Mitcham Cricket Club has an active membership of senior players – fielding three senior men’s sides each week during the season. We have a ladies team - the Mitcham Sapphires playing softball cricket. We also have a significant and growing junior section including three junior league teams. We run the ECB All Stars programme for 5-8 year olds and in 2020 will also be running their Dynamos programme for 8-11 year olds. Most of the Club’s playing membership is drawn from the Merton area and the Club plays a vital role in offering the opportunity for young people to play cricket as few have the facilities to access cricket through their state schools. We also provide an important social hub for non-playing members, many of which are former players. Our membership has an age range of seven to over eighty.

Our cricket pavilion is registered as an Asset of Community Value. Further, it is locally listed and in a conservation area. The pavilion is of heritage significance and has a long communal history. Mitcham Cricket Pavilion was opened in 1904. It was purpose built as a cricket pavilion and has only ever been occupied by Mitcham Cricket Club. The neighbouring cricket ground, which we use during the playing season, is registered as a Town Green. There is good evidence that it is the oldest continuously used cricket ground in the world. We can trace its use for cricket back to at least 1685. The Green is also an important recreational asset in the Wandle Valley Regional Park.

The Cricket Green in Mitcham also has global importance in the history of cricket for a variety of reasons – reflected in its inclusion in the recently published Remarkable Cricket Grounds of the World (Brian Levison, Pavilion Books 2016). The Green was a place where cricket was regularly played prior to the formalisation of the rules of the game. In the 19th and 20th centuries it has played host to international matches – the Club and its Green acted as a training base for the first Australian national Test teams touring England; women’s international cricket teams have also played there. Mitcham players played a key role in setting up the Surrey County Cricket Team, many Mitcham players played for Surrey. Mitcham Club members have also represented England in men’s and women’s cricket.

We are currently fighting to secure the future of our pavilion and storage shed so that cricket can continue on the Mitcham Cricket Green.

You can support our fight by contributing to our fighting fund www.gofundme.com/save-mitcham-cricket-club. Follow developments on Twitter @MitchamCC