Ealing 3 Bridges
Cricket Club is based at the Harrow Recreation Grounds, Harrow, North West
London.
The club fields
two Saturday teams playing in the 2nd division Middlesex Championship League
and a Sunday team which plays friendly matches. In recent years the club has
been the winners of the 1987 League, Middlesex Championship League, Divisions 3
& 4. Further the club has won several T20 Trophies in the last few years.
The club is a
rich mixture of multiculturalism and operates as non- profit making
organisation, it provides cricket for adult players within the local community
and beyond. The result of which is that the club players comprise of a blend of
cricketers from around the Globe.
Victorian Era -
1970/80s
The club`s
history goes back to Victorian times when it was known as the Hanwell Lunatic Asylum Cricket
Team and subsequently, St Bernard’s Hospital Cricket Team until circa 1985,
when successive Conservative and Labour Governments decided to sell/build on
playing fields across London.
The Current
Ealing Hospital and the former John Connolly Unit (demolished 2014) are built
on what was one of the best cricket grounds in the Ealing area, in terms of
size and quality, which was lovingly tended by the late John Hastings, Head Grounds
man, through the 1970s/80s.
During the 70s
the club hosted the “Clive Lloyd Cup” on many occasions and Charity matches
where renowned international players would be in attendance. The team during
this era was led by stalwarts, Ron Hart, Ken O'Brien Stoute, Silvern Hunte and
the charismatic Burt Sandiford.
1990s
Circa 1990 a
group of like-minded cricket enthusiasts (Rick Tucker, Kevin Connor and Cletus
Nathanielsz) working at the ever- shrinking St Bernards Hospital, resurrected
the hospital cricket team naming the club after the Three Bridges Forensic
Unit, which in turn is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel's engineering
accomplishment (Three Bridges Ancient Monument) to be found adjacent to the
hospital estate (Windmill Lane, Southall, Middlesex).
During the first
couple of years the club was nomadic, playing half a dozen or so fixtures a
season within the local area of Ealing. The Club membership at this time was
mainly made up of professionals from the NHS among others. 1993 the club
settled in the St Mary's College (TVU) Grounds, Argyle Road, Ealing spending
17-18 years sharing the Grounds with the Gunnersbury Ladies Cricket Club. In
1997 the club was re-branded and the word "Ealing" was added to the
name on the advice of Middlesex Cricket
Board in order to avoid any confusion with the other cricket club by the same
name based in West Sussex.
International Tours
In 1998 the club
embarked on a tour of Sri Lanka, where matches were played on Test grounds both
in Colombo and Kandy. In 1999 a tour to Grenada in the Caribbean took place,
where the club played, among other teams, The Prime Minister's XI and was later
hosted by the Premier, The Right Honourable Keith Mitchell at his residence,
which overlooked the St Georges' International Cricket arena. In recent times
the club has toured Devon and Somerset on two occasions.
Two of the
longest serving members of the club dating back to the mid 1970’s are Ken
Stoute (Treasurer) and Cletus Nathanielsz, the latter serving in the capacity
of Captain, Secretary and Chairman (1996 - 2012). In April 2010 the club moved from Ealing to
the Harrow Recreation Grounds (formerly Harrow St Marys CC). Since 2010 the
club has progressed positively, growing in its membership, while continuing to
uphold the very ethos it was founded on: “Cricket for all”.