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Hambledon Cricket Club - Formed 1750
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Potted history
The club were officially founded in 1750, then playing at Broadhalfpenny Down, opposite the Bat and Ball but later moved to a site on Windmill Down, nearer the village and later again after the Commons were enclosed, they moved to their present ground at Ridge Meadow.Richard Nyren was then the landlord of the Bat and Ball and was the leading light of the original club with support from various notables like Earl Tankerville and the Duke of Dorset, who all played cricket as gentlemen in the days of the Hambledon Men.
In 1777, Hambledon played All England at Broadhalfpenny Down and won. The Club drew up the rules of cricket pretty much as they are today - the width of the bat was set at 4 and a quarter inches by Richard Nyren, John Small and Thomas Brett and this stands today.
In much later years, their claim to fame was getting to the Lord's Final of the Village Knock-out where they were beaten by very bad weather and Toft from Cheshire.
The memorial stone at Broadhalfpenny Down was put there by public subscription in 1908 and belongs to the Hambledon Cricket Club in spite of what Winchester College and the Brigands say.
The club are celebrating their 250th Anniversary this season, and wrote themselves into the record books by hosting the first match of the new Millennium, at 12.06am on New Years Day. In the light of car headlamps and the sound of fireworks welcoming in the New Century, when Alan Smith faced a single delivery from current Bat and Ball landlord Dick Orders, before the umpires declared the light too bad to continue, and the match recommenced at 12noon in brilliant sunshine and a crowd of some 300 people.
For further information about the celebrations, click onto the Hambledon Cricket Club website.