For those who remember 1947, the year Victoria formed – was the year of Dennis Compton and Bill Edrich, who between them in one season scored 7,355 runs and hit 30 hundreds. Middlesex of course, won the county championship and down in the leafy suburbs in North West London, club cricket was returning to business as usual after the intervening war years.

It was under these circumstances that Ruislip Victoria began its existence, owing much to a strong RAF presence in the vicinity. The club in fact began life in that summer of 1947 as RAFA Ruislip and although not much is known about the personnel at the time, the club pitched wickets within the West Ruislip airbase.

In 1957 and with the service presence diminishing, the club began to look around for a more reflective title, culminating in the change to Ruislip Victoria CC, so called owing to its close proximity to Victoria Road which runs between Ruislip Manor and South Ruislip.

Following the club’s relaunch, Ruislip Victoria began its home cricket at Bessingby Park with the occasional excursion up to Cavendish Road in Eastcote or Sidmouth Drive in South Ruislip (now the site of a school). This state of affairs continued until 1982, when the club was made an offer it could not refuse, that of being the cricket team at the British Airways sports ground by the Polish War Memorial. Ruislip Victoria’s term of occupancy with BA, shortly afterwards renamed Amaretto’s Country Club, and then again some two years later becoming C and L Sports and Leisure, lasted 8 years in all until 1990, when the club moved to its present home at Birkbeck College, Greenford. The previous ground now exists as a golf course. In 2016 Ruislip Victoria played the majority of their matches at the prestigious RAF Vine Lane ground with some of the best playing facilities in Middlesex. From 2019 RVCC will play its cricket at Ickenham Cricket Club located in Oak Avenue, Ickenham retaining its local roots.

On the playing front, Ruislip Victoria is much changed from their early years when the club struggled to maintain a Saturday and Sunday eleven. The RV’s now run two Saturday league sides with Sunday, Midweek & Weekend XIs. Up until recently, the club had two UK tours each year and has previously undertaken two international tours to South Africa and a tour to Barbados in February 2007.

The club embraced league cricket as long ago as 1974, starting life under the West Middlesex Cricket League banner, following in 1983 by joining the Morrant Middlesex League and then again in 1993 the Fullers Brewery Middlesex Championship where both teams finished as champions in 1996 of their respective divisions.

In more recent times, 2004 saw the club move to the Berkshire Cricket League with the 2nd XI gaining promotion in the first year. In 2007 the 1st XI played in Division 1 for the first time where they still play. For 2011, the club took a leap of faith and joined the Chess Valley Sunday League to complement the exisiting Sunday friendly fixtures.

Like all cricket clubs, Ruislip Victoria have many on the field memories, many of which have been documented through the years by the Gazette newspaper. Headlines such as “Pike Savages the Guests” referring to Brian Pike who took 7-13 against local opposition.

“Bird has them in a flutter” referred to opening bowler Chris Bird (5-14), who flew in to take 5 wickets, sending the opposition running for their nests. “Victoria’s Regal Victory” appeared several times as did “Victoria steams home”. On the debit side the club has seen “Victoria not amused by hat-trick”, “Victoria’s train ride to defeat” “End of the line for Victoria” and finally of course “Victoria Crash”.

Ruislip Victoria have also played cricket on Boxing Day, “Victoria deranged” might have been a suitable headline. On a cold, but sunny day in 1991 the club beat rivals Ruislip Village by five runs, scoring 191 against their opponent’s total of 186. Copious brandies and mince pies was the tea ladies order of the day. RVCC also have the distinction of being the first English Club to play the Japanese National Cricket team on their first tour to the UK, a game which they won largely due to the Japanese batsmen being unaccustomed to a green seaming wicket!

Ruislip Victoria boasts several players of more then 30 years playing service, notably Keith Gooding, George Booth, Brian Pike, Tony Fairfax, Steve Hills, Ian Pike, Salim Ansari, Steve Wright and Paul Bailey, but the clubs longest servant was John Carson who began playing cricket back in the 1950’s.

Leading current aggregate records for runs, wickets, catches and appearances up to and including 2012, are as follows :

Batting: Paul Bailey 21,701 runs, Steve Hills 21,381, Keith Gooding 12,006 John Carson 11,838
Bowling: Steve Hills 1321 wickets, Brian Pike 1272, Ken Condon 857 Steve Wright 839
Fielding: Ian Pike 336 catches, Steve Hills 335, Brian Pike 316, Paul Gibbons 264
Appearances: Brian Pike 1159, Steve Hills 1096, Keith Gooding 1017 Paul Bailey 892

Ruislip Victoria would also like to record its debt of thanks to the officials in those early years who kept the club afloat both on and off the field. A special mention to the club’s Hon. Life Presidents Salim Ansari, George Booth, Keith Cole, Paul Gibbons, Keith Gooding, Maurice Goss, Steve Hills and Andrew Petter and to all the tea ladies, umpires and scorers – thank you all.

This is a club for the people, and the people have served it well. We are proud of our heritage and wish to celebrate our vintage.