Summer 2024200 years of Rochdale Cricket Club

One of the oldest cricket clubs in Lancashire, Rochdale Cricket Club celebrates its bicentennial in 2024.

Rochdale Cricket Club was formed on 15 June 1824, adopting the rules, laws and regulations established by Marylebone Cricket Club.

The first meeting of directors, presiding over by Robert Holt, took place in the Woolpack Inn, and ‘Meer Field’ was rented for the remainder of the season for the princely sum of £2 – equivalent to about £275 today. Membership was granted by ballot and members met at a different hostelry each week.

The most notable match of this period was a showdown between 11 northern champions and 11 southern champions from 8-10 September 1860.

A house building project in the New Barn Lane area forced another move, and Rochdale Cricket Club settled at the Vavasour Street estate, off Milnrow Road, in 1868.

The 1868 season opened at the new Milnrow Road ground with an extraordinary event: Rochdale versus the Aborigines. It took place on from 2-4 July and created a great deal of interest.

The visitors appeared in an eye-catching uniform each played wearing a red shirt, white trousers and a distinctive coloured sash. The match won’t be best remembered for the batting display, with time alone saving the Australian outfit from defeat. However, thousands of spectators were drawn to the ground to witness the sports which were to follow, including traditional athletics and boomerang throwing.

A successful decade followed but 1877 was the last season at the ground before the club had to seek pastures new.

The Ladies Bazaar Committee raised an astonishing £1,600 which went towards changing a low-lying and uneven patch of wasteland near Rochdale town centre into a spacious and well-laid cricket ground. Dane Street would be the cricket club’s home for the next 176 years.

The inaugural game on the new ground was a three-day affair against a United South of England Xl.

The next major step in the club’s history came in in 1893  when Rochdale joined the Central Lancashire League. They enjoyed immediate success becoming champions in their inaugural season and the two that followed. They enjoyed further success in seasons 1900, 1905 and 1906 before a barren period.

World War One hit the club so badly that in 1918 there was no cricket at Dane Street. But a few men with visions of happier days worked strenuously and the year ended with the club practically out of debt.

In 1919, Rochdale-born financier and then-president  of the club, Jimmy White set out to sign the ‘best professional’ in the land, landing Cecil Parkin. Over three seasons, he took 406 wickets, although there were no trophies to show for his efforts.

A highly successful period then evolved with the signing of Pat Morfee, a fast right-hand bowler. Rochdale won the League and the Wood Cup over his four season stay at Dane Street. In all, he took 390 wickets and scored 1,700 runs.

Other professionals that followed included Bill Hickmott, Sidney Barnes, Ellis Achlong, Learie Constantine, Stanley Crump and Cecil ‘Cec’ Pepper. Signing Pepper on a three-year contract was a real coup for Rochdale, as he had proved to be an outstanding success in Australia’s Test matches against England during the summer of 1945.

The highlight of his inaugural season was a hard-hitting 143 in two and a quarter hours. Two of his sixes soared over the pavilion at Stockport’s Cale Street ground, In all he hit six sixes, a five and 17 fours. This was followed by a return of 9 for 43 as the home team were bowled out for 155.

Pepper waited another season before completing the double, only the second player to have done so. He repeated the feat in 1948 and the Championship was won with a 13-point margin over Milnrow, the runners-up. Pepper’s three-year stay at Dane Street netted him 3,127 runs and 297 wickets.

What followed was five seasons of ex-Gloucestershire and England Test batsman Charlie Barnett. His superb attacking play had ranked with the world’s best and he didn’t disappoint. He scored runs for Rochdale at an amazing speed.

During his tenure, in which the League was won four times and the Wood Cup once, Barnett scored 4,687 runs and captured 437 wickets. In the 1950s, Rochdale went on to win the Wood Cup in each of Dattu Phadkar’s four seasons with the League Championships trophy joining the trophy cabinet in 1955 and 1956.

After a couple of decades focusing on developing the younger players, Rochdale took their first league title for 34 years with Dave Callaghan in 1990. They backed this up the following season with a league and cup double. Further titles followed in 1993 and 1995. In the interim, the Dane Street ground was sold to Asda, with the club relocating to the site of the former Redbrook School.

The arrival of exciting young talent, in the shape of 22-year old Robbie Baker from Western Australia again ignited the team and they claimed the title in 1997 and 1999. Rochdale topped the table in 2001, 2003 and 2007 with Dirk de Vos, Tushar Arothe and Ryan Hinds respectively carrying the professional mantle.

After a reorganisation of cricket leagues in the Manchester area in 2018, Rochdale chose to join the Lancashire League; a strong, competitive and challenging competition which has proved a great success.

With thanks to Rochdale Cricket Club, in particular the late Alistair Bolingbroke whose research made this article possible.