Great Bentley celebrates 250 years of cricket with MCC Game
A club in Essex is celebrating an extraordinary 250 years of cricket with the visit of the world famous Marylebone Cricket Club later this month.
Great Bentley Cricket Club, based in the heart of the North Essex village and boasting one of the biggest greens in England as it’s home ground, will be holding a weekend of matches and events to mark the special occasion.
The club will be hosting MCC, which owns Lord’s Cricket Ground, on Sunday July 17th, whilst holding a club match on Friday 15th so there’ll be plenty of action to go alongside a host of other festivities including children’s training and hosting a re-union dinner of ex-players.
The celebrations should have been held in 2021, as the first recorded cricket match on the village green is dated in 1771, but COVID put paid to last year’s plans.
That first game on the village green, quoted in a book about 18th century cricket, was a match between the Gentleman of Essex and the Tendring Hundred, where 11 hats were awarded to the winner.
Among the other notable games in the history of the cricket club was a match between Great Bentley and Bures, which took 112 years to complete! Great Bentley scored 301-9 in 1845 and gave their opponents no opportunity to reply. This caused much controversy and Bures were jokingly told they could have their innings in 100 years time. Somewhat belatedly they were allowed to reply to that score in 1957 and duly knocked off 302-8. The clubs have enjoyed a friendly rivalry ever since.
Great Bentley has had a healthy cricket scene for generations and has a strong coaching set-up for local children, running softball, kwik-cricket and hard ball cricket which is always popular on the green on Friday evenings in the summer.
Ahead of the celebrations, Club Chairman Peter Giles said: ‘There are not many cricket grounds in the very heart of a village, let alone on a village green as large as ours and we are very lucky indeed to have this.’
‘Cricket has gone through numerous changes since our birth in 1771 but in the last few years serious changes have happened within the sport resulting in the demise of some village cricket clubs. Great Bentley has come close to going the same way but, thanks to considerable help from mainly local people, we have come through these difficult times. We have now turned the corner thanks to our forward thinking committee.’
