Club Cricket Conference is evolving

The Club Cricket Conference was founded in 1915 to help clubs cope with fixtures during the Great War. The nascent CCC quickly attracted a substantial membership taking advantage of the facilities on offer, especially the annual handbook and the fixture bureau.

The CCC's main work on behalf of its 1,000 Member clubs and leagues clubs has been the fixture bureau, the handbook, organising club and two tiers of inter-league competition and providing tours and high-quality representative matches, including a chance to play at Lord's.

The CCC started a new knockout competition for southern clubs in 2009 to fill the void caused by the demise of the Evening Standard Challenge Trophy, the London area cup, the same year.

In 2011 a panel headed by Alf Langley (Shepherd's Bush CC) produced an exhaustive report analysing how the CCC could champion club cricket to maximum effect.

On-field experiences go global
Representative cricket began in 1922. The first CCC match was against the MCC at Lord's, and in succeeding years the list grew to include President's XI games against clubs celebrating landmarks and even against the touring national teams: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies and finally Sri Lanka. In 1930 the CCC played Australia in a two-day match at Lord's, Don Bradman and all, and in 1961 Richie Benaud's Australians were beaten by eight wickets at Blackheath.

History took another turn in 1971 when, in response to a request from their old friends the Australian Old Collegians, the CCC undertook a first international tour to Australia. Since that initial step into the unknown, when air travel was much less accessible to ordinary people, the CCC have returned six times. There have been trips to Hong Kong, six times, the Caribbean three times, New Zealand and Singapore twice, and Dubai, Kenya, The Netherlands, Sri Lanka, South Africa & Namibia and Zimbabwe once each. In 2012 the CCC are scheduled to visit Oman on a short eight-day tour.

Many, many top quality club cricketers have now had the opportunity of touring abroad and experiencing different conditions. In 1991 the CCC even played against a young Shane Warne, a seemingly rare occasion when he was on the losing side, taking 1-18 off his five overs.

Some names who toured with CCC include Mark Lane (South Africa 1994 & Zimbabwe 1999), later coach of England women, Richard Halsall (Australia 1997), who became involved in Ashes triumphs as England fielding coach, and Hampshire seamer Cardigan Connor (Australia 1983), who became a leading sports figure in his home island of Anguilla.

A few players such as Tony Stockley, Alan Holley, Richard Hayward and Neil Pattison all found something they liked about the countries they visited and went to live in either Australia or New Zealand.