Marylebone Cricket Club

Cross Arrows Cricket Club was founded in 1880 by members of MCC staff. Prior to 1880 they played away matches against other local cricket clubs, calling themselves the ‘St. John’s Wood Ramblers Cricket Club’. When they discovered another cricket club had the same name, they needed to call themselves something different. The day before they played against Northwood Cricket Club, one of the staff members asked where Northwood was and received a reply of ‘It’s cross ‘arrow way’ meaning that it was beyond the District of Harrow. J Fennell, who worked at Lord’s as an Assistant Tennis Marker, said ‘That’s it, let’s call the club the Cross Arrows’. Membership of the club was initially only for MCC employees but nowadays allows for MCC and Middlesex County Cricket Club employees past and present and also members of both clubs.

J A Murdoch, Assistant Secretary of MCC between 1878 and 1907, became the Cross Arrows’ first President. Since Murdoch, all the Presidents have also been the MCC Secretary, from Sir Francis Lacey onwards. The captain is usually Assistant Secretary of MCC. Famous players who have represented Cross Arrows during the years include Albert Trott (the only man to have ever hit a ball over the top of the Lord’s Pavilion), Gubby Allen, Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, Jim Laker, Fred Titmus, Mike Brearley, Garfield Sobers, and also non-cricketers such as Gary Lineker. The current Secretary of MCC and President of Cross Arrows, Derek Brewer, played against Cross Arrows for NatWest in 1988.

The club usually plays its fixtures in September, and regularly against teams such as Adastrians (Royal Air Force), Stage, Butterflies, Royal Navy, Stragglers of Asia, and MCC themselves. Cross Arrows fixtures have either been played on the Main Ground at Lord’s or the Nursery Ground. In 1980 Cross Arrows celebrated its centenary with a match against a combined MCC and Middlesex XI, while in 2014, to commemorate Lord's 200th anniversary, a match between a President of Cross Arrows XI and a Cross Arrows XI was played on the main ground at Lord's, made up of MCC staff.

This collection consists of minute books, files relating to fixture arrangements, scorebooks, membership and financial information. Not all records have been retained.