Cambridgeshire men's cricket team

The Cambridgeshire men's cricket team, representing the traditional English county of Cambridgeshire, has had two periods of existence. For much of the 19th century, it was managed by the Cambridge Town cricket club, and held first-class status from 1857 to 1871. It stopped playing after the town club was dissolved. The second Cambridgeshire team is the current one, managed by Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club since its foundation in 1891. From 1895, Cambridgeshire has competed in the Minor Counties Championship.

First-class team
The team was originally formed as Cambridge Town Club sometime before 1817. The town club was active from then until it was dissolved in 1869. At different times, it was also known as Cambridge Union Club (1826–1833), and as the Cambridge Town and County Club (1844–1856). From 1848, the town club teams were often called Cambridgeshire. The team names are misleading because it is certain that they all related to the same team; the problem arose from inconsistency in newspaper reports. Whichever name was in use, the team played most of its matches at either Parker's Piece or Fenner's, both in Cambridge. The latter has been the home ground of Cambridge University Cricket Club since 1846.

As Cambridgeshire, the team played in 36 first-class matches between May 1857 and August 1868. During that period, Cambridgeshire was one of the strongest county teams. Three of its players—Robert Carpenter, Alfred Diver, and Thomas Hayward—were members of the 1859 England team. Another, George Tarrant, was in the England team that toured Australia in 1864.

After the town club was dissolved in 1869, Carpenter tried to keep the county team going and arranged two more first-class matches. The first was against Yorkshire in July 1869, and the second against Surrey in June 1871.

Minor Counties team
Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club was founded on 6 June 1891, but its team has never been first-class. The club joined the Minor Counties Championship (now the National Counties Championship) in 1895, although it did not actually compete until 1898. The team has won the title once—in 1963. They also won the MCCA Knockout Trophy in 1995 and 2003. Cambridgeshire were a List A team from 1964 to 2004, taking part in the Gillette Cup and its successor competitions. In 2025, the team played in Eastern Division One of the National Counties Championship.

Until 1939, the team played most of its home matches at Fenner's. When cricket resumed after World War II, only occasional matches were played there, with only a handful from 2001, and the last to date in 2018. The team now plays at various grounds in or near the county, in places like March, Peterborough, Saffron Walden, Sawston, and Wisbech.

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Category:First-class cricket teams in England and Wales