Although cricket must have been played by villagers on the Green for many years the first written record found so far is in 1826.
Oxford University & City Herald 20th May 1826
The following month, honour for the village was restored.
Oxford University & City Herald 22 July 1826
Later, the diary of Maria Tubb (1811-1908) who came to the village at the age of 9 recorded on 19th May 1831: – “Cricket match between the Milton players and ours. Milton beat”.
A newspaper report of 1842 describes another match and lists the names of the players although they can’t have been very proud of their scores.
Oxford Chronicle & Reading Gazette 30 July 1842
It is clear that cricket was a normal part of the village scene and that sides were also prepared to travel some way for matches in the early days of the 19th century.
Just what part of that life is richly disclosed by the diaries of an opponent’s scorer, Joseph Turril of Garsington, whose Historical Society has published accounts of two matches played by Warborough and Garsington in 1864. Joseph (1841-1925) was a market gardener, son of the licensee of The Red Lion at Garsington and a pioneer photographer. When aged 23, he wrote on Monday 30th May 1864 “It was beautiful weather, we went to Warborough, we started at 20 minutes to 10 in 5 carts. I rode with G. Holloway, we took 19 there. Stopped at Aunt Wixon’s (this is the Bear at Stadhampton) a little while then on to Warborough. It was a very pleasant ride and we got there in good time. There was a lunch of bread and cheese and no salad. We lost the match by 48 runs, the Aldworths did nothing, J. Huphis (James Humphries) was last man on our side. Nothing but ale on the ground and at 6.30 a cold dinner. There was a baked leg and shoulder of mutton and a bit of baked beef with two dishes of potatoes, lettuce and onions, scraped horseradish and a little pickled cabbage. We ate everything up with cheese. I drank no beer but went to a house on the Green and had a ginger beer and brandy. It was a beautiful place to play. We started home about 10 and stopped again at Wixon’s awhile. Thomas Smith and Richard Clinkard were there and they brought the news home. They did not fix the time of the return match. We got home at 11.30. I scored”
Clearly a good day out. Was Joseph less than overwhelmed by the hospitality? But the return match four weeks later was both a riot and a rout as Joseph’s diary of 30th June records:- “Thursday was a beautiful day. We was up early and got the tent down (to the Ground) but there was not enough to rear it and we could not and broke the scroll iron in two. We left the tent down there and came to get it mended. Whilst we went up, the horses tore the tent about awful and we had a rum job to get him up at all. We pinned a cloth over him and fixed him up well and then home to bring the beer down. It was very warm. They all had lunch.
Garsington went in first, got 152 runs. J. Aldworth got 5 and Warborough got in both innings 83, so Garsington beat in one innings and 69 runs to spare. We had a good day and sold a deal of Beer and Spirits. R Quartermain and Taylor was waiters on the ground. Obliged to fetch some more beer down and at night we had 40 to supper and had a good touch. Sold a deal of spirit…. I had a terrible headache at night. The butcher was tight and he and they had a deal of acting outside. Went to bed a 2.30”
So… Garsington “beat in one innings” – but Warborough “was a very good side”? Perhaps Joseph’s praise is more for the quality of Warborough’s acting outside with the butcher than for its cricket. And look again at Maria Tubb’s diary entry of 1832 “Milton beat” – just which side won that first match to be recorded on the Green?
Warborough Cricketers have always cared deeply both for the pleasure and the results of their cricket and that neither should spoil the other. It is good to find that written record confirms that this has been so since the start.
Before his death, Joseph Turril confirmed that cricket was played from out of a tent pitched on the modern square. Why should this be so when land for the current pavilion was conveyed to the Trustees on 17th March 1900 “for the purpose of cricket, football or other recreations.”? Well, the hay crop from the area between the pavilion and the modern square was valuable. If you have a tent you might as well use it so of course you continue to pitch your tent close to the game played on the same pitch as football, as one-time player Stanley Townsend said, “just a good hard and high boundary hit away from the Green Gardens (Allotment) hedge”. Hard and high because a 1922 photograph shows the grass was 4 inches long.
Oxford Journal 8 December 1900
In 1929 Aveling-Barford, Engineers of Grantham, delivered a new 2-ton roller from their works to St Catherine’s College, Oxford, where it worked until it was retired in 1961. When donated to Warborough Cricket Club, Maurice Holloway and Ernie Worthy made a two-day journey with it to the village. Aunt Wixson’s was but one of many places at which drivers and radiator had to be replenished. In 1968 it had the Old Roller’s version of a heart transplant when it received the engine of a Morris Minor 1000. Never particularly successful this was later replaced by a diesel engine.
By 1961 Maurice Holloway was captaining the Cricket Club of 44 Seniors and 35 Juniors.
Later highlights in the Club’s history included six Benefit Matches with Somerset County Cricket Club through which “greats” such as Ian Botham, Viv Richards, Joel Garner and Steve Waugh played on the Green.
The Club has progressed since the pavilion was refurbished in 1997 to change with the times. State schools provide little cricket and younger people have greater demands on their time at weekends. Whilst the Senior Team has become a Sunday only team of high standard playing all matches at home, the Junior sections have also grown catering for mixed cricket for all age groups as well as a Women’s Team.
The pavilion was re-furbished again in 2024 with new facilities to cater for teams of both sexes.
ITV filmed an episode of Jeeves & Wooster starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry playing in a cricket match on the Green. A YouTube version can be seen at: – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2kLYYF4xTM
For more information on the Cricket Club go to: –https://www.warboroughcricket.com
Acknowledgements
Much of the above information was garnered from a pamphlet, author unknown, of 1997 kindly supplied by Alan Tilley. In turn that document acknowledged The Bodleian Library, Oxford and the owners of the copyrights of “An Oxfordshire Market Gardener, the Diary of Joseph Turrill of Garsington 1863-1867” and “The Tubb Family in Warborough and Shillingford 1800-1984”.
Further research & photos by Ray Thackrah
