismissed Beckenham twice for 13 and 21. Spofforth 8 for 7 and 4 for 4 lived up to his nickname.

By the end of the century two teams were turning out for the Club on most Saturdays. The Whole-Day and Half-Day (at most 5 hours play) sides were starting to field players who would become well known throughout Kent as well as Beckenham. P Northcote, FD Brown, CO Cooper and GJ Gulliver were making their mark with bat and ball, while the families Inglis, Torrens, Baker, and Stenning also started playing around this time, and would continue to do so up to around the outbreak of the WWI.

Beckenham's annual cricket week started in 1893 and continues to this day. The first ever game was a 2-day fixture against Oxford University Authentics. It was an inauspicious start for the home side following on after the visitors' 217. Of all the other sides to appear in the first week, Incogniti, who were roundly defeated by 7 wickets, are the only surviving team. More about cricket week later.

There were 668 runs in a day in 1903 in a game against Western CC, PC Baker 178no. But the tide was turning by 1903 and the bowlers started to come into their own, D Collard taking 7 for 0 in 40 balls as Bickley were routed for 40.

The period up to WWI was dominated by HZ "Zouch" Baker with some outstanding all round performances. He was a stroke-playing, correct batsman and a bowler with immaculate control of length, moving the ball both ways, as well as a fine fielder.

The baker Brothers, PC, AA, HZ

When war was declared on 4th August 1914, the club closed down. The war took a heavy toll on the club and it lost 25 members, among them fine players such as KR McLoughlin, AA Torrens and HJ Edwards. They are all remembered on a roll of honour in the bar. Cricket finally returned to Foxgrove in 1919.

Stars at the club between the wars were the future President John Dunn, GN Foster, GL Hough, FJ Seabrook GJ Bryan and EP Wedlake-Lewis of whom it is said he was "as frighteningly quick as he was erratic". The game of this period was in 1922, on the Saturday of cricket week, against Blackheath. Beckenham managed to field an entirely first class side. Both sides in these fixtures were liable to bring in the odd ringer. On this occasion CS Marriott, the England test player who took 11 wickets in his only test, played for Beckenham. He bowled throughout the innings to take 4-56; it is thought that this was probably his only appearance for the club. Blackheath got their own back the following year managing to field one GO Allen!


EW Swanton made, a no doubt poetic, 112 in cricket week of 1933, the same year JW Hodsoll made the club's highest score of 238 v Gravesend. However as the 30's drew to a close, competitive league cricket came to an end at Beckenham for the second time in a generation.

Bert Curwen almost single-handedly managed to keep cricket going throughout the war years. Although the standards may not have been as high, it provided the opportunity for many young cricketers in the area. TE Bailey and AWH (Tony) Mallett played for the club and later Essex and Kent respectively. In 1966 Ronnie thought Mallett the finest young player he ever saw. Tony eventually emigrated to South Africa as a head teacher and during the 80s he was instrumental in getting 2 South African schools to tour the UK playing Beckenahm U17s.Several bombs fell on or near the ground during the war and one morning it was Bert with groundsman George Carter who arrived to find a land mine had come down near the tennis court. With glass and paper everywhere George asked Bert where to start. "First thing is to get the bar straight," came the reply. Not everything changes! Sadly Bert did not survive the war, dying in March 1945. He had joined the club in 1884 and it is impossible to convey how much he meant to Beckenham CC.

After first gracing the field in 1929 the extra Half-Day XI, with a name change, became firmly established in 1945. They became The Wizards and were a success from the start. Charles Miller took over as captain after a year and became their inspiration for the next 25 years. They became an institution with their own ties and traditions largely thanks to Charles. The Wizards had a remarkable win in 1949 scoring 104 and dismissing opponents Farningham for 9. JV Preston 7 for 2 and NE Patterson 3 for 4.

On 4th July 1955 Ralph Lilly made history by taking all 10 wickets against the Butterflies who made 192. Earlier that year John Stickland had taken 9 for 38 and the following year Peter Hulston took 9 for 48 against Wickham. In 1959 CJ Edgar emulated Lilly taking 10 against Crockham Hill for the Wizards. This clinched a tight, low-scoring game by 7 runs after Beckenham had only managed 98 in the first innings.

In 1962 the two Underwood brothers played for Beckenham; Derek was only 17 and playing for Kent's 2nd XI. It is interesting that in Ronnie's history in 1966 he states that he has no doubt Derek will have a long and fruitful first class career! In an early game for the club Derek took 7-28 against Cyphers. The next season he took 101 wickets for Kent. He will always be remembered for operating on wet wickets, but in 1976 at the Oval he was the only England bowler able to put the brakes on a rampant IVA Richards on a belter of a track. Probably his finest hour though, predictably, did come on a wet one, also at the Oval in 1968. After Australia had appeared to be saved by the weather, Underwood reduced them from 110 for 6 to 125 all out in half an hour on the final day, drawing the series for England.

Ronnie Byran finishes his history in 1966 and…………….to be continued…

back to top