A brief insight into the history of the club:

The club was officially formed on the 14^th of March 1892 at a meeting in the ‘Hollybush Coffee Tavern’ (now the Village Club), it is believed that the Rev. A.C. Hayes called the meeting. Cricket had however been played in the village in the years previous, Mr Merrilees of Hopedene had laid a pitch but records suggest that this served only his ‘gentry’ acquaintances.

Mr Edwin Waterhouse (a founder partner of ‘Price Waterhouse’) had a pitch at Feldemore with a view to encouraging village cricket and records show boys games being played there - an early youth game saw Holmbury defeat Shere by 3 runs in 1890. Records also detail annual games between the Holmbury coachmen & gardeners, these games seen as a great day for the whole village with entertainment & refreshment afterwards.

At the 1892 meeting however, it was agreed to formalise a village club comprising of two teams - a men’s and boy’s XI. Twenty four playing members duly signed up, backed up by various non-playing members and subscriptions varied from two guineas to half a crown depending on the individuals status!

The Bray Estate kindly agreed to allow the club to play on an area on Holmbury Hill which is still the club’s ground today. It was just a clearing in the woods then and so many working parties where called to clear the area & lay a pitch. Until the ground was ready for use (1893/4) the pitch at Feldemore hosted the games.

Local villages provided the opposition and we know that Cranleigh, Peaslake, Shere, Shalford, and Holmwood featured from an early date. In 1895 the sum of 25 pounds was raised to finance the building of a pavilion and it wasn’t until 1900 that a water tank was added!

In 1901 the club experienced difficulties when the ground was deemed ‘unfit for cricket’ and so had to look to Hopedene for a suitable playing surface. Funds were again raised and a local building firm was engaged to improve the ground.

It seems that the club was always in need of extra funds and events were regularly organised to help boost the income. In 1906 a concert was held and Theodore Waterhouse and HD Swann (who managed the MCC tour to Australia in 1922) were noted attendants - the evening raised one pound.

The clubs first fixture against Holmwood resulted in a win but the overall early form was rather patchy, in only two of the early few seasons did the club win more than it lost. Scores were always low due to the poor condition of the local pitches. But no doubt the bowlers all enjoyed themselves – Frank Shepherd Snr took 9-17 against Cranleigh as an example.

An early Holmbury club photograph

The club went into hibernation during the 1^st world war but subscriptions were initially maintained and this allowed the club to improve it’s financial position.

By 1928 standards had obviously improved as Holmbury won the local league that season – details of which are displayed in the pavilion today. The second war put the club out of action again but cricket started up almost immediately after victory was announced. One of the first games to be played was Cranleigh against Holmbury, a game that featured on on BBC Radio, unfortunately such exposure did not inspire the Holmbury players and they were convincingly beaten!

1968 saw a new pavilion built up on the hill and success in the Dorking Evening League competition followed as Holmbury won back to back titles in 1970 & 71 seasons.

Playing strength continued to rise and in the 1972 season Trevor Moon became the first player to score 1000 runs, Barry Ede managed to take a haul of 118 wickets. The strength of the team remained into the 80’s when the club featured highly in the Surrey Mirror/Orion Airlines competition. In 1982 the club won the competition and enjoyed a break in La Manga as first prize, Trevor Moon was the main man with the bat winning the batting award three years in a row with Cliff Reddick featuring highly in the bowling awards.