Salfords Cricket Club was formed in 1921. Home games were played at a ground off Honeycrock Lane, approximately where Salfords School in Copsleigh Avenue is today, and adjacent to the London - Brighton railway line. The Clubs first captain was Tom Enever, whose photograph can be seen in the pavilion today.

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council compulsorily purchased the original ground in 1958 for housing, and for two years the club played its home games in the Memorial Sports ground in Redhill Town Centre.

In 1960, the Council relocated the club to its present ground at Petridge Wood Common, off the Woodhatch Road. The club owns the Pavilion, but the car park and path are provided and maintained (!) by the council. It is said that an attempt was made to use the area where the ground is now to grow potatoes during WWII, but that most of the crop rotted due to the wet ground! The clay layer is about 12 feet thick here, and we still have problems at the start of the season with waterlogging.

By 1971 the club was running one Saturday and one Sunday side, playing friendlies. In 1972, the club entered the then Haig National Village Knockout Championship for the first and only time, being beaten by Chaldon in the preliminary round. Also during the 70s, the club played evening matches, both friendlies and in the local business league. Salfords also hosted the first round of the East Surrey Cricket Association 6-a-side competition, and managed to get past the first round on several occasions, before going out to one of the big clubs.

The late 70s saw the club start the season with a consistent 18-20 playing members, just not enough for an additional side. However, when the colt.s section was formed in 1984, a successful effort was made to start a second team, in those days playing on either day over the weekend. In their first year, the colts won the area league, and went on to the finals played at Guildford. Having won their semi, they were beaten in the final, but quite an achievement in their first year. Sadly, no colts teams have been run since 2000, due to lack of players, something we hope we can revive in the future.

In 1994, the club applied successfully to join the then Arun Valley League. In our first season (1995), the 1st XI finished runners up and could have gone one better had they not lost the toss in their last game. (League rules at the time gave an extra ten points to teams winning the toss, batting first and winning the match). In 1997 the league became the Surrey Downs League.

Between 1987 and 1993, Salfords went on successful tours to the Isle of Wight and the Weymouth area of Dorset. In 1990 the very successful Cricket Week was introduced, which starts each year with President.s day, when a Salfords XI take on the President's Select XI. In 1999, we had sufficient playing members to introduce a Sunday second team, and on one occasion actually put out 5 teams on one weekend.

Off the field, as a means of keeping the members together during the winter, the Club ran 2 teams in the Reigate, Redhill and District Table Tennis League. The first team had one season in the 1st Division, playing against opposition of County standard, and enjoyed the experience. The Table Tennis Section continued until the early 90s.

By way of fundraising, the Club ran a Bingo evening every Thursday throughout the year at Salfords Social Club. Though that ended some years ago, the Club continues to arrange various Social and Fundraising activities throughout the year.

Our current fixture secretary, Ian Sherlock, has been doing the job for 30 years, and says the fixture list has changed greatly over that time, though Holmbury St Mary, Redhill, and Smallfield CC's are ever present.

The pavilion has been upgraded several times over the years, with showers being installed around 1977, about the same time that Watneys Red Barrel was replaced with Harveys Sussex Bitter, which is still the main ale sold by the bar today, and gets blamed for all sorts of things! In 1996, the Club successfully applied to the Lottery Fund for a grant to replace the pavilion.s asbestos roof with the present tiled one. Further pavilion improvements are carried out each winter.

With thanks to Tony Harvey and Ian Sherlock, who provided the information for this history.