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Club History

Thames Ditton Cricket Club have played on Giggs Hill Green at least since 1833, the date of their first recorded match. A copy of the scorecard from that game against Twickenham CC, is in the Pavilion.

Since that time many famous cricketers have played on the Green. Heathfield Stephenson, who in 1861/62 captained the first English side to tour Australia, played for the Club. He is the first player featured on a mural in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) pavilion showing many of the famous cricketers who have played on that ground. His nephew, Maurice Read, was the first Thames Ditton player to score a century in a club match. He became a professional with Surrey, and played 14 test matches for England in the 1880s and 1890s. In 1892 Tom Richardson, the great Surrey and England fast bowler, came to live in Angel Road. He played many times for the Club until his death in 1912.

In the 1890s Thames Ditton, and their rivals Mitcham, were regarded as the leading clubs in Surrey. Matches between the two clubs attracted crowds of up to 5000 spectators. Other England cricketers played for the Club on occasions, Leonard Braund and Tom Hayward amongst them.

The Centenary Year was celebrated in 1933 with matches against Twickenham. Eddie Watts, one of three brothers in that era, went on to play for Surrey. He took all 10 wickets for Surrey v Warwickshire in 1939, and had not the War intervened may well have become a test player. He returned to play for TDCC when he retired from first class cricket in 1952.

England Players who have played for the Club

Maurice Read

Maurice Read, who was born at Thames Ditton, on Feb. 9, 1859, and therefore belongs by birth to the only county for which he has ever played, does not need a very lengthy introduction to our readers. From the day of his first appearance in the Surrey eleven in 1880, down to the present time, he has played a prominent part in county and other first-class cricket, and he was never been in better form than during the first half of the season of 1889.

Unfortunately, at the very height of the summer, when he was batting more consistently than at any previous part of his career, he had the misfortune to severely injure one of his fingers in making a catch in the Surrey and Yorkshire match at Sheffield. This accident prevented him from appearing for the Players, either at the Oval or Lord’s, and another injury kept him out of the most important match of the Oval programme-the return with Notts on the Bank Holiday. Despite all these disadvantages, however, he left off for the year with a very fine record.

Maurice Read visited Australia as a member of Shaw and Shrewsbury’s team in the winter of 1884-85; again under the auspices of Shaw and Shrewsbury in the winter of 1886-87, and for the third time in 1887-88. For the first tour he had a batting average in eleven-a-side matches of 16.2; in the second tour a batting average curiously enough of exactly the same value-16.2-in eleven-a-side matches, and 25.19 in all matches. On the third visit his average was 16.10 in eleven-a-side matches, and 23.2 for all engagements.

On the whole, therefore, it cannot be said that on Colonial grounds he has come up to his English reputation. Of his doings for Surrey, however, since he first appeared for the eleven a column could easily be written. Maurice Read does not belong to the strictly orthodox school of batsmen, but plays a game of his own, and plays it well, hitting brilliantly on all sorts of wickets. His fast bowling is occasionally effective as a change, and as an outfield he certainly ranks among the English players who come nearest to William Gunn, being a very fast runner, and having a sure pair of hands.

Tom Richardson

Leonard Braund

Tom Hayward