Staffordshire Country Cricket Club

Staffordshire Country Cricket Club is the country club that makes up the Minor Counties in the domestic cricket structure, representing Staffordshire, the Minor Counties Championship along with the MCCA Knockout Trophy. This team is based in Brewood near Cannock and plays matches around the country at Walsall, Stone, Audley, Leek and Longton. The Minor Counties play 3 day matches at first class game level. Presently, the Staffordshire competes in the Minor Counties Championship, Eastern Division.

Cricket may have been played in Staffordshire by the end of the 17th century. The earliest reference to cricket in this county was in 1817. The present Staffordshire CCC was founded in 1871 in 24th November. This team took part in the first Minor Counties Championship in 1895. Later on, for four years the team got tumbled. However, since 1900 it has been a member continuously.

The success of the team before and after the First World War was due to excellent input by the great bowler, Sydney Barnes, who had played for the county from 1904 to 1934, when he was 61 years of age. He almost took 1,441 wickets at an average of 8.15 runs each. However, from 1920 to 1924, he did not play, during which the team won the Championship twice. Some of the popular Staffordshire cricketers who made an amazing impact on the first class game are Sydney Barnes, Jack Ikin, Nasim-ul-Ghani, Ernest Perry, Joey Benjamin and David Steele.

Major achievements

Since its inception in 1983, the team won the MCCA Knockout Trophy. It also won this trophy in 1991 and 1993.

This team has won the Minor Counties Championship at least for ten times. It even the title outright in 1906, 1908, 1911, 1920-1921, 1927, 1991-1993 and in 1998.