The date is derived from a story told by Mr Caesar Hoy, a long serving member, who claimed that he first played for the club at the age of fifteen in 1868, at which time the rules of cricket were well established. He said that his father played for the club before he first joined, and his grandfather, who died at the age of 96, commenced playing in 1785 ‘when Woodford Green C.C. was in its fiftieth year’.

According to Hoy, matches in his day were arranged for eleven o’clock and terminated at six thirty, the game being followed by a dinner at The Castle, which was then the headquarters of the club. The brewers and distillers each annually contributed five guineas to the club funds. Visiting teams always arrived by stagecoach, which was drawn up on the Green and used as a grandstand.

Flags marked the boundaries, and the playing area was skirted by the three ponds that then existed on the Green. There were no poplar trees or chestnut trees surrounding the ground then, and The Terrace, which consisted of wooden cottages, was known as Bailey’s Row. The playing pitch was prepared by first scything the grass and then watering by means of pails of water carried from the adjacent ponds; then the ground was levelled out with wooden rammers.

Cricket was certainly played on the Green in the early eighteenth century, as is shown in historical records of early cricket in Essex, but in the earliest days it is unlikely that `clubs', as such, were involved. Mainly the matches were challenge games, sometimes played for high stakes.

For example, Berington’s Evening Post, in June 1732, announced a match to be played in Epping Forest between Essex and Hertfordshire for £50 (play or pay!), with the order that `Wickets to be pitched at 1.00 precisely or forfeit half the money'.

A degree of confusion surrounds the earliest history of cricket in Woodford because it was evidently played at a variety of venues and certainly a `Woodford' club played for some time near George Lane in South Woodford. Wanstead Cricket Club trace their origins to this same 'Woodford' club. There used to be a 'Woodford Wanderers', a `Woodford Parkdale', a `Woodford Thursday’ a 'Woodford Green Tradesmen' and a `Woodford College'.

Also there were other grounds very close to the Green where cricket was played within living memory - for example, there used to be cricket pitches opposite the two hospitals close to the Green, Harts and The Jubilee, that have sadly been closed down.

Because cricket is no longer played at these other venues, Woodford Green C.C. feels vindicated in claiming to represent the unbroken tradition of cricket in Woodford that stretches back to the early eighteenth century, and to have played on the same ground for longer than any of our neighbouring clubs.

Thus 1735 was given as the starting point, and this date allowed for a grand celebration in 1985 to mark 250 years of cricket on the Green. Five local mayors were welcomed to a luncheon by the Corporation of London, together with the Essex 2nd XI who were to play on the Green that day.

Unfortunately, rain prevented a ball being bowled and Woodford were denied the chance to host Steve Waugh, later to become the Australian captain, who came to play for Essex.

With over 275 years of cricket on its original ground the Green remains a truly unique part of the game's history. Today the club remains dedicated to offering cricket on the Green, open to the whole community, playing this great game in the same amiable Spirit of Caesar Hoy's grandfather all those years ago.