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Cricket History

Cricket has an illustrious history in Scotland stretching back to at least the eighteenth century. The first recorded match took place at Alloa in Clackmannanshire in 1785 and some of the oldest cricket clubs in the UK can actually be found in Scotland. Established in 1821 Kelso Cricket Club, which nestles in the Scottish Borders, is the oldest cricket club in Scotland while the second oldest, Rossie Priory, was founded by Lord Kinnaird on his idyllic estate at Inchture, near Dundee, in 1828. Other clubs, like the celebrated Grange Club in Edinburgh (founded in 1832), soon followed.

By the mid nineteenth century cricket was firmly established in Scotland with the leading clubs securing land to develop their own grounds and arranging fixtures against each other. Notable clubs from this period include the Clydesdale Cricket Club which was instituted in Glasgow in 1848. The Eglinton Jug, dating from 1867, is one of the oldest existing inter-club cricket trophies in the world.

Historically cricket has played a leading role in supporting the development of other sports and many cricket clubs and grounds in Scotland helped to foster ‘winter’ sports such as Association football and Rugby football. For example, Edinburgh’s Raeburn Place, originally an important cricket venue, has a venerated place within world rugby for hosting the first official Rugby international match in 1871 while the West of Scotland Cricket Ground in Glasgow holds a similarly exalted position within world football as the host venue for the first official football international match (Association code) in 1872.