Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricket team

Combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricket teams (OCU) were formed at intervals between 1839 and 1992, often playing against touring teams. Mostly the team consisted of students who were current members of either Cambridge University Cricket Club or Oxford University Cricket Club but there were four matches from 1874 to 1893 in which the Universities team was a Past and Present combination.

The team has held important match status since its inception: i.e., classified as an unofficial first-class team by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians and other sources from 1839 to 1894;^[1][2] classified as an official first-class team from 1895 by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the County Championship clubs.^[3]

19th century

The first OCU match was against Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord's in 1839, in which Edward Sayres took his only ten-wicket match haul,^[4] and in 1848 they played a game against Gentlemen of England at the same venue, in which William Hammersley took ten wickets.^[5]

20th century

The team later undertook overseas tours in the middle part of the twentieth century, but played only two first-class games outside Britain, both being at Sabina Park, during the tour of Jamaica in 1938.^[6] Kenneth Weekes made his first-class debut for Jamaica in the first of these, scoring 106 in the second innings.^[7]

After a thirty-year gap, the Oxford and Cambridge team returned to first-class cricket in 1968, with a match against the touring Australians,^[8] and for a quarter of a century thereafter the team had fairly regular matches against touring teams at either the University Parks in Oxford or Fenner's in Cambridge, but playing no other first-class games. OCU's final appearance was in 1992, when they played the Pakistanis.^[9]

See also

• List of Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricket team players

References

1. ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
2. ACS (1982). A Guide to First-Class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS.
3. Birley, p. 145.
4. "Marylebone Cricket Club v Oxford and Cambridge Universities in 1839". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
5. "Gentlemen of England v Oxford and Cambridge Universities in 1848". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
6. "Oxford and Cambridge Universities in Jamaica 1938". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
7. "Jamaica v Oxford and Cambridge Universities in 1938". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
8. "Oxford and Cambridge Universities v Australians in 1968". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
9. "Oxford and Cambridge Universities v Pakistanis in 1992". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 March 2009.

Bibliography

• ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
• ACS (1982). A Guide to First-Class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS.
• Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 27th edition, editor Charles F. Pardon, John Wisden & Co., 1890
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 32nd edition, editor Sydney Pardon, John Wisden & Co., 1895

External links