Club History
Storrington began playing cricket during the late 18th Century on the Common to the west of the village adjacent to the pond alongside the road to Pulborough.
Two of England’s most prominent cricketers at that time - John Hammond and William Ayling - played for Storrington. They also played in the first Gentlemen v Players match at Lords in 1806. Cricketers from the Hammond family gave long and valued service to the Club during the 19th Century. Ernest Hammond was the landlord at the White Horse public house when in 1891 two teams played a game of cricket on the frozen pond at Chantry, wearing top hats and skates, a game that received a detailed report in the Sporting Life magazine.
In July 1800 Storrington achieved a famous 19 run victory over a Sussex County team, a success that was repeated in 1811. The Club held its own version of Gentlemen v Players in 1868 and in the following season a score of 325 runs was amassed against Midhurst - such a high score being most unusual in those days. In 1878 the Club went on tour to the Isle of Wight where a 3 wicket victory was achieved over the Sandown Club.
In the 20th Century more cricketing notables were involved with the Club. Hugh de Selincourt, who captained the Club in the 1920’s, found fame as the author of two books about a fictional village team called Tillingford in which characters based on Storrington players featured prominently. Arthur Gilligan, the former Sussex and England captain who eventually became President of the MCC was President of Storrington Cricket Club from 1954 until his death in 1976. It was not until the late fifties that the Club’s current emblem of a white swan was adopted having been designed by Ron Carter whose family was another that featured and still does feature prominently in the Club’s long history.
In 1978 the Club was a founder member of the Sussex Invitation League, and the 1st XI became the first champions that year. The League’s first hundred came from a Storrington bat - wielded by Trevor Willmott - and another hundred soon followed from the bat of John Carter, one of Ron’s three cricketing sons. In 1980 Storringtons Doug James achieved another milestone when taking all ten wickets in a match against Southwick. Luke Talbot almost matched this during the mid 1990s with a 9 wicket haul in a 2nd XI league match against Steyning.
A long barren spell for the club that had seen local rivals such as Findon, Steyning and Pulborough getting stronger and stronger, was ended in 2003 when Storrington were Division 4 Champions and gained promotion to Division 3. In 2002 the 2nd XI were Division 4 2nd XI Champions. They followed this up in 2003 with another promotion into Division 2. Unfortunately neither XI could maintain these positions and the 1st and 2nd XI were relegated in 2005 and 2004 respectively.
The Club continues to play League cricket on Saturdays and friendlies on Sundays. Colts teams have been nurtured against the background of declining interest in the game at school level. There are not too many cricket clubs in the country that have spanned four centuries and Storrington Cricket Club is proud to be one of them.
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