The Old Ruts Cricket Website

Club History

100 NOT OUT in 2009!

The Old Rutlishians' Cricket section was started in 1909. In those days the club did not have a fixed home and we played a few games on a number of pitches including Haydons Road Rec. In 1920s the Association acquired Poplar Road and this became our home. The cricket in these days was mostly friendly and a long standing list of fixtures built up. There were numerous tours including, during the 50s and 60s, a regular tour along the south coast. The club first considered league cricket when the Surrey Championship was formed in the 1960's but this did not have the support of the majority of the members.

In 1972, however, with many old opponents going into leagues, the club finally joined the newly formed Surrey County League. In the first season we were runners up. Several players then retired and the rest of the 1970s was a struggle with the club bumping along the bottom of the league and struggling to turn out Sunday sides.

It was against this background that John Morley and Jim Gilby, amongst others, started regular Friday night nets for schoolboys. This began to pay dividends with players coming through from the school again.

One of the highlights of the season used to be the matches between the Old Boys and the School, four fixtures played across the age groups followed by a buffet back at the club. Sadly the advent of league cricket and a full league fixture list on Saturdays ended this tradition.

Steadily the league performances improved, the club managing a highpoint in the 80s when putting out 8 teams on a Saturday!. About this time the club hit a peak with a string of fine performances. We won the League Cup in 1985 and again in 1986 (before some memorable nights of celebration). The club also reached the Decca Cup final stage at the Oval in 1987 and in 1991.

After the reconstitution of the league structure in Surrey we applied and were elected to join the Surrey Championship Division. Not long later and the first XI gained promotion to Division. In one of our best seasons we just missed out on promotion to the very top division. However, sadly, after highs there are often lows and after several players left and retired the first XI ended up being relegated back down.

The story has not ended there and the last few years have seen the return of great success to the Ruts. In 2006 the Second XI returned to the Surrey Championship after a few years in the Fullers League. Having discovered a taste for promotion, they followed this up with promotions in the Surrey Championship in 2007 and 2008, hitting the giddy heights of the third division of the Championship as they enter 2009.

The success of the Second XI appeared to have galvanised the First XI. Not to be outdone, the First’s matched the Second’s by gaining promotion in 2007 and 2008 and also enter 2009 in the third division of the Surrey Championship.

The third XI still seek the consistency to challenge for promotion but have a good recent record in the tough second division of the Third XI’s league in the Championship, regularly finishing in top 6 positions. The fourth XI, after many years of just playing friendlies, joined the Wey Valley League in 2006 and won the league. After that, they became founder members of the new Surrey Championship Fourth XI league. A further sign of promise was the regular return of the Saturday 5th XI in 2005. We hope that this will continue and maybe, somewhere in the future, we will look to field a 6th XI !. Not sure we'll get back to the days of putting out eight teams on a Saturday but it's a start.

The club was originally for ex-members of Rutlish School and for many years the cricket teams featured a predominant number of old boys. However, a reduction in the number of school leavers coming to join the club, later worsened when the school lost it's sixth form, the cricket section widened its membership criteria and admits a large number of non-ex-Rutlishians'. The bulk of our players are still Ruts but we won't turn away new blood.

One of the moves to increase the number of young players at the club was the reformation of the Colts section. Officially launched in 1996, a handful of kids playing Kwik cricket has subsequently evolved into our current Colts section of over 275 members, many of whom play for the adult Ruts. In 2006 our youth team won the Surrey Development League Plate Final, quite an achievement for a club way down in the pecking order of clubs within the Surrey Championship, a strong indication of our development and reliance on young up-and-coming players.

As we hit 2009, we enter our Centenary season. The club is massively proud of being in its hundredth year and hope that we can match such an event with success on the pitch and enjoyment off it.