THE HISTORY OF MCC

This is just a little flavour of the club’s story. Times and attitudes have changed over the years, but the basic scenario endures and the cricket ground at Merrow is still a pleasant place to spend an afternoon either playing or watching.

Cricket has been played in Merrow for a very long time. Some of the earliest recorded matches in the history of the game took place upon the downs.

On 9 July 1730, for example, the 2nd Duke of Richmond, a foremost patron of the sport, led his team to vie there with Mr Andrew’s Xl for a weighty purse of guineas and, in September 1741, Slindon (Sussex) met ‘Surrey’ on the same turf. Guildford took on Chertsey at Merrow Down on 21 June 1762 and, during the last quarter of the 18th century, the far-famed club from the Hampshire village of Hambledon played there, in turn, against England, Surrey and Kent.

The precise origins of cricket lie buried in antiquity, although the most-quoted oldest surviving realistic mention of the game relates to Guildford in about 1550 when pupils at the Free School (Royal Grammar School) played there at ‘creckett and other plaies’. It is thus reasonable to assume that even that long ago the menfolk of ‘Meroe’ would at least have been aware of the pastime.

Exactly when the Merrow Cricket Club was founded is uncertain. The village, like many others in southern England, would probably have recruited a team occasionally from the middle of the 18th century - albeit a rather haphazard arrangement unlikely to have merited the genuine status of a club.

The earliest relevant date found so far is that of Wednesday, 29 July 1857, when Merrow played Ripley. Two years after that (Tuesday, 20 September 1859), Merrow Albion engaged Merrow United at the ‘new cricket ground’. There would, of course, have been other ‘Merrow’ matches during the 1850/60s, but just when a properly constituted club was first formed remains unknown.

On 30 May 1870, Merrow United CC entertained Shamley Green. Perhaps that was also the year of the club’s inception (indeed, based on that belief at the time, a ‘centenary’ dinner was held in 1970) but without the verification of documentation, which may yet come to light, it is not now possible to be absolutely sure.

The club was definitely in organised existence by the 1880s. Fixtures were quite sporadic and in 1887, when the annual subscription was just five shillings [25p], only seven games were scheduled. Next year the fee was reduced to three shillings, but every player ‘shall pay his personal expenses, the club paying one shilling towards each member’s dinner and also his travelling expenses’. Home matches were on the downs, but the venue would soon change.

In common with most small clubs, Merrow relied substantially for its well-being on the lord of the manor and local gentry. Among its first patrons was the 4th Earl of Onslow, who leased a piece of land alongside the Guildford-Epsom Road for use as a sports field. The club has made its home there since 1888 (a match to celebrate the 50th year was held in 1937).

No permanent pavilion yet graced the ground and facilities were pretty spartan by to-day’s standards. Cattle and sheep had usually to be coaxed from the playing area before play could get underway and the wicket was of dubious quality despite the employment of a ‘groundman’. A players’ tent was pitched before each game and, afterwards, the teams adjourned for refreshment to the nearby Horse and Groom Inn which the club used as headquarters and held its annual meetings there.

Scores were comparatively low in those days. A scorebook for 1898 (perhaps an unfair example in isolation) shows that in 25 matches Merrow topped a hundred only twice. The paucity of runs in village cricket then had much to do with dodgy pitches and unkempt outfields, but there is nothing to suggest that conditions at Merrow were not as good as most in the district.

A substantial pavilion was built in 1908. With thatched roof and patterned timber cladding, it had the overall appearance of a handsome log cabin and, in its heyday, was among the best in the area. It served as changing rooms and tea area for some 55 years before becoming a repository for ground equipment.

The club blossomed in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras with a fixture list of about 25 matches a season and a playing strength averaging 20. Thanks primarily to the generosity of patrons, the subscription remained pegged at 3s (under 18: 1s 6d; Boys: 1s). Future success seemed assured. Then came the Great War and the club struggled with a reduced membership and programme before the ground was put to the plough to aid the war effort.

It was inevitable that Merrow Cricket Club would be re-born. With former players returning from active service, a fresh crop of young players available and an overall demand for organised sport after the horrors and restrictions of war-time, the call for resuscitation grew. The all-important meeting took place on Friday, 16 April 1920, when Charles Baring-Gould was elected president and Reg Nichols embarked upon his remarkable unbroken 50 years as honorary secretary. The subscription was fixed at five shillings [25p] with a shilling levy towards the cost of travelling to away games.

The first match was held three weeks later - on Merrow Downs as the normal venue was not quite restored after its war-time role of growing crops. (The ground on the downs used to be situated between One Tree Hill Road and where the Ministry of Agriculture-Defra buildings now stand). The club returned to its ’own ground’ in June and, of the 20 games completed that season, won 14 and drew six.

Despite the club’s successful re-emergence, there were problems. In 1922, for instance, the secretary was instructed to write to the Merrow Sports Field Committee urging improvements to the playing area and, moreover, asking ‘if sheep could be kept out of the ground after Wednesday each week of a home fixture’. The club also pressed to employ its own groundsman and, consequently, for a reduction of rent. A regular 2nd Xl first took the field that year and the ‘square’ subsequently looked much more presentable ‘under our own care’. In 1924, with an overall membership of 60, the subscription actually went down from 5s to 4s.

The 1930s proved very significant in the club’s history. Two major events began during that darkening decade before the onslaught of world war - the first of what would become an annual Cricket Week and the introduction of Sunday cricket.

For a small club then to organise five all-day matches in mid-week represented a bold venture but, at the annual meeting on Monday, 31 October 1932, a proposal that a ‘Week’ next season be ‘given a trial’ was carried unanimously. That very first Week began on the morning of Monday, 31 July 1933, with a game against the Depot of the Quuen’s Royal Regiment and officially opened by the Mayor of Guildford (Alderman William Harvey), who bowled a token delivery. The weather held fair throughout the Week, encouraging ‘good attendances’ and lunches and teas were well patronised at 3s [15p] a head. (Pre-war, and for a period after the war, dining took place in a hired marquee - erected near where the scorebox now stands).

Only one match was completed in the 1939 Week (the last until 1950 and held about a month before the war began and with some players awaiting military call-up) and the secretary reported that it had been ‘ruined by rain and the inability of our members to turn out’. (** Details of Cricket Week matches can be found in a booklet published by the club on the occasion of the 50th in 1992).

The playing of cricket on the Sabbath in the 1930s was a rarity and frowned upon in some quarters, so it was with a mixture of courage, tact and caution that Merrow embarked upon it. A few fixtures were arranged for the 1935 season but, in two or three years, this grew to a full programme. Play started at 12.45 in those days and, by mutual agreement with the church authorities, finished promptly at six o’clock.

Towards the end of that pre-war decade, improvements to the pavilion included the complete re-thatching of the roof and, in front of the building, concrete paving and a low rustic fence with rambling roses. The pavilion was installed with electricity and a clock affixed below the eaves.

It was a memorable evening on Thursday, 8 July 1937, when a ‘Past v Present’ match took place to mark the ground’s golden jubilee. Among the watching veterans was Ned Daniels, who had first played for Merrow 50 years earlier. The game went on until dusk descended, though the Surrey Advertiser report that it ‘actually finished by candlelight’ perhaps reflected a tinge of literary licence.

Shortly before the war, W.Roscoe (father of the then club skipper, Harry Roscoe), donated an attractive timber bar-pavilion with a viewing verandah. It witnessed much apres-cricket socialising during the next 25 years until it was pulled down to make way for the building of a new club pavilion.

By 1939, membership stood at 108. That included 41 players but, if that seems a small number from which to choose five sides each week-end (1st, Extra 1st and 2nd Xls on Saturdays and 1st and 2nd Xls on Sundays), it should be remembered that most were available to turn out on both days.

All seemed set for further success. Alas, it was not to be. A home match with The Stage had been scheduled for Sunday, 3 September 1939, but the onslaught of war put paid to that minor matter and, tragically, to infinitely much worse world-wide during the next six years. The ground was promptly requisitioned by the War Office and occupied by a searchlight unit of the Royal Artillery. The war years took their toll of local sports clubs. Nevertheless, because of the determination and ingenuity of its committee, Merrow continued to function albeit, latterly, by fielding only one team each week-end.

After those bleak, restrictive war years, there was a refreshing optimism at the annual meeting on Monday, 18 March 1946. The subscription was fixed at 10s 6d, almost twice what it had been in 1939, but there was no shortage of members with 36 players and 35 non-playing on the books. A full fixture list had been arranged for two Saturday Xls and one Sunday Xl.

During the late 1940s, the club was firmly re-establishing itself both on and off the field. The playing strength stood at 40 in 1948 and soon increased to 50 despite the doubling of subscriptions. Encouraged by progressively stronger fixture lists, Merrow moved into a higher echelon. By the 1949 season, the club was fielding three Xls on Saturdays and two on Sundays. A colts’ side was also launched in that period.

The season of 1950 marked the return of the popular Cricket Week, the opening fixture being against Chalfont St Peter (Buckinghamshire) who, coincidentally, had been the visitors in the only completed game of that rain-ruined Week in 1939. Also in 1950, Merrow reached the final of the Flora-Doris Cup. It was against Cranleigh on their ground, was twice postponed by bad weather and eventually took place on the murky afternoon of Sunday, 8 October, before a crowd of about 1,000. Sad to relate, Merrow could muster only 32 and lost by seven wickets. In 1957, Merrow were losing finalists of the Admiral Dunlop Cup on 15 September. Although defeated by nine wickets by Send, victory was not sealed until the final over.

Despite that disappointing hiccup, Merrow proved formidable adversaries at that time. Nor was the opposition any pushover with fixtures including Guildford, Epsom, Cranleigh, Walton-on-Thames, Wimbledon, Haslemere, Farnham, Dorking, Cheam, Normandy, Bank of England and Sydenhurst Ramblers.

A new (the present) pavilion was built in 1963, the money being raised partly by a grant from the National Playing Fields Association and by interest-free loans from some 20 members.

The club celebrated the ‘centenary’ of its formation with a dinner and dance at the Manor House, Farncombe, on 7 March, 1970, with an attendance of more than 200.

A new scorebox was opened in 1973, a joint memorial to Frank Amey, a player and official for 58 years, and Tony James, former club captain for eight seasons, both of whom died the previous year.

Merrow embarked upon league cricket for the first time in 1977, joining the Three Counties League. In the same year, the ground area was modified because of a new dual carriageway along the Guildford-Epsom Road and hedges and trees planted to ‘screen’ the sound and sight of traffic. A patio in memory of Reg Nichols, member for 68 years and secretary (1920-1970), was laid in front of the pavilion. (The secretary since 1985 has been Heather Dean the first lady to hold senior office in the club).

For some years, Merrow has arranged events to support the benefit seasons of Surrey players. A match between the club and county (for Alan Butcher), scheduled for 11 August 1985, was rained-off and subsequently played on the following New Year's Eve! There was a testimonial match for the Surrey and England bowler, Pat Pocock, in 1986 (4 May). Cecil Webb, umpire for many years, is remembered by an all-weather clock installed in the pavilion roof in 1988.

A large marquee was erected for a well-attended dinner on 29 July, 1992, to celebrate the club’s 50th Cricket Week.

Merrow joined the Fuller’s Brewery League in 1992

Geoff Amey