Lindum History

Lindum History



The Roman name for Lincoln was Lindum Colonia, and their ninth legion was based here. The club logo is a Roman Centurion, with the Roman numerals IX representing the legion.

Lindum Cricket Club was formed in 1856. Both the club and the ground are known locally as "The Lindum". Minor Counties cricket has been played at the Lindum for over a hundred years and other important cricket events have also been held here. In 1895 the Lindum was seen as "the strongest provincial team in England"
Did you know that Julius Caesar played Cricket at the Lindum? This was the real name of a Surrey player who played in an All-England XI which also included George Parr, Richard Daft, Tom Hayward and John "Foghorn" Jackson which played 22 of Lincoln & District at the Lindum in June 1860. In a three-day 2-innings match the number of runs scored totalled 177--for the loss of 62 wickets!

Other visitors have included the New Zealand tourists who played the Minor Counties representative side here in 1965, Surrey in the Gillette Cup in 1974, Derbyshire in the NatWest Trophy in 1997, and Nottinghamshire and Glamorgan in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy.

The Lindum XI which played Derbyshire Friars in 1922 (above). The club's professional (standing, second from the left in the boater) was obviously not playing in this match. This side included two army officers, a surgeon and the bosses of three well-known Lincoln businesses--Newsum's (timber merchants), Whitton's (bakers) and Shaw's (cabinet makers and furnishers). Standing: F "Dad" Theaker (umpire), Tom Shaw (pro), F Rose, A Gamble, R Stimpson, Capt Billiatt, C Wilson, G W Andrew (scorer). Seated: G C Wells-Cole, G A H Mence (secretary), R Whitton jun., H N Newsum, Major C Wilson (capt), Martyn Shaw, W Rose (wkt), R Whitton senior

When the Aborigines came to the Lindum
In September 1868, the Australian Aborigines--the first touring side from Australia--played a 2-day match on our ground against a side representing Lincoln & District. They wore coloured sashes so that spectators could identify them.

The Lincoln side scored 44 in their first innings, Mullagh taking six wickets. The Aborigines scored 78, their captain, Lawrence, making 37. G H Nicholls took eight wickets in the innings.

Mullagh took a further four wickets when Lincoln batted again, but Clement Booth scored 51 out of a total of 100. The Aborigines needed 67 runs to win. But G H Nicholls took a further six wickets and the touring side was all out for 56, leaving Lincoln the winners by 10 runs.

It was an astonishing result.

After the match, the crowd of almost 5,000 were entertained by "sports", a regular feature of the touring side. There was a demonstration of spear-throwing, the velocity and accuracy drawing loud applause. Then the crowd were treated to the novelty of boomerang-throwing.

Finally, one of the Aborigines, Dick-a-Dick, performed his amazing act of "dodging the cricket balls". Five or six cricketers from the Lincoln side threw balls at him but he just grinned as they whizzed past, or were guarded off by a narrow shield which he held in his hand.
In 1988 the Aborigines made another tour of England and as far as possible they played on the same grounds as those 120 years earlier.
The Aborigines played a Lincolnshire representative XI at the Lindum which was led by James Quincey. As in 1868, there were several Lindum players in the side.

The Lindum club played against the MCC at Lords on three occasions during the 1880’s. The scorecards can be seen here MCC V Lindum Scorecards.
The greatest achievement for the club occurred in 2011 when the Lindum U15 team won ECB U15 National Club Championship. Winning in the last over against Woodford Wells. The team were presented with the trophy by ex-England captain Michael Vaughan.