Photo Exhibition at Guildhall on Saturday

[jupu]

Just to mention that we have an exhibition of old City photos taking place at Worcester Guildhall in the High Street tomorrow, Saturday. It's a free event. Runs from around 9am to midday. More details on the official website.

[jupu]

Great turnout yesterday. We reckon 300 plus. If you came along thanks very much, hope you enjoyed it. There will be another one like this later in the season.

[bj]

Very enjoyable and interesting. Well done to the organizers. I've never heard of the floodlit cricket match before. Does this make us the first club in the world to have cricket under floodlights?

[Deleted]

Only if it was before August 1952, that was the first floodlit cricket match, held at Highbury.

[JohnInglisIsGod]

Sept 30, 2012 9:29:07 GMT bj said:

Very enjoyable and interesting. Well done to the organizers. I've never heard of the floodlit cricket match before. Does this make us the first club in the world to have cricket under floodlights?

I played in that tournament. We got to the final but the final was never actually played

[JohnInglisIsGod]

Sept 30, 2012 18:11:44 GMT Down The Pan said:

Only if it was before August 1952, that was the first floodlit cricket match, held at Highbury.

From memory I would say it was circa 1982

[richwidd]

The Photo on display was of Teams taken in front of the dressing rooms who were taking part in a "Floodlit Cricket match to celebrate the opening of the new lights".

The date on the photo is 1951/52 but I'm sure someone out there will know the exact date. I believe the Club hired lights in 1951 and a year later installed their own so it will be somewhere around then.

The Players were made up from WCFC, WCCC, English International Players, English Youth Players and a Welsh Amateur. The names include:
Alan White WCCC Captain, Peter Richardson WCCC & England, John Spilsbury WCFC (who turned up on Saturday, I didn't think to ask him) Hugh Billington WCFC, Martin Horton WCCC, Roly Jenkins WCCC & England & Percy James WCFC Player Manager. There are also a few players from Worcester City Cricket Club.

So if Brooksider is right about Arsenal (and he always is) we could well have staged the first floodlit cricket match.

We had a few more donations from people including Photos, Scrap Books, Player Contracts but by far the best find from Saturday was from a chap who turned up with a reel of 8mm film which was taken by his father. On it is footage from the Liverpool, Sheffield United, a few other games & of City fans at Foregate Street taking them on the two "Special" Steam Trains to the match v Aldershot in the FA Cup.
Once we can get it transferred we will show it - so hopefully it is still intact! So should we go on a Cup run we will hopefully have more than the few seconds from the Liverpool match that is always shown!

[Deleted]

If the game took place before 11th August 1952, and if the photo is marked up saying 1951/52, that would suggest the football season of 51/52 so very very likely, then SGL and Worcester City could just have re-written history!!

The first floodlit cricket match was staged at the now demolished Highbury Stadium North London home of Arsenal FC 11th August 1952 on a “matted” wicket between, Arsenal and, Middlesex CCC. The match was a benefit for Jack Young. Floodlights were installed at the ground in the summer of 1951, and were first used for football in October 1951. The cricket match took place at 7:30pm; the lights were turned on towards the end of the first innings, in which Arsenal were batting. A public announcement was made, advising spectators (of which there were just over 7,000) to "Keep your eye on the ball, when you see it coming keep low. The batsmen will try to keep it down but they can't promise." The match was televised on the BBC, with over a million viewers tuning in to watch the spectacle. The Times was not convinced of the success of floodlights in cricket, mischievously asking: "What is to prevent non-stop Test matches where the last wicket falls as the milkman arrives?"

That is taken from an article on the second ever floodlit cricket match held at Odsal in 1952.

[andy]

Oct 1, 2012 7:08:08 GMT JohnInglisIsGod said:

I played in that tournament. We got to the final but the final was never actually played

You're wearing well, JIIG.

[auldreekie]

It would be worth trying to find out if SGL has a place in cricket history. The game at Highbury was widely reported as the "first" but it was also televised and it may have been advertised as such and it has just been accepted over time.

www.espncricinfo.com/columns/content/story/240292.html

The first cricket match under "artificial" light was in 1816 in Bexhill with candles placed in lanterns around the pitch. It sounds a tad dangerous!

[Deleted]

Lets see if we can make history here, Rich, you need to find out from someone the exact date of that match, or at least if it was pre-August 1951.

[dragon]

I was at the floodlit game and I`m pretty certain it was in September of 1951.A search through the archives of The Evening News & Times would reveal the date for certain.I seem to remember that Norman Whiting who is 92 today hit a couple of sixes and the legendary Sam Godfrey was our bowling star.I believe the proceeds went towards paying for the lights which had recently been installed.

[JohnInglisIsGod]

Oct 1, 2012 11:03:54 GMT andy said:

Oct 1, 2012 7:08:08 GMT JohnInglisIsGod said:

I played in that tournament. We got to the final but the final was never actually played

You're wearing well, JIIG.

Hahahah I am thnking Ithat maybe it was nto the same tornament
I did play ion a tournamenbt of local clubs at the ground for Wocrster City and I think we were due to play The Taveners in the final but due to rain it was cancelled and never actually played. Obviosuly not this one tho

[richwidd]

Oct 1, 2012 21:23:33 GMT Down The Pan said:

Lets see if we can make history here, Rich, you need to find out from someone the exact date of that match, or at least if it was pre-August 1951.

I rang John Spilsbury last night. He has a clipping from the paper a few days before the match, but all it says is the game starts at 7.30pm on Monday but he hasn't got the date on the paper.

So a Monday, 7.30pm sometime in 1951/52 (but possibly September 1951).

[birdfeeder]

Oct 2, 2012 11:42:27 GMT richwidd said:

Oct 1, 2012 21:23:33 GMT Down The Pan said:

Lets see if we can make history here, Rich, you need to find out from someone the exact date of that match, or at least if it was pre-August 1951.

I rang John Spilsbury last night. He has a clipping from the paper a few days before the match, but all it says is the game starts at 7.30pm on Monday but he hasn't got the date on the paper.

So a Monday, 7.30pm sometime in 1951/52 (but possibly September 1951).

We should get Steve Carley on the case.

[jupu]

I don't have an exact date but September 1951 sounds about right. The first floodlit football match at the Lane was in November 1951 and the lights were installed in October. My guess is that the cricket match was part fund raiser for the lights and part test run.

Any of you who have shown an interest in this can carry out your own research. All you need is a couple of free hours to go down to The Hive and have a look through the newspaper archive for 1951. It's free to do although you have to pay for copies. That's how I do most of my research. I've never looked into this cricket match before. If I get the chance I will but as I say, anyone can do it.

[Deleted]

I'll have a look online and see if i can research it, it'll be easier than geting to the Hive

[auldreekie]

Oct 2, 2012 13:04:04 GMT Down The Pan said:

I'll have a look online and see if i can research it, it'll be easier than geting to the Hive

Following further research I am convinced that if we can determine that the floodlit cricket match was indeed held in September 1951 then SGL can claim the record for the first floodlit cricket match.

As we know SGL has two competitors:

Highbury - had many experiments with floodlights back to the 1930’s and indeed may have had training lights installed before the first “proper “ floodlights were installed in August 1951. The footballing/cricketing Compton brothers meant Highbury was used for cricket benefit matches in the late 1940’s/early 1950’s. The first possible match I can find was on 12 August 1949 for a Denis Compton benefit game where the press report says “floodlighting is likely to be used in the late stages”. The report of the game makes no mention of the lights being switched on but if they were you would expect it to be newsworthy.

The first floodlit game at Highbury is claimed to be on 11th August 1952 under their new “proper” floodlights. This was another benefit game this time for Jack Young. Arsenal had christened their floodlights with big football friendlies against Hapoel Tel Aviv and Glasgow Rangers before the cricketers had a go!

Odsal Stadium in Bradford - played its first floodlit cricket match on 16th September 1952. The match was to raise funds for the victims of the floods in Devon and Somerset and was played between a Yorkshire XI (including three Australian Rugby League tourists) and a Bradford League XI.

Surely we have a claim for the Guinness Book of Records?

[Deleted]

By Jove!! I think we've made history, and changed history! September 1951, lets hope it can be validated somehow.
Odsal has never considered itself the first, always giving that honour to Highbury, yet it was probably St Georges Lane.
OK so how do we get the Press onto this one? Could be a nice bit of PR before the old lady is razed to the ground!

[auldreekie]

The Arsenal website says:

Highbury has also hosted a number of cricket matches between Arsenal and Middlesex CCC. The first came for Denis Compton’s benefit year in 1949, and there was another for his brother Leslie in 1955. In between those, in 1952, there was a floodlit game for Jack Young’s benefit.

So if

1) the full Highbury floodlights were only installed in 1951

2 The Arsenal website says the 1952 cricket match was the only one that was floodlit

3) The press coverage of the 1949 cricket match indicates that whatever lights were in place at the time they were not switched on.

4) there are no claims for the 1949 cricket match to be the "first" floodlit game

it means the SGL claim is very strong.