Reigate Priory Cricket Club 1852-2008 - 156 Not Out! 

Reigate Priory Cricket Club was founded in 1852 and up until 1865 the club rented their ground for twenty pounds, after which it was successful in obtaining a lease. In 1867 the club defeated Surrey at the Oval, producing an upsurge in self-confidence. It is not clear who the star players were, but the membership seemed to be dominated by one family, a veritable nest of seven Nightingales being listed as playing members! Walter W. Read, who captained England in 1887/88 to Australia and in 1891/92 to South Africa, appeared on the membership list for the first time in 1869. In 1883 a 2nd XI was formed as the membership grew. Fixtures became more impressive with matches against the MCC, Incogniti and Surrey Club and Ground, culminating in 1894 with a match between Dr. WG Grace's XI and WW Read's XI. So the new century arrived with a thriving cricket club, which now also hosted football, hockey and tennis. Reigate Priory Football club was in fact one of the 15 clubs to contest the first ever FA Challenge Cup in 1872.

However, just a decade or so on and the annual report for 1916 makes sombre reading. Little if any cricket had been played and seven club members had lost their lives in the Great War. The latter years of the War brought no cricket at all but 1919 and 1920 saw a resurgence of membership and enthusiasm. In 1921 cricket week was held for the first time since the War and the highlight of 1924 was a first-class match between Leveson-Gower's XI and the South African touring side. In June 1930, the president Jeremiah Colman opened the current pavilion, the club having previously used what is now the football pavilion. The year after, J. Keble Guy gave up the captaincy after a highly successful decade at the helm and Rex Heath became captain. In 1933, JC Christopherson, a Cambridge Blue who had played for Kent, made a real impression in scoring over 1,000 runs, including a club record of 261 not out. In 1935, Christopherson became captain, and again hit over 1,000 runs. A key bowler was M.J.C. Allom, who played for England and was later elected President of the MCC. The old pavilion was damaged by a bomb during the blitz in 1940 and not surprisingly, very little cricket was played. But cricket resumed in 1946 with Christopherson still to the fore as he hit four centuries. Some 2,000 spectators attended cricket week in 1947.

Turning to youth...

The colts side was run for the first time in 1950 and meanwhile Surrey Women staged matches against 'A Women's Cricket Association XI', Middlesex and Sussex. The decade began with L Hyde taking 9-85 against the MCC and 8-86 against Old Wykehamists. Christopherson hit three centuries in 1952's cricket week, and centenary games against Surrey saw over 4,000 spectators in the ground on a Sunday, when no gate money could be taken. In the raffle Surrey captain W.S. Surridge won a cricket bat!

A benefit match for Tony Lock was the feature of 1960s, a decade which was dominated by a set of familiar names: P.G. Harris, G.M. Chase, Keith Jones and Alan Whitworth (later to become President). In 1965 Keble Guy resigned as President and was succeeded by Christopherson. In May 1968 the club played Surrey in John Edrich's benefit match and 1971 welcomed league cricket at the Priory. Unfortunately this turned out to be a painful experience - not a single league victory and bottom place the end result!

The club soon began to clamber upwards, reaching a respectable mid-table spot in 1973 under the leadership of Martin Dyer. Tony Godby and Angus Lindsey-Renton also began to make telling contributions. In 1977 things picked up still further and, with Steve Saunders and Tony Cooper to the fore, the club lost just once in the league, against eventual champions Wimbledon.

Although the 1980s started slowly, the colts side had been producing promising players for many years and Nick Faulkner, John Bramhall and Mark Boden were followed by David Cawthrow and Richard Prophet and in 1982 a 13-year old schoolboy in the 2nd XI averaged 29.5 (including one 50). His name - one Alistair Brown!

Annus mirabilis...

The club then fared happily under Andy Packham's captaincy but suffered slightly from a lack of depth of talent. In 1988 Zubin Bharucha became Reigate Priory's overseas player and his influence over the club for almost a decade was immense, with the first half of the 1990s pretty much 'the Bharucha years'. The first half was successful enough but the arrival at the club of Robin Underwood in 1996 gave Reigate Priory its first quality spin bowler in years and, coupled with the all-round talents of Australian Nathan Rennie, had an immediate impact on the club's fortunes with a fourth position in the top flight. Western Australian Brad Oldroyd continued the good work in 1997 when his 76 wickets failed by just two to create a record number of league dismissals.

In 1998, the relaxation of the amateur rules in cricket enabled Ian Bishop, the West Indian Test star, to become the club's overseas player. Sadly Ian's efforts failed to secure the club a spot in the top ten of the Championship and thus qualify for Premier League cricket in 1999, but this was quickly corrected and the return of Oldroyd saw the club promoted to the Premier League for the new century. In a marvellous last year to the century the 2nd XI easily achieved Premier league status and narrowly missed out on the 1st Division title. 1999 also saw the 3rd XI gain promotion to their Premier league.

More recently the club has enjoyed even greater success and undoubtedly gone from strength to strength both on and off the field. The 2001 season was, to that date, the club's most successful, with the 1st XI finishing 6th overall in the Premier Division of the Surrey Championship, the 2nd XI taking the title by some distance in their Premier Division, and the 3rd XI finishing runners-up in their Premier Division. The Priory became one of only four clubs in Surrey with all three league representative sides playing in their respective Premier Divisions.

In 2002 the Indian Test star Sairaj Bahutule became the club’s overseas player and he has helped the club to further success. In our 150th anniversary year of 2002 the 1st XI finished 4th and topped that in 2003 by finishing as runners up after a last game shoot out for the title with Weybridge. A further title challenge was mounted in 2004 but the loss of leading players in the final run in left us in 4th position. During this period the 2nd XI won their Premier league title again in 2004 and the 3rd XI achieved their own Premier league title in 2002 and finished 3rd and 2nd in the following years.

Following these successes in the early years of the 21st century the club reached the pinnacle of achievement in 2005 when all three of its senior sides won their respective Premier leagues. With the 1st XI, 2nd XI and 3rd XI all winning their Premier divisions the club could undoubtedly claim to have achieved a status as the most successful club in the county. 2005 was a wonderful year in every respect and the club was also the only side to defeat the full Antigua and Barbuda national side on their 12 match tour, came within a whisker of defeating the star studded Lashings side and had great success at Youth level.

This success has been continued and after slipping to runners up in 2006, the 1st XI re-captured the Premier league title in 2007, whilst the 2nd and 3rd XIs have maintained their title challenges. The 4th XI has been meeting with league success and in the 2008 season our 5th XI will be competing in league cricket for the first time. This is leading to the introduction of a 6th XI for the first occasion in the club's history and one of the club's biggest challenges is to meet the increasing demands for pitches and practice facilities.  

Besides offering league cricket, the club continues aiming to provide cricket for all playing standards and regularly fields a number of other sides playing non-league cricket on Saturdays and Sundays. Looking to the future, the club is also blessed with a hugely successful Youth section that has emerged as one of the most envied in Surrey and now fields teams at 9 different age groups playing more than 100 matches a season.

Off the field, the spirit and social side of the club has never been better. A Summer Ball is held every two years, with 500 guests attending in 2006 and a highlight of recent seasons has been the clash with the star studded Lashings XI, a game which has enabled the club to make sizeable charitable donations each year. In 2006 we were delighted to welcome Sachin Tendulkar to the club, along with many other international stars within the Lashings XI.

All this recent success has made the Priory a vibrant and exciting place to play club cricket and without doubt these are exciting times for everyone involved with the club.