Located in the village of Takeley in Essex, the Cricket Club was established in 1880. Throughout the 20th century, we played friendly fixtures against other local village teams, on both Saturdays and Sundays, always with the emphasis on enjoyment of the game. Formation of a local league in the 1990's meant that Saturday friendly games were becoming harder to arrange and it became inevitable that we would need to play league cricket to ensure regular Saturday games.
In 1997, we joined Division 3 of the Herts and Essex Cricket League, playing games on Saturdays between April and September, largely in West and South Essex & East Hertfordshire. Since then we have won promotion twice and been Division 1 Champions (in 2002). In 2018 the 1st XI won the Division 2 title and the club took the decision to seek a new challenge in a different league. In 2019 Takeley CC competed in the Cambridgeshire Cricket League, Junior 1 South and won promotion at the first attempt. Following the break in league cricket for the 2020 season, in 2021 we played in the CCA Senior League Division 3 (which saw the return to the 45 over format) and were successfully crowned champions at the first attempt. In 2022, the club made the decision to join the newly formed Tees Herts and Essex Border League. The 1st XI will be competing in Division 1 in 2024
In 2009, we formed and entered a second team into the Herts & Essex Cricket League, which was largely aimed at helping push through the youth in the club, letting them gain experience on the way to (hopefully) becoming regular first team players in the future. The Second XI have enjoyed 3 promotions since their inception, including a fine season in 2016 where they finished runners-up. The 2nd XI played the 2019 season in division 4 of the Herts and Essex Cricket League, finishing in 8th position. Following the formation of The Tees Herts & Essex Border League over the winter of 2020/2021, the 2nd XI competed in Division 3 of the HEBL gaining promotion to Division 2 for the 2023 season. The 2nd XI will be competing in Division 3 for the 2024 season.
Not all cricket played at Takeley is on a league basis, and the Club still arranges friendly Sunday fixtures throughout the season against other clubs in the local area. We are always happy to welcome new players into the team and Sunday games are often a good place to start and get a flavour of the capabilities and camaraderie that exist in the Club. We pride ourselves on being a friendly club, with a competitive spirit, but playing to enjoy rather than win at all costs. We have a very pretty ground, which is well prepared and looked after and our teas are the envy of many other clubs. Exciting new plans are currently being finalised for a new scorebox in memory of Malcolm Brown.
We also compete in two midweek 20/20 tournaments, the Boardmans Davis cup and the League cup. The club has done very well in recent years, reaching several finals, winning the Davis Cup in 2005, 2019, 2020 and 2022 as well as the League Cup in 2017. We also won the Junior Cup in our inaugural season competing in the CCA, but were unable to defend the trophy due to our promotion into the Senior leagues.
As mentioned above, a key reason for creating the second team was to help to develop and retain young players as they become too old for local youth leagues. We have previously run many youth teams at Takeley and are both keen and happy to welcome new, young cricketers to the Club.
We have a modern pavilion (opened in 2000) with excellent facilities, and have hosted County youth and ladies games for Essex CCC several times in recent years. Plans are underway to add a scorebox in memory of former club secretary, Malcolm Brown.
Details on the exact location of the ground as well as contact information for captains and officials can be found on the relevant pages of the website. The Photo Galleries section is good viewing with a range of photos of Takeley players both young and old!
