The History of Lowdham Cricket Club

The following details have been taken from an article supplied by former Chairman of Lowdham CC, Graham Scrivener as detailed in the book – ‘The 20th Century in Lowdham’ Published by The Lowdham Local History Society. The paperback can be purchased from The Boookcase, Main Street, Lowdham.

As with most clubs, records are sketchy and recollections sometimes hazy. I therefore apologise to those interested parties if names or other details are incorrect, or important occasions have been overlooked.

Lowdham Cricket Club is believed to have formed in the 1890’s.

The first players of the Summer game are believed to have come from the Lowdham Rangers Football Club.

The first record is a game played between Lowdham and local rivals Caythorpe CC. The match took place on 6th July 1901. Lowdham batted first, only scoring 68 for the loss of all wickets. It was then Caythorpe’s turn to bat. They too were bowled out. They only managed 25!

Perhaps this was also the first recorded early finish in order to make the most of the local hospitality at that time. A scorecard of this match can be found in The Old Volunteer at Caythorpe.

In the early 1900’s the club played on land belonging to Brakes Farm, situated on the South side of Nottingham Road. The sign at the end of the pavilion read, Lowdham PSACC. Which stood for Lowdham Pleasant Saturday Afternoon Cricket Club.

The club expanded from these early days and in 1936 was able to field two teams. The club moved ground, at the beginning of the second world war, utilising a field at Lodge Farm, near to Red Lane, Flat land was to be used for agriculture, and so Brakes Farm was conscripted. The new field, which included a pond,
a flat square and sharply sloping outfield was used during the War. The changing room was a double decker bus.

In 1948 the club moved from Lodge Farm to its’ present location, ‘The Big Field’. The undulations were ploughed and levelled free of charge by a local farmer, Albert Cope. The club purchased sufficient turf to create two wickets. The land was subsequently bought for the village by the Parish Council.

In 1968 a new pavilion was donated by the McAlpine Company. This however suffered some vandalism and after a number of constructions the present pavilion was built and opened in 1990 by Derek Randall.

As you can see Lowdham Cricket Club is a village Cricket Club, playing all forms of Cricket in the right spirit. It is a friendly club, welcoming old members, new friends, and passing spectators alike. Our teas have consistently been a talking point with opposing team and spectators, whichever league we have played in and we thank our teamakers again for them.

We move now to the present day. Lowdham Cricket Club has always been a village club, in every sense of the word. It was a member of the Nottinghamshire Villlage League until the league amalgamation. Lowdham now plays in the South Nottinghamshire Cricket League, in Division G and Division M respectively.