Friday, January 23, 2009

English County Cricket Clubs: Glamorgan

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Glamorgan County Cricket Club (Welsh: Criced Morgannwg) is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Glamorgan aka Glamorganshire (Welsh: Morgannwg). Glamorgan CCC is the only Welsh first-class cricket club and they are good so you might as well start betting online. Its limited overs team is called the Glamorgan Dragons. Kit colours are dark blue and red. Shirt sponsorship is by Paramount Office Interiors of St Mellons,Cardiff and Cuddy Group of Neath who are involved in civil engineering and demolition.

The club is based in Cardiff and plays most of its home games at the SWALEC Stadium in Sophia Gardens, which is located on the bank of the River Taff. Matches have also occasionally been played at Swansea, Colwyn Bay and Cresselly (despite the latter towns being in Denbighshire and Pembrokeshire respectively).

Earliest cricket:
Cricket probably reached Wales and Glamorgan by the end of the 17th century. The earliest known reference to cricket in Glamorgan is a match at Swansea in 1780.

Origin of club:
The formation of Glamorgan CCC took place on 5 July 1888 at a meeting in the Angel Hotel, Cardiff.

The club competed in the Minor Counties Championship for many years and then applied for first-class status after the First World War.

Glamorgan CCC played its initial first-class match versus Sussex CCC at Cardiff Arms Park on 18, 19 & 20 May 1921 and thus increased the County Championship to 17 teams. Glamorgan won this first match, by 23 runs, under Captain N.V.H. Riches. Only one more victory was achieved that summer, Glamorgan lost 14 games and finished with the wooden spoon.

Club history:

Glamorgan famously won the county championship in 1948 under the captaincy of Wilf Wooller, whose advocacy of high fielding standards was the key to beating much stronger batting and bowling teams.

Glamorgan was the unintentional venue for a piece of cricket history on 2 September 1968 when, during Glamorgan v Notts at Swansea, the great Gary Sobers hit all six balls in an over from Malcolm Nash for six.

Glamorgan won the championship again under Tony Lewis in 1969 and Matthew Maynard in 1997. Maynard, who retired at the end of the 2005 season, was one of the most destructive batsmen in first class cricket over the past 20 years. The 2005 captain, off spinner Robert Croft proved effective on England tours, and is a useful pinch hitter in List A one day games.

The club has current plans (April 2006) to extend its grounds in the Grade 2 Listed Heritage Park that is Sophia Gardens with a 17,500 seat super-stadium. This is opposed by local residents' groups and earlier plans were objected to by Cadw and local MPs, Councillors and Assembly Members. See the Hit It For Six website.

On 20 April 2006, it was announced that, subject to the development being completed, one of the Tests against Australia in the 2009 Ashes series would be held at Sophia Gardens.

Links to more information on Glamorgan County Cricket Club:

  • Glamorgan County Cricket Club website
  • Glamorgan CCC on Cricinfo.com
  • Glamorgan Cricket at SAbrain.com
  • Glamorgan Cricket Club- Sophia Gardens Cricket Ground
  • Glamorgan CCC stats at Cricketarchive.com



    *Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.org and owners of pictures and videos used.



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