Although cricket, in one form or another, must have been played in Langley for many years previously, there is no recorded match until July 12, 1884. This, judging from the scorecard, was a very low scoring 2 innings defeat for Langley at Chrishall. Judging from subsequent records from those distant days extremely low scoring was the normal and its not difficult to work out why.

The playing areas were usually commons or greens and these would have the locals' livestock grazing over them. These would have to be "shoo'ed", pushed, pulled or tricked somehow off before each match. These days we complain about the odd dog leaving its mark but spare a thought for those poor cricketers!

Furthermore no doubt the grass in the outfield would have been very long and the immediate wicket area would probably have been hand scythed - a far cry from the immaculate strip we see at Langley today and not exactly conducive to scoring a lot of runs. In those days most local people would have worked on the land and for very low wages - there was great discontent building up. 1884/5, in fact, saw the beginnings of Socialism with the founding of the Fabian Society.

Meanwhile the local cricket was beginning to be more organised and reported; there began to be a handful of games each year at Langley with players whose names have a distinctly familiar ring to them today - Wisbey, Wilson, Savill, Revell, Harvey, Driver, George, Abrahams - nothing much has changed! Especially when you see '0' against Harvey in that first match! It's worth noting that bats, in 1886, cost from between 3s 6d - 18s 6d - that is 17 1/2 new pence - 92 new pence and cricket balls cost from 2s - 6s 6d.

Ted Newland and Frank Driver appear to share most of the wickets in this period and in 1920 another century, this time by Percy Abram, was recorded (115 not out). Bishops Stortford by now were on the fixture list. A very near defeat is mentioned on the old Walden Common pitch against the town side.

Also a competition called the Barley and District League began in 1921 against the likes of Barley, Sandon, Chishill and Cottered. Langley won this in 1921, 1922 and 1924, thoroughly demoralising all the opposition as the League "died the death". The Rose Bowl from this competition resides even now, presumably won outright, in the home of the Club President Alec George.

In 1925 normal "friendlies" were resumed. 1926 saw Langley village decide to invest in a Public Telephone for the first time and agreed to pay the Post Office £28 per annum for 7 years. Not everybody thought this a good idea! 1926 also saw the partial break-up of the strong team of the post war years, with some new names beginning to appear. The match scores seem to be very low, 50 being a good average. However by 1928 success was beginning to return, this year also being notable for a visit from R. A. Butler, the prospective Conservative candidate for the area. And then, in 1929, the Pavilion was erected on the Green, opened by Sir Humphrey de Trafford of Newsells, who reckoned Langley now had one of the finest pavilions he'd ever seen.

Ted Newland and Frank Driver appear to share most of the wickets in this period and in 1920 another century, this time by Percy Abram, was recorded (115 not out). Bishops Stortford by now were on the fixture list. A very near defeat is mentioned on the old Walden Common pitch against the town side. Also a competition called the Barley and District League began in 1921 against the likes of Barley, Sandon, Chishill and Cottered. Langley won this in 1921, 1922 and 1924, thoroughly demoralising all the opposition as the League "died the death". The Rose Bowl from this competition resides even now, presumably won outright, in the home of the Club President Alec George.

In 1925 normal "friendlies" were resumed. In 1926 Langley decided to invest in a Public Telephone for the first time and agreed to pay the Post Office ś28 per annum for 7 years. Not everybody thought this a good idea! 1926 also saw the partial break-up of the strong team of the post war years, with some new names beginning to appear. The match scores seem to be very low, 50 being a good average. However by 1928 success was beginning to return, this year also being notable for a visit from R. A. Butler, the prospective Conservative candidate for the area. And then, in 1929, the Pavilion was erected on the Green, opened by Sir Humphrey de Trafford of Newsells, who reckoned Langley now had one of the finest pavilions he'd ever seen. The following year marks the debut of a young lad, Ken Newland, son of Ted. We must spare his blushes, but we suspect he knows he has been Langley's famous bowler over all the years since, and no mean bat either. He has been likened to bowlers like Tom Cartwright with that nagging accuracy which was the undoing of many a good batsman. And then in 1933 a certain A. George appears batting at No.11.

When the War eventually finished regular cricket resumed and by 1947 was pretty well back to normal. Alec George and Ken Newland had been playing at Saffron Walden but evidently were asked if they were intending to come back into the Langley fold. "Only if players wore whites and definitely no braces! And there must be a strenghening of fixtures" appears to have been the stipulation. This must have been agreed as Alec was to skipper the club for 21 years. 1947 saw entry into the Saffron Walden Hospital Cup, which was a Saturday knock-out competition. This Langley won, having disposed of Elmdon for 7 runs in the semi-final (Ken Newland 7 for 6, Bertie Wilson 3 for 0, 1 extra?) and Rickling in the final with Alec George scoring 66 in a total of 138, and then another well known name, Clem Driver, cleaned bowled 3 batsman in his first over, ending with 5 for 20 and Ken Newland 5 for 19. This season also saw Jim George score the first post-war century . The cup was won again in 1948.

Then on to the 5O's. This was a good period with Alec and Jim George, Clem and Cyril Driver, Ken Newland, Bertie Wilson, Herbert Wombwell in full flow and also David Patterson, a very fine cricketer, always cropping up in the runs. Still going strong in 1956 was Mark Wisbey - he appears in photographs as early as 1921. 1957 saw the debut of our very own John Duke! He's still enjoying his cricket! And Brian and Gordon Atkinson were also around, both fine cricketers.

Much higher scores were now recorded and presumably much more reliable wickets were played on. On to the 6O's, with the Davies Cup won in 1963 and Barry Kingsley emerging. Des Abrahams, the current Club Chairman, was a regular bowler. In 1964 in a match against Much Hadham in August a certain R. Hadlee took 6 wickets for Much Hadham! This, of course, was the era of the Beatles and mass hysteria. However, nothing appears to have ruffled the calm of Langley Green. We hadn't reached the time of everyone having their own car - the very fine wicket keeper of that period, Arthur Norton, evidently came down from Cambridge for every game on the train and had to be picked up at the station. Very different now. Looking through the names at the end of the 6O's Graham Hancock, Mick Miller, Derek Smith, Cliff Abrahams and the redoubtable character Les Revell were turning out for the 2nd XI, and they had their fair share of success. Les was rather like a barnacle at the wicket, extremely difficult to dislodge. Then as the 7O's got under way the skipper of 21 of the post-war years, Alec George, decided to hang up his boots. The club and the reputation it has built up over the years owes much to Alec, added to the fact that he scored thousands of runs in his time. Ken Newland was also easing out - in fact Cyril Driver was the last of that era to retire.

© Langley Cricket Club