The Club which missed its own centenary

For many years, Crawley Cricket club was looking forward to its centenary in 2006. In 1998 it was bought to the attention of the club by a local historian, Nadine Hygate, that this date was incorrect and the club had actually formed in the 19th century.

Soon after a recreation ground was created in the town, at a public meeting held at the Railway Hotel in December 1886 a committee was formed to play cricket at the Recreation Ground. A further vote agreed that this club should be called the Crawley Cricket Club.

The first matches were played in 1887. The naming of the new club also hadsome ramifications for another local club. At the annual general meeting of the Ifield and Crawley Cricket Club, it was decided that "as there was now another club in the town using the name Crawley, the old club would henceforth be known as the Ifield Cricket Club".

The oldest records in the clubs possession show that the pitches must have been pretty poor. In the 1904 season 16 matches were played and only S.P.Matthews and W.J.Denman passed 50 during the season while W.M Leach took 37 wickets in only 129 overs at an average of 6.64 ( interestingly the grounds man, Mr F Tullett, was commended on the pitches which were " of an excellent character right throughout the season")

The fielding was also criticized in the official report that year " the least said the better" - A hundred years on and nothing has changed! The club was always forced to charge a membership fee to play cricket. Today it is £60.00. On April 6th 1900 a club member was charged the sum of 5 shillings to play cricket for Crawley and this was recorded on a receipt.

The club was forced to move to its current home as the march of progress created a new town in 1953. The Crawley Development Corporation made a compulsory purchase order for the old ground in 1953. In return in 1954, 12 acres of land in Goffs Park were to be laid out as a recreation ground including a cricket square and despite surviving several fires, floods, mosquitoes and a few burglaries, Goffs Park was to be the club's home until 2001

The peak years for Crawley were in the early 1990's. Under the captaincy of Geoff Short then Peter Lawson, a young squad of players so nearly won the Sussex Invitation League. The colts development program turned out four players who all went on to be contracted by Sussex County Cricket Club. However as the side broke up the team declined and was relegated to Division 2 of the Sussex Invitation League.  Promotion back to Division 1 was achieved in the 1999 season. In the 2000 season Crawley achieved its best result ever with 2nd place in the Sussex Invitation League Division One.

Fire forces another relocation

With things going from strength to strength the club got another kick in the teeth in 2001.  Two arson attacks in the space of less than a year completely destroyed the club's home and most of the equipment and forced the club to relocate to the other side of the town in Maidenbower.


After four tough seasons at Maidenbower, the club has relocated to Southgate playing fields for 2007 on a new pitch with a new improved clubhouse.