PARSEE CRICKET CLUB

By Brian Sanderson,

On Thursday Peter Davies invited a number of people to his birthday lunch in Huddersfield.I was pleased to go and had a excellent Indian meal with good company.
Before I caught the train back to Leeds, I went with Brian Senior to Huddersfield Library.In the local section there was a book about Huddersfield Cricket Club.On opening it I found a fixture against the Parsee Club in 1886.I wondered how this had happen they played a Indian Team.

On the next afternoon I was looking through Cricket magazine for 1886 as one does in afternoon in March. One of the articles mentioned the trip of the Parsee cricketers coming to England.They were to leave Bombay and arrive in London about the 18th of May.Fixtures in the North shown they played Harrogate, Elland ,Hull Middlesborough, Huddersfield and Scarborough.

Te first match was against Lord Sheffield X1 .They lost the match by an innings and
43 runs.It states that five of the team bowled, Messrs. Patell, fast under,Framjee,fast round,Bhedwar, underarm fast,Khambatta,left fast and Morenas.No comment on his bowling.

They played Harrogate on the 9 and 10 June 1886.Harrogate scored 211 and won by an innings and 13 runs.

The next article in the Cricketer on the 19 August heading The Farewell address of vthe Parsee Cricketers.It states the coming over of the Parsee cricket team to England at the expense of time and considerable outlay is a remarkable feature in the history of this country,and marks a new era in the annals of this noble game.They were highly flattered at the reception we received at Cumberland Lodge at the hands of Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Christain and also at Sheffield Parkby the Earl of Sheffield.

They stated the Parsees are unanimous in favour of British rule ,for they consider it best not only for themselves but for all the different communities of India.A different world to twitter.

Looking at the Cricket Archive web-site it has the list of the matches of the tour.
The Huddersfield match was played on the 9th and 10th July.Huddersfield scored 302 and the Parsees scored 75 and 59 for 2. It must have rain again in Huddersfield.
The scores were in the Huddersfield Chronicle paper.