Club History
The history of Rayne Cricket Club is hard to trace, as most records were lost during the Second World War, and so information has been pieced together from a number of sources - personal recollections, stories handed down, parish records etc.
It is known that the Club existed during the Nineteenth century, playing on the field behind Rayne Church, a ground which they shared with the farmer's livestock. A photograph of a pre Great War team is still in existents, and most of the players depicted can be named.
The present ground was acquired just after the Second World War, and was moved to in 1950. It too has been used for cattle, hence the cow shed which was expanded (and cleaned) to form the Club pavilion. In spite of the new village hall being constructed with changing rooms and showers added in the early eighties, the old pavilion is still used during games today.
As with all village clubs, the number of active members has fluctuated. Looking back into scorebooks from the forties, it is obvious that the Club relied heavily on a few families to provide a large number of players - the Richardson clan are well represented and two of their descendants are playing for us now. It is also clear that the wickets played on, both home and away, were less than perfect. In the 1950's, a score of eighty (and I mean the whole team) was guaranteed to be enough to win the game, and forty or so was more often than not sufficient. It was in the sixties that scores started to rise as preparation improved, and now it is not unusual for aggregate scores of 450 to be recorded.
In the fifties, Rayne ran two sides, although by the end of the decade, this had been reduced to one Saturday and one Sunday, which is how it stayed until the late seventies when a few additional fixtures were found for an extra Sunday XI. By the eighties, numbers had increased to the extent that two teams were being fielded on both Saturdays and Sundays.
In 1991, the Club re-entered league cricket, after a gap of fifteen years. In 1976, a season had been spent in the Mid Essex League, but membership was not continued as it was easy to find enough friendlies to fill the fixture list. Of and on discussion ensued as to whether to apply to join a league, and in 1990, it was decided to seek membership of the Mid Essex League. Luckily we were accepted, and when we applied to add a second side in 1995, we were once again fortunate to get in.
The club's five minutes of fame came firstly in 1965 when a West Ham XI, including World Cup heroes Geoff Hurst and Bobby Moore played against Rayne at Oak Meadow. The West Ham team proved that football wasn't their only game as they ran out winners by 35 runs. In 1994 Rayne also took part in a benefit match for Essex and England cricketer, John Childs. A combined Rayne and Shalford team where on the end of a comprehensive thrashing at the hands of an Essex team boasting five Test players (Knight, Stepenson, Irani, Such & Kasprowicz)
It is known that the Club existed during the Nineteenth century, playing on the field behind Rayne Church, a ground which they shared with the farmer's livestock. A photograph of a pre Great War team is still in existents, and most of the players depicted can be named.
The present ground was acquired just after the Second World War, and was moved to in 1950. It too has been used for cattle, hence the cow shed which was expanded (and cleaned) to form the Club pavilion. In spite of the new village hall being constructed with changing rooms and showers added in the early eighties, the old pavilion is still used during games today.
As with all village clubs, the number of active members has fluctuated. Looking back into scorebooks from the forties, it is obvious that the Club relied heavily on a few families to provide a large number of players - the Richardson clan are well represented and two of their descendants are playing for us now. It is also clear that the wickets played on, both home and away, were less than perfect. In the 1950's, a score of eighty (and I mean the whole team) was guaranteed to be enough to win the game, and forty or so was more often than not sufficient. It was in the sixties that scores started to rise as preparation improved, and now it is not unusual for aggregate scores of 450 to be recorded.
In the fifties, Rayne ran two sides, although by the end of the decade, this had been reduced to one Saturday and one Sunday, which is how it stayed until the late seventies when a few additional fixtures were found for an extra Sunday XI. By the eighties, numbers had increased to the extent that two teams were being fielded on both Saturdays and Sundays.
In 1991, the Club re-entered league cricket, after a gap of fifteen years. In 1976, a season had been spent in the Mid Essex League, but membership was not continued as it was easy to find enough friendlies to fill the fixture list. Of and on discussion ensued as to whether to apply to join a league, and in 1990, it was decided to seek membership of the Mid Essex League. Luckily we were accepted, and when we applied to add a second side in 1995, we were once again fortunate to get in.
The club's five minutes of fame came firstly in 1965 when a West Ham XI, including World Cup heroes Geoff Hurst and Bobby Moore played against Rayne at Oak Meadow. The West Ham team proved that football wasn't their only game as they ran out winners by 35 runs. In 1994 Rayne also took part in a benefit match for Essex and England cricketer, John Childs. A combined Rayne and Shalford team where on the end of a comprehensive thrashing at the hands of an Essex team boasting five Test players (Knight, Stepenson, Irani, Such & Kasprowicz)
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