Home ground: Dean Park FP Trophy wins: 0 Coach Paul Prichard Founded 1896 | Capacity: 6,000 Ground Dean Park Cricket Ground Captain Chris Park | |
Official website: Dorset County Cricket Club home League Minor Counties Cricket Championship | ||
Dorset County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Dorset.
Contents
The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Championship Western Division and plays in the MCCA Knockout Trophy. Dorset played List A matches occasionally from 1968 until 2004 but is not classified as a List A team per se.
The club is based at present at Dean Park in Bournemouth, outside the traditional boundaries of the county, and also plays its matches there.
Honours
Earliest cricket
Cricket must have reached Dorset via neighbouring Hampshire by the end of the 17th century.
An advertisement in the Sherborne Mercury dated Tuesday 9 May 1738 is the earliest reference for cricket in Dorset. Twelve Dorchester men at Ridgway Races challenged twelve men from elsewhere to play them at cricket for the prize of twelve pairs of gloves valued at a shilling a pair.
Origin of club
According to Wisden there was county organisation in existence in either 1862 or 1871. The present Dorset CCC was founded on 5 February 1896 and first entered the Minor Counties Championship in 1902.
Club history
Dorset has won the Minor Counties Championship twice, in 2000 and 2010.
Dorset has won the MCCA Knockout Trophy once since its inception in 1983. It won in 1988.
First-class players
See List of Dorset CCC players and Category:Dorset cricketersThe following Dorset cricketers have also had notable careers at first-class level:
Grounds
The club currently plays its home matches at Dean Park Cricket Ground in Bournemouth, which before becoming part of Dorset was in Hampshire and was used as a home venue by Hampshire County Cricket Club. In the past, the club has used Sherborne School Cricket Ground in Sherborne.