Welcome to The Hornsey Club History.
According to Hornsey Club’s official history, written by A Dey & D Cox (162 pages in 1970) the club can claim an unbroken existence since 1870. However, in 1842 an eleven of Hornsey played an eleven of Highgate for £20’.
In 1848 Hornsey played in a field opposite the ’Priory’ which was owned by the Warner family. (’Sir Pelham Warner famous of the body-line tour in Australia was one of our early Presidents). The secretary was F S Danvers whose name along with Warner is remembered by street names in the locality.
The official history of the club (if you find a copy) is full of extraordinary detail and information about the early days of the club. It was fully researched by the authors and has a number of interesting photographs. Names of famous cricketers (national and county), records, other Middlesex clubs, and scorecards of matches, make it a delightful if somewhat eccentric read.
A summary of the history would reveal that before the end of the 19th century, Hornsey had established itself as one of the leading clubs in London along with clubs like Southgate (one of our oldest adversaries).
In the inter war years Hornsey developed the Tivoli Rd ground with an attractive Edwardian pavilion which later had squash courts added to it. It had a fine tennis section playing on grass courts and regular hockey matches. All matches were ’friendly’ and Hornsey operated a full day and half day teams as well as a second eleven. Competition was fierce
After World War II, the club continued to play top level cricket with a constant supply of good young cricketers from the nearby Highgate Public school with who the club has always had a close connection. In 1959, the club hosted a County Championship match between Middlesex and Hampshire, and a photograph in the history shows the Tivoli Rd ground at its best. The view from the balcony on the old pavilion is superb with Alexandra Palace on the hill, with trees all the way up to Muswell Hill.
A major change altered the nature of cricket in Middlesex in 1969:
"The Middlesex County League was conceived in 1969 when Bob Peach, Roger Pearman (Hornsey) and David Evans (Edmonton) got together and short-listed 12 clubs of ’suitable’ playing strength within the county (including Richmond from Surrey!)
’The initial meeting was held at Hornsey CC and attended by Hornsey, South Hampstead, Edmonton, Ealing and Finchley. They agreed to expand their group to 16, adding Richmond, Brondesbury, Brentham, Enfield, North Middlesex, Shepherds Bush, Southgate, Stanmore, Teddington, Wembley, and Winchmore Hill.’
In general, league results in this early period were a reasonable reflection of earlier and continuing performances of leading clubs. Hornsey, the first official winners in 1972 repaid popular predictions, and with Finchley (1973 and 1975), and South Hampstead (1974) all three had considerable success in at least one of the National and the more locally based Middlesex competitions.*
The Pearman brothers Roger, and Hugh, were very much instrumental in Hornsey’s cricketing success, and it would be hard to find any 2 others in the county whose achievements ranked with theirs.
The club won the First eleven Middlesex Championship under the guidance of Colin Nash in 1981, but since then the League divided into 3 divisions in 1999,we are still waiting to fly a championship pennant at the Tivoli Rd Ground. It is worth mentioning here that the club ground is the nearest quality ground to the city and West End and 10 minutes from Finsbury Park underground station by bus.
In 2004, the clubhouse and squash courts were burnt down; the last to suffer the same fate as all the Crouch End Playing Fields clubs, but building a new clubhouse on the site is will be completed by September 2005 and ready for immediate use at the start of the 2006 season.
Football Club. (Sporting Hackney).
Sporting Hackney FC was established in 1985. We currently run two men’s teams and play on Saturday afternoons. Our home ground is The Hornsey Club Crouch End with training taking place under floodlight in east London during the winter. With around 40 players each season of which 30 are usually available for selection.
The club plays in the London Commercial Football League (affiliated to Middlesex FA), which is recognised as having a high standard of administration, discipline and refereeing. There are 7 divisions; the first team are in Division 1 (top) the llnds in Division 3.
The standard of football high and players will need to be fit have played at an good organised level if they want to get into either team. Selection is dependent on a number of factors with the final decision being made by the respective captains. The factors considered are ability, attendance, attitude, money and reliability (see club rules).
We place a strong emphasis on friendship and fair play, both on and off the field, and over the years has developed a set of club rules agreed by all the payers that must be signed up to. We are an open club and have had over 35 nationalities play for us. These include Brazilians, Norwegians, Japanese, Italians, Australians Kiwis, Americans and half a dozen African nations. The club therefore has developed a strict code of non-racist behaviour.
Training is compulsory. It takes place for 2 hours each week and is structured to include 1 hour of fitness work and drills and 1 hours two-touch football.
An overseas tour is arranged once a year. The club has so far toured in Sweden (twice), Denmark, France (twice), Spain, Italy and Germany.