The History of Purley on Thames Cricket Club
- what we know so far....
There are references to the men of Purley taking on Tilehurst and other local villages at a ground near the old Roebuck Public House on the Reading to Oxford Road in the late 1700s. However the club does not have seemed to have developed from this period and until more modern times (the 1950/60s) very little evidence exists to suggest that a club was formed or survived.
In the 1950/60s some club activity was underway to such an extent that when the Parish Council developed the Goosecroft Recreation Ground in Beech Road a cricket square was included and in May 1968 the club was formally constituted in its current form. The first game also taking place in 1968.
Purley CC - 1950s/60s - actual date unknown
The club grew through the 1970s until in 1983 it amalgamated with Associated Biscuits Cricket Club. "Biscuits" had lost their home ground at Kensington Road in Reading with the closure of all biscuit making in Reading and the amalgamation was to lead to Purley winning the Berkshire League many times through to the end of the 20th Century.
The Biscuits club had a long an distinguished history in its own right - the first reference to cricket at the biscuit factory having been in 1855.
The Reading Biscuit Factory Cricket Club 1886 - winners of the Town Cup
The Reading Biscuit Factory Cricket Club 1897