160 + years of history

Sydney University Cricket Club boasts over 160 years of passion and tradition. From the first University of Sydney students taking to the Garrison Ground (what is now the site of the SCG), through to the 2018/19 Club Championship, the 2019/20 NSW Premier Cricket 1st Grade One Day Cup and Third and Fourth Grade Premiers, Sydney Uni Cricket is founded on excellence.

One of the oldest cricket clubs in Australia, the Sydney University Cricket Club has been in continued existence since 1864-65 although games were played by teams representing the University of Sydney from 1853-54.

Since the introduction of Sydney Grade (Premier) Cricket in 1893, there have been two ‘golden eras’ for the Club.

The first was just before the Great War when the 1st Grade side won three premierships and produced a succession of NSW and Australian players. With admirable sense of service and commitment, over 100 from the Club then enlisted. 17 did not return, the majority of them still undergraduates.

The second ‘golden era’ has taken in the last 20 years. In that time, 1st Grade has won six premierships and has been runner-up in another four seasons. 2nd Grade has enjoyed seven premierships. Four times the Club has won the Club Championship and nine times has been runner-up. The Club has continued to produce Test and 1st Class players. In most recent seasons, Nick Larkin has represented NSW and the Melbourne Stars in the BBL; Hayden Kerr has made his debut for NSW and has played for the Sydney Sixers; Nivi Radharkrishnan has made his debut for Tasmania; Will Somerville, who played in two premierships for the Club, has played Test cricket for the land of his birth, New Zealand.

The Club has  been well represented in the administration of cricket in NSW since the 19th century and currently former 1st Grade captain, Greg Mail, is ‘Head of Cricket’ for Cricket NSW, having been a NSW Selector for a number of years, and Ed Cowan, captain of the Club’s first under 16 side, serves on the NSW Cricket Board. Mail is the highest run scorer in the history of 1st Grade in Sydney Premier Cricket. Cowan played 18 Tests for Australia and scored over 10,000 1st class runs.

The Club has continued to play cricket well beyond the grounds of the University. Tours to England and Sri Lanka have complemented intervarsity games (the first in Australia was played between the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne in 1870) and NSW Country tours.

James Rodgers

Co Patron

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SYDNEY UNIVERSITY CRICKET

                    1854-1864       

In March 1854, The Garrison Cricket Club, made up of soldiers attached to the Garrison, arranged to play a game of cricket against a team of students of the University of Sydney. The game was to have taken place on Saturday 1 April 1854 at the Garrison Ground at the rear of the military barracks in Paddington.

The game, however, was not played on 1 April. Captain Robert Webster, an Irish officer attached to the Garrison in Victoria Barracks, died on Friday 31 March after suffering from a bout of influenza. A consequence of this tragic death was that the cricket game was postponed for a week to enable Captain Webster's funeral and burial service to take place.

So, on Saturday 8 April, the two teams met. The soldiers appear to have been older and more experienced than the students who were all undergraduates of the University which had begun classes in 1852. They ranged in ages from George Curtis who was 15 to John Kinloch who was 21. The Garrison lead by 16 runs on the 1st innings, making 49 to University's 33 in conditions that favoured the bowlers considerably.

Later in the afternoon, batting a second time, the Garrison succumbed to the disciplined bowling of Kinloch and George Leary and University was left with 51 to win outright. Steady batting saw University home by two wickets.

This, then, was the first recorded game of cricket ever played by a team representing the University. A number of subsequent games involving the students were played in 1854. The emergence of teams representing the University, however, did not carry much permanence. Only one game was played in 1854-55 and none in 1855-56.

In 1859, Kinlock asserted that the "Sydney University Cricket Club was formed in 1852." The same report identified Kinloch as the first Secretary of the Club. There is no evidence, however, that any game involving the University was ever played before 8 April 1854.

Why, then, is the date on the badge of the Sydney University Cricket Club caps not 1854 instead of 1864?

A simple answer is that if a club existed before 1864, any games were irregular and the notion of a club fell into abeyance.

In 1864-65, the Club appears to have been formally re-constituted or re-formed with a written constitution and playing colours. The first Annual General Meeting of the Club for which any record survives occurred in March 1868. This meeting was described by the club secretary, Edmund Barton (who, in 1901, became  the first Prime Minister of Australia) , as the third AGM, from which we infer that the Club was re-established during 1864-65.

On 20 April 1865, the Sydney University Cricket played the Military and Civil Club (a successor of the Garrison Club) and the game was played at the ground formerly known as the Garrison Ground which was then known as the 'Military and Civil Ground.' Later, it became known as the 'Association Ground' and eventually it has been known as the 'Sydney Cricket Ground.'

The Sydney University Cricket Club has had continual existence from 1864-65. The Club, in this 2024-25 season, is 160 years old.

JAMES RODGERS

Co-Patron.

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