Cricket in old Aldershot Camp

By Paul H. Vickers, Friends of the Aldershot Military Museum

From the very early days of Aldershot Camp, Army personnel stationed here wanted to play cricket. The first ground was the initiative of Captain Alexander Marshall of the 2nd Royal Surrey Militia. Marshall was a cricket enthusiast who, in March 1856, obtained authority to establish an Army cricket ground at the Officers’ Club in Farnborough Road. At this time the land was still largely heath and Marshall had difficulty finding a suitable playing surface. Fortunately local landowner Captain Charles Mangles allowed suitable turf to be taken from his estate at Tongham, and the cricket ground opened in May 1856.

This was only the first of a number of cricket grounds to be established and by 1868 there were five, being at the Officers’ Club ground; in North Camp east of Queen’s Avenue (the location of the current Wavell ground); on Queen’s Parade; in South Camp east of Farnborough Road and south of the canal (land which would later be Gibraltar and Browning Barracks); and west of the Garrison Church of All Saints. As the popularity of cricket grew more pitches were added and by 1955 the Camp boasted 16 grounds. In addition to the original five grounds, which were still being used, there was a second ground on Queen’s Parade; four grounds on land west of Farnborough Road between Fleet Road and the Royal Garrison Church; and grounds in, or adjacent to, Mons, Buller, St Omer, Waterloo, Parsons and Beaumont Barracks.

The first Army teams were organised unofficially by officers who wanted to play the game, amongst whom were members of the Knickerbocker Club. Formed in 1859, this was an officers’ sports and athletics club, and from 1860 it was playing a full programme of cricket matches against distinguished opponents such as the Old Etonians, Oxford University, and civilian teams around Surrey and Hampshire. Their matches seem to have been not just sporting but also social events. A report of the Knickerbocker Club’s match at Godalming in 1861 noted that the band of the 84th Regiment were present on the first day, and the band of the 9th Lancers on the second, “and their beautiful music added much to the delight of a large number of spectators”.

In 1862 the Knickerbocker team was superseded by the founding of the Aldershot Cricket Club, and by 1870 the Aldershot Divisional Cricket Club was established under the auspices of Lieutenant-Colonel Hammersley, the founder of the Army Gymnastic Staff. This in turn became the Aldershot Command Cricket Club after 1907.

Despite Captain Marshall’s initial difficulties, the Aldershot Army Cricket Ground developed into one of the best grounds in Hampshire and at the beginning of the twentieth century it was used by the Hampshire County team. In 1905 Hampshire played Surrey on the Army Ground, when the visitors made 482, a record score in a county game on this wicket. Hampshire met Surrey again in 1906, and in 1910 when they played Somerset the Hampshire bowler C. B. Llewellyn took 13 wickets for 106 runs. The last matches the county side played here were in 1948, against Cambridge University and Combined Services.

It was not just the excellent grounds which were beneficial to the Hampshire County side, for they also drew on the best Army players for the team. Captain Wynyard, the only serving soldier to play in a test match in England before 1914, captained Hampshire from 1896 to 1899, and in 1896 he scored 268 runs against Yorkshire; Major Poore scored 1,399 runs for Hampshire in 1899; and Captain J. G. Greig made 249 not out against Lancashire in 1901. The Army team was outstanding in its own right, and as well as playing the leading club and county sides, they also met the touring Indian and South American teams in 1932.

Probably the most renowned cricketing celebrity to play in Aldershot was the Australian Don Bradman. On Wednesday 15 August 1934 Bradman brought the Australian touring test side to the Army Cricket Ground, in their last public appearance before the final Test Match of the series against England. An enthusiastic crowd of some 15,000 spectators gave a great cheer when Bradman led his team onto the field at 11.45 am, followed by the Army’s opening batsmen.

The Army struggled with the bat, and at five minutes past three they were all out for 110. The Australian openers, W. H. Ponsford and L. S. Darling, tried some big strokes, but the Army fielded well and Darling was out for six. He was followed by Bromley, who was caught for seven, which brought Bradman to the wicket. He began slowly, but after tea treated the crowd to a display of superb batting, hitting the ball to all corners of the ground. Eventually he was caught, having scored 78. Australia finished the clear winners on 194 for 7, but the spectators were not concerned with the score as they had seen one of the ‘greats’ in action. As the Aldershot Command News reporter wrote, Bradman had been “a treat to watch” and it had been “a magnificent day’s cricket in every respect”.

During the Second World War many famous cricketers played in the Army team, having been ‘called up’ into the forces. Among them were Staff-Sergeant Dennis Compton; Sergeant Godfrey Evans; Major Brian Sellers, captain of Yorkshire; and Bryan Valentine MC, who captained both Kent and England after the war. In 1987 Dennis Compton made a return visit to the Officers’ Club Ground as guest captain for the Parachute Regiment team, playing a charity match against a team from Lotus Cars who were guest captained by wildlife painter David Shepherd. The Paras won the match and the proceeds, £28,000, were divided between the Airborne Forces Museum and Shepherd’s wildlife conservation charity.

In an article in Playfair Cricket Monthly for February 1969, the author lauded the Army Ground which was said to be a “delightful ground ... the table at Aldershot is excellent, the outfield close cut, level and fast, and the wicket plays true with the ability to last three days”. Over 50 years later the ground is still in use and the proud tradition of cricketing excellence continues.

Credits

Article originally published in the The Garrison, Summer 2021

Copyright © Paul H. Vickers. This article, including the accompanying pictures, may not be reproduced or republished, in whole or in part, either in print or electronically, including on any websites or social media sites, without the prior permission of the author.