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Sussex County Cricket Club
One-day Name:	Sussex Sharks
Coach:	Mark Robinson
Captain:	Chris Adams
Overseas Player:	Mushtaq Ahmed
Founded:	1836
Home Ground:	Hove
First-class debut:	MCC
	- 1839
	- Lord's
Championship Wins:	3
National League Wins:	1
FP Trophy Wins:	5
Official Website:	SussexCricket

Sussex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. Its limited overs team is called the Sussex Sharks.

The club plays most of its home games at the County Cricket Ground, Hove. The club also plays some games around the county at Arundel, Eastbourne and Horsham.

Sussex won its first-ever official County Championship title in 2003 after a wait of more than 100 years, and subsequently became the dominant team of the decade, repeating the success in 2006 and 2007. In 2006 Sussex achieved "the double", beating Lancashire CCC to clinch the Natwest Trophy, before winning the County Championship following an emphatic victory against Nottinghamshire CCC, in which Sussex outplayed their hosts by an innings and 245 runs^[1]. Sussex then won the title for the third time in five years in 2007, when in a nail-biting finale on the last day of the season [1], Sussex defeated Worcestershire CCC, with rivals Lancashire CCC narrowly failing to beat Surrey CCC - prompting relieved celebrations at the County Cricket Ground, Hove [2]

Contents 1 Honours 1.1 Second XI honours 2 Records 2.1 Team 2.2 Batting 2.3 Highest partnership for each wicket 2.4 Bowling 3 Earliest cricket 4 Origin of club 5 Sussex Crest 6 Sussex Grounds 7 2008 squad 8 Notable Sussex Cricketers 9 Sussex Women 10 Sussex Fact and Feats 11 Notes 12 External sources 13 Further reading

• Champion County^[2] (3) – 1845, 1848, 1855; shared (1) – 1852
• County Championship (3) – 2003, 2006, 2007

Division Two (1) – 2001

• FP Trophy^[3] (5) – 1963, 1964, 1978, 1986, 2006
• National League^[4] (1) – 1982

Division Two (2) – 1999, 2005

• Twenty20 Cup (0) –
• Benson and Hedges Cup (0) –

• Second XI Championship (3) – 1978, 1990, 2007; shared (0) –
• Second XI Trophy (1) – 2005
• Minor Counties Championship (0) – ; shared (0) –

Most first-class runs for Sussex Qualification - 20000 runs [3] Player Runs John Langridge 34150 Kenneth Suttle 29375 Jim Parks junior 29138 James Langridge 28894 Ted Bowley 25439 Joseph Vine 24120 George Cox junior 22687 Henry Parks 21692 Charles Fry 20626 Thomas Cook 20176 Alan Oakman 20117

Most first-class wickets for Sussex Qualification - 1000 wickets [4] Player Wickets Maurice Tate 2211 George Cox senior 1810 Albert Relf 1594 Ian Thomson 1527 James Langridge 1416 Fred Tate 1306 Albert Wensley 1067 James Cornford 1019

• Highest Total For – 705-8 declared v Surrey at Hastings (1902)
• Highest Total Against – 726 by Nottinghamshire at Nottingham (1895)
• Lowest Total For – 19 v Surrey at Godalming (1830)
• Lowest Total Against – 18 by Kent at Gravesend (1867)

• Highest Score – 335* M Goodwin v Leicestershire at Hove (2003)
• Most Runs in Season – 2850 JG Langridge (1949)
• Most Runs in Career – 34152 JG Langridge (1928-1955)

• 1st – 490 EH Bowley and JG Langridge v Middlesex at Hove (1933)
• 2nd – 385 EH Bowley and MW Tate v Northamptonshire at Hove (1921)
• 3rd – 385* MH Yardy and MW Goodwin v Warwickshire at Hove (2006)
• 4th – 326 J Langridge and G Cox v Yorkshire at Leeds (1949)
• 5th – 297 JH Parks and HW Parks v Hampshire at Portsmouth (1937)
• 6th – 255 KS Duleepsinhji and MW Tate v Northamptonshire at Hove (1930)
• 7th – 344 KS Ranjitsinhji and W Newham v Essex at Leyton (1902)
• 8th – 291 RSC Martin–Jenkins and MJG Davis v Somerset at Taunton (2002)
• 9th – 178 HW Parks and AF Wensley v Derbyshire at Horsham (1930)
• 10th – 156 GR Cox and HR Butt v Cambridge University at Cambridge (1908)

• Best Bowling – 10-48 CHG Bland v Kent at Tonbridge (1899)
• Best Match Bowling – 17-106 GR Cox v Warwickshire at Horsham (1926)
• Wickets in Season – 198 MW Tate (1925)
• Wickets in Career – 2211 MW Tate (1912-1937)

Sussex, along with Kent, is the birthplace of cricket. It is widely believed that cricket was invented by children living on the Weald in Saxon or Norman times.

See : History of cricket to 1696

The first definite mention of cricket in Sussex relates to ecclesiastical court records in 1611 which state that two parishioners of Sidlesham in West Sussex failed to attend church on Easter Sunday because they were playing cricket. They were fined 12d each and made to do penance.

Cricket became established in Sussex during the 17th century and the earliest village matches took place before the English Civil War. It is believed that the earliest county teams were formed in the aftermath of the Restoration in 1660. In 1697, the earliest "great match" recorded was for 50 guineas apiece between two elevens at a venue in Sussex.

Matches involving the two great Sussex patrons Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet were first recorded in 1725. From 1741, Richmond patronised the famous Slindon club, whose team was representative of the county.

For information about Sussex county teams before the formation of Sussex CCC, see : Sussex county cricket teams

Although Sussex had been a major cricket centre since the 17th century, there had apparently been no move towards a permanent county organisation until 17 June 1836 when a meeting in Brighton set up a Sussex Cricket Fund to support county matches. It was from this organisation that Sussex County Cricket Club was formally constituted on 1 March 1839.

Sussex CCC played its initial first-class match versus MCC at Lord's on 10 & 11 June 1839. The club has been regarded as first-class continuously since its formation.

Sussex CCC is England's oldest county cricket club.

The Sussex crest depicts the mythological bird the Martlet, famous for having no feet. Capped players have six martlets on their sweaters whilst non-capped players have just the club crest on the left breast. When it comes to caps the capped players have a crest with gold trimming whilst non-capped have white trimming.

The Club has used four cricket grounds in Brighton & Hove - matches were played on a ground donated by the then Prince Of Wales and the ground was fittingly called 'The Prince of Wales Ground (where Park Crescent now lies), Temple Fields (where Montpelier Crescent now lies), Royal Brunswick Ground (where Third and Fourth Avenues are situated) and finally in 1871 the ground in Eaton Road was acquired from the Trustees of the Stanford Estate. Turf from the Royal Brunswick Grounds was transferred and re-laid on the square.

The first County match was played at Eaton Road on 6 June 1872 against Gloucestershire. As well as the County Ground, Hove, the Club's First and Second XI regularly play around the County, the grounds at Worthing Cricket Club, Eastbourne and Arundel Castle playing host to First XI fixtures.

The Sussex squad for the 2008 season currently consists of (this section could change as players are released or signed):

Players with international caps are listed in bold.

Name	Nat	Batting Style	Bowling Style	Notes
Batsmen
Chris Adams (c)		RHB	OS
Murray Goodwin		RHB	LS	kolpak player
Carl Hopkinson		RHB	RM
Chris Nash		RHB	OS
Michael Thornely		RHB	RM
All-rounders
Rory Hamilton-Brown		RHB	OS
Robin Martin-Jenkins		RHB	RM
Luke Wright		RHB	RMF
Michael Yardy		LHB	SLA
Wicket-keepers
Andy Hodd		RHB
Matthew Prior		RHB
Bowlers
James Kirtley		RHB	RFM
Jason Lewry		LHB	LFM
Christopher Liddle		RHB	LFM
Mushtaq Ahmed		RHB	LS	Overseas player
Oliver Rayner		RHB	OS

Chris Adams Mohammad Akram Mushtaq Ahmed Michael Bevan Ted Bowley Harry Butt George Cox senior Ted Dexter Vasbert Drakes Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji C.B. Fry Tony Greig Imran Khan James Langridge John Langridge William Lillywhite Javed Miandad Murray Goodwin

Saqlain Mushtaq Alan Oakman Jim Parks junior Jim Parks senior Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi Matthew Prior Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji Dermot Reeve Albert Relf John Snow Ken Suttle Maurice Tate Joe Vine John Wisden Luke Wright Michael Yardy Alan Wells Matt Prior

Sussex Women have produced many England capped players. These include:

• Clare Connor (Captain of 2005 Ashes Winning Side)
• Caroline Atkins
• Rosalie Birch
• Holly Colvin
• Laura Marsh
• Sarah Taylor

Sussex Women won the County Championship in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

• In 1938, three sets of brothers represented Sussex in the County Championship: James and John Langridge, Charlie and John Oakes, and Harry and Jim (sr) Parks.
• E. B. Dwyer (J.E.B.B.P.Q.C. Dwyer for short) played 61 times for Sussex between 1904 and 1909. Born in Sydney, Australia in 1876 he died in Crewe in 1912. He took 9-35 v Derbyshire at Hove in 1906. He was the great-grandson of Michael Dwyer, a convict who had been transported to Australia after the Irish insurrection of 1798.
• J.H. Parks scored 3,000 runs for Sussex in 1937 and took 100 wickets with inswingers and off cutters. He was capped just once for England that summer.
• Hugh Bartlett hit a hundred in only 57 minutes against Bradman's 1938 Australians.

1. ^ BBC Sport article
2. ^ An unofficial seasonal title proclaimed by consensus of media and historians prior to December 1889 when the official County Championship was constituted; for titles claimed by Sussex teams before the county club was founded, see Sussex county cricket teams
3. ^ Formerly known as the Gillette Cup (1963–1980), NatWest Trophy (1981–2000) and C&G Trophy (2001–2006)
4. ^ Formerly known as the Sunday League (1969–1998)

• Official site
• Sussex-Cricket

• Timothy J McCann, Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century, Sussex Record Society, 2004
• Playfair Cricket Annual : various issues
• Wisden Cricketers Almanack (annual): various issues

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