Cricket may have been played at Cuckney in the 1850's but the first record of a match can be found in the Mansfield Recorder dated 1897. The article gives details of a game between Cuckney and Woodhouse Primitives. The score sheet makes for fascinating reading. Didn’t realise Dave Betts was preparing the wickets in those days.

In those early years, Cuckney had two 'friendly' teams playing on Saturdays, augmented by a mid-week eleven. Arthur Dernley appears to have been the original club secretary. Up until the start of World War II, the cricket team was part of a Sports Club which also played tennis and bowls. Some 'senior' local people still remember farmer Kay keeping the outfield short by grazing his cattle, and flattening the wicket with a monstrous roller drawn by a horse 'wearing rubber boots'!

During the War the ground was taken over by the Army, who installed a searchlight and anti-aircraft battery. Afterwards, the tennis and bowls sections were not revived, but Wilfred Hill started up the cricket club again for the benefit of returning servicemen.

Cuckney played 'friendly' cricket until 1961, when we joined the Bassetlaw League, and in 1979 the club also entered a team into the Mansfield & District Sunday League. During the 80's and 90's we regularly entered the National Village Cricket Competition, reaching the area final on two occasions and featuring in both the Daily Telegraph and the Cricketer Magazine.

Two Cuckney players may hold a unique record! Whilst on tour in Wales in the 1980's, 'spin doctor' Les Smith took a hat-trick in which every victim was stumped by Robin Barlow. Does anyone out there know if this has been achieved before?

Cuckney Cricket Club was always part of the local community, drawing players from the village and surrounding communities. Recently, however, the demands of providing players for five teams at the weekend has necessitated drawing on talent from further afield, including overseas. Nevertheless the club remains at the heart of Cuckney village and always endeavors to retain a friendly local atmosphere.

Over the last 15 years Cuckney Cricket Club has developed into one of North Nottinghamshire’s finest cricket clubs. However for 100 years it consisted of just a wooden shed with no electric, heating & very limited facilities.

One of the main problems the club faced was the lack of playing membership, both old & young due to its poor facilities.

The club & committee set out to develop a purpose built new Pavilion to encourage new playing membership and make the club a social centre for the local community.

There were several years of hard voluntary work applying for grants and carrying out fundraising events.

In 1998 all the hard work had paid off as the new pavilion opened (built by its members) and marking the clubs centenary year. This purpose built facility now offered disabled facilities, showers, heating, bar & much needed function room.

THIS FUNCTION ROOM HOLDS 150 AND IS AVAILABLE FOR HIRE CATERING CAN BE ARRANGED CONTACT BOB LITTLE 01623 845555

It wasn’t long before the club grew its membership & developed its youth policy. Cuckney School could also now use the facilities to play quick cricket & games. The club also saw its adult membership increase which meant several new teams had to be set up to provide cricket for all ages. The club now has 2 Saturday teams and 3 Sunday teams together with under 13’s, 15’s & 17’s youth competitive cricket teams.

In 2000 when the club had fulfilled its objectives they were once again faced with a problem. We had all these new members both social & playing but found that all the local indoor training facilities were inadequate. People in the North of the County had to travel to Nottinghamshire Cricket Club, Trent Bridge for decent facilities.

The committee set out to raise £375,000.00 to build a state of the art indoor training facility. Once again we spent countless hours on our funding programme through fundraising events and grant schemes. The club through all of its voluntary hard work were once again successful in reaching the required funding to build this project. In September 2002 the new indoors-training centre opened providing all-year round facilities for the club, community and all in the North of the County.

The centre is equipped with specialist flooring & equipment to cater for many sports such as Cricket, 5 A-Side football, Archery, Basketball, Table Tennis, Aerobics, Judo, Indoors bowls and many other activities. There is a viewing gallery, computer suite disabled lift which enables all to take part or watch their friends and family.

The centre also doubles up into a function suite with seating for 400 to cater for weddings, book & antique fairs, private parties etc.

The club also holds its own annual sportsman’s functions and entertainment.

These new facilities have helped the club achieve on the field as well as off. The Saturday 1st XI team have moved from division 5 of the Bassetlaw league and now play in the Nottinghamshire Premier League. The Saturday 2nd team have moved from Division 10 & now play in Division 2 of the Bassetlaw league. We have two Sunday teams that play in the Mansfield League (Premier League, Div 1 & Div 5). The 2nd’s have been promoted several times. The 2nds on a Sunday help develop our youngsters by giving them the chance to experience senior cricket.

Moving on from the success of the Indoor training centre and the popular closed season indoor cricket league we had found that we had that many youngsters playing the game that we now required a 3rd Saturday side. This was introduced several years ago but the problem was that we had to hire a ground for these youngsters, which wasn’t ideal.

The committee set their stall out to develop a second ground at Cuckney CC. They undertook many negotiations with the local land owner and it was agreed that Cuckney CC would acquire land adjacent to the indoor cricket centre. This was great news for the Club.

The committee set to the task of raising funds to develop this ground. Sponsorship, plant and equipment were generously provided by 2 local businessmen who wanted to see this facility developed for the youngsters of our community.

In 2010 the ground was opened for the first time which enabled all the Cuckney teams to be able to play at one safe location whilst providing first class facilities for the youngsters. This ground will eventually become the Premier League ground.

It has taken the Club & committee 15 years to achieve its goals and objectives. We now wish to involve as many people as possible throughout the area using these special facilities.

Membership application form are available on our members page. OR WRITE TO MR BOB LITTLE, CUCKNEY CRICKET CLUB, LANGWITH ROAD, CUCKNEY, MANSFIELD, NOTTS, NG20 9NG. 01623 845555