# Berkshire County Cricket Club

Berkshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty National county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Berkshire.
The team is currently a member of the National Counties Championship Western Division and plays in the NCCA Knockout Trophy. Berkshire played List A matches occasionally until 2005 but is not classified as a List A team per se.

## History

According to Rowland Bowen in his Growth and Development of Cricket, the first reference to cricket being played in the county of Berkshire was in 1751. Cricket certainly reached Berkshire much earlier than that for it originated on the Weald in Saxon or Norman times and was definitely being played in Berkshire's neighbouring county of Surrey in 1550.
The first definite mention of cricket in Berkshire relates to the famous all rounder Thomas Waymark who resided at Bray Wick, near Maidenhead in the 1740s, though there are earlier mentions of the game at Eton College. The first definite mention of cricket in Berkshire relates to a team called "Buckinghamshire, Berkshire & Hertfordshire" in September 1740, which played two matches against London Cricket Club at Uxbridge and the Artillery Ground. London won the first "with great difficulty" but no post-match report was found of the second. See H. T. Waghorn: Cricket Scores 1730–73.
By the late 18th century, Berkshire had achieved first-class status. Its strength was in the prominent Old Field Club of Bray, near Maidenhead, which had a team representative of Berkshire as a county and was capable of taking on other leading teams of the time. The first time Berkshire is recorded as a county team is in a match against Surrey in June 1769 and the county was top-class from then until August 1795 when, after losing to MCC at Lord's, it abruptly ceased to appear in first-class matches.

### Club origins

The Oldfield Club was effectively a Berkshire county team but it was not formally constituted as a county club. Rowland Bowen's researches discovered evidence of a county organisation by 1841, but it may only have been a loose association of local clubs, as was sometimes the case elsewhere.
Berkshire CCC was founded on 17 March 1895, the same year that the Minor Counties Championship began. It did not compete in the first year of the competition but joined for 1896.

## Current squad

* * denotes the team captain
* ‡ denotes players who have played first-class cricket.
| Name | Nat | Birth date | Batting style | Bowling style | Notes |
| Batsmen ||||||
| Waqas Hussain | England | (1992-05-11) 11 May 1992 (age 32) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| Brandon Gilmour | England | (1996-04-11) 11 April 1996 (age 28) | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| Andy Rishton‡ | England | (1995-02-14) 14 February 1995 (age 29) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| Oliver Birts | England | (1997-08-21) 21 August 1997 (age 27) | Right-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | |
| Dan Lincoln | England | (1995-05-26) 26 May 1995 (age 29) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| Adam Dewes | England | (1995-10-27) 27 October 1995 (age 28) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| Euan Woods | England | (1998-09-30) 30 September 1998 (age 26) | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | |
| Archie Carter | England | (2000-10-15) 15 October 2000 (age 23) | Right-handed | — | |
| All-rounders ||||||
| Richard Morris* ‡ | England | (1987-09-25) 25 September 1987 (age 37) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| James Morris‡ | England | (1985-01-17) 17 January 1985 (age 39) | Right-handed | Leg break | |
| Adam Dewes | England | (1996-11-26) 26 November 1996 (age 27) | Right-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | |
| Jarryd Wallace | England | Unknown | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | |
| Wicket-keepers ||||||
| Joe Thomas | England | (1998-02-10) 10 February 1998 (age 26) | Right-handed | — | |
| Stewart Davison‡ | England | (1991-04-06) 6 April 1991 (age 33) | Right-handed | — | |
| Joe Cracknell | England | (2000-03-16) 16 March 2000 (age 24) | Right-handed | — | |
| Jack Davies | England | (2000-03-30) 30 March 2000 (age 24) | Left-handed | — | England Under-19 player |
| Bowlers ||||||
| Chris Peploe ‡ | England | (1981-04-26) 26 April 1981 (age 43) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | |
| Callum Gregory | England | (1997-02-14) 14 February 1997 (age 27) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | |
| Akbar Raja | England | (1991-05-06) 6 May 1991 (age 33) | Right-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox |
| Alexander Russell ‡ | England | (1998-05-28) 28 May 1998 (age 26) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| Toby Greatwood | England | Unknown | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium |
| Tom Nugent ‡ | England | (1994-07-11) 11 July 1994 (age 30) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| Ethan Bamber ‡ | England | (1998-12-17) 17 December 1998 (age 25) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
* Squad information correct as of 14 February 2019

## Notable players
### International

This list includes those Berkshire players who have played in Test cricket since 1877, One Day International cricket since 1971, or a Twenty20 International since 2004.
England
* Danny Briggs
* Percy Chapman
* Tom Dollery
* John Emburey
* Aftab Habib
* Alan Igglesden
* Richard Johnson
* Peter May
* Albert Relf
* Graham Roope
* Shaun Udal
* Shoaib Bashir
Netherlands
* Billy Stelling
South Africa
* Charl Willoughby
West Indies
* Jimmy Adams

### Other
## Honours

* National Counties Championship (10) - 1924, 1928, 1953, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024 (shared)
* NCCA Knockout Trophy (8) – 2004, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
* NCCA T20 Champions (1) - 2018
* NCCA Western Division Champions (7) 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024