Article copied from "The Club Cricketer" - June 1985

BY MARTIN BURGESS

WHEN you start your cricket career you quite naturally feel that England awaits you and consequently, to be ready, even whilst at school, if you are good enough you join your local club and play for them. If like most cricketers throughout the world not only do you not play for England, but not even your county want you, you content yourself by playing as well as you can for that local club. But one of the most pleasant ways of playing our most gracious of games, whether your age be 15 to 50, and within reason whatever your ability, is to be asked to turn out for one of the many hundreds of Wandering Clubs throughout the length and breadth of this country. The main requisite is then to be able to play the game in every sense of the phrase. The world is full of Wandering Clubs but for this article I shall stick to England. When cricket first started, probably with the shepherds in the Weald of Kent, binding the loose wool from the sheep with twine to use as a ball, using their shepherds' crooks as bats and the sheep hurdles as wickets, many of the original teams which were organised by the local gentry, consisted of eleven, twelve or even twenty two men from a fairly wide area, who used to travel far and wide to play other teams. Very often large side bets would be placed on the teams by their backers and supporters who organised and financially supported them. These then were the early forerunners of many of the most famous Wandering Clubs.

Their overall number is now enormous, and rather than list each and everyone, I will try to show some categories into which they might fall, to point out the attachments which many of them have and sometimes the reason for their very existence.
Basically they fall into three categories. First are those that are tied either to a County, to a Club or to a University. Into this category must come the Marylebone Cricket Club themselves, The M.C.C., who apart from administering the game of cricket as a whole and running Lord's, also turn out many club sides to play against schools and other clubs. Until a few years ago, the England team when touring abroad was in The Club Cricketer June 1985  in fact called the M.C.C. Touring team. Then there are sides which are affiliated to their Counties such as the Sussex Martlets, the Kent Bluemantles, the Band of Brothers and the Yellowhammers from the Kent and East Sussex borders, the Grannies, also from Kent, the Hampshire Hogs, the Hampshire Rams, the Hampshire Maniacs, the Dorset Rangers, the Somerset Stragglers, the Devon Dumplings, the Cornish Chuffs, the Gloucestershire Gipsies, the Wiltshire Queries, the Surrey Grasshoppers, the Surrey Taverners (now disbanded), the Berkshire Gentlemen, the Gentlemen of Hertfordshire, the Essex Gentlemen, the Shropshire Gentlemen, the Yorkshire Gentlemen, the Craven Gentlemen of Yorkshire, the Saints, also from Yorkshire, the Gentlemen of Leicestershire, Leicester Ivanhoe and Nottinghamshire Amateurs. From the two leading universities come the Cambridge University Crusaders and the Oxford University Authentics and of course there are other County and University Wandering Clubs. That is to name a very few!

Secondly come those clubs with no specific ties, but founded by enthusiastic cricketers who wished to play together, against teams of similar mind. Some of these clubs have now been in existence for a very long time and into this category come some of the best known in the game: The Free Foresters, I Zingari, the Arabs, the Cryptics, Incogniti, Gemini, the Butterflies, the Frogs, the Buccaneers, the Stragglers of Asia, the Stoics, the Kenya Kongonis (who originally only picked those cricketers who had worked in or were on leave from Kenya), and ditto for the Uganda Kobs and Tanganyika Twigas, the Quidnuncs, Jack Frost, who play a lot of their games in the winter, the Jesters, the Harlequins, the Wanderers from Surrey, now also disbanded, Romany, the Privateers, the Broadhalfpenny Brigands from Hambledon, the Trojans, the Peregrines, the Sydenhurst Ramblers and of course the Cricket Society. Then there is the XL Club for those many cricketers over 40 years of age, the club which gives so much enjoyment to so many cricketers in the twilight of their playing careers. One other side springs to mind, and although it is not a Wandering Club, and in fact plays all of its matches at home, it has all the attributes, delights and advantages of any Wandering Club. I refer of course to Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk's XI, the side founded by her late husband the Duke of Norfolk, and playing at one of the most delightful and attractive grounds in England, Arundel Castle in Sussex.

Lastly we have the many Old Boys' Clubs. They are quite naturally attached to a School, but by the length of time since they were first formed and by playing on such a regular basis, they become almost a separate entity whilst retaining their strong links with their school. Into this category go Harrow Wanderers, Eton Ramblers, Repton Pilgrims, Old Amplefordians, Shrewsbury Saracens, Lancing Rovers, Old Tonbridgians, Downside Wanderers, Old Malvernians, Old Alleynians, Old Carthusians, Old Wykehamist, Old Denstonians, Marlborough Blues, Old Brightonians, Stowe Templars, Old Merchant Taylors', Rugby Meteors, Old Cheltonians, Felstead Robins, Old Cliftonians, Old Westminsters, Old Whitgiftians, Old Blundellians, Bradfield Waifs, Old Cholmelians, Charterhouse Friars, St. Edwards Martyrs, Old Wellingtonians, Uppingham Rovers, Radley Rangers, Haileybury Hermits, Oundle Rovers and the Sherborne Pilgrims. Many of these play in the Cricketers Cup. There are also the sides which play in the smaller Brewers Cup, the Old Boys from Ellesmere, Hurstpierpoint, Denstone, Prior Park, Dean Close and others too numerous to mention. (If your Old Boys or any other Wandering Club has been left out hit us with a missile in the form of information - Ed.)
 
Over a long and varied cricket career I have played for many clubs. Felpham, Bognor Regis, Middleton-on-Sea and Brighton Brunswick in Sussex, clubs in Leicester, in Wales, in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, in Surrey and in the United States, and latterly in Middlesex. But I can honestly say that some of the most enjoyable days that I have ever spent playing cricket have been those spent playing for a Wandering Club and there are many with whom I have been associated. One of their great joys is that you may well find yourself in a game with almost anyone, from a complete rabbit to a Test cricketer-past and present. How nice to stand in the slips with Colin Cowdrey, keep wicket to Fred Titmus, call Graham Roope for a sharp single or great comprehensively 'castled' by John Snow! Such are some of the delights of wandering cricket, and the comradeship and friendship which exists in this type of cricket, both during and after the marvellous games, is in a class of its own. New friendships are made, old friendships renewed, tales of mighty feats recounted - and the bar profits are always considerably enhanced. It's a lovely way to play cricket.