“Cheers for the Champions”: Cricket, Community, and Celebration in Victorian Staithes

This fascinating piece of research was kindly shared with us by cricket historian Roy Hyde, who visited Staithes Museum with his wife Doctor Helen Hyde last year. While exploring the early history of cricket in the village, Roy uncovered a remarkable find: a celebratory cricket song written and performed in Staithes in 1897, along with the rich story of the team, the people involved, and the brief but brilliant heyday of Staithes Cricket Club at the end of the nineteenth century.

The song itself was performed at a club dinner following Staithes’ league victory, and the article places it in context — introducing the players named in the verses, tracing where they came from, and showing how cricket fitted into village life at the time. It’s a vivid snapshot of Staithes as a sporting, social community, shaped by local men, visiting players, and wider networks stretching well beyond the village.

Roy is keen to stress that he isn’t a Staithes local, and that this research is very much an invitation as well as a contribution. If you recognise family names, places, or stories here — or if you can add to what’s written — we’d love to hear from you. This is exactly the kind of shared history that grows richer when local knowledge and memories are added to the record.

We’re delighted to share this article on the museum blog, and we hope you enjoy discovering this lively chapter of Staithes’ past as much as we did.

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A public domain image of a painting Gilbert Laird Jessop after a photograph by George William Beldam - sorry, I haven't got any pictures of Staithes Cricket.

The Staithes Cricket Song 

Now it does seem quite an age since I got upon the stage,

   And tried to sing a little cricket song,

But to put it in the shade, a new one I have made,

   And to hear the chorus , ‘Now we shan’t be long’.

                           CHORUS

Cheers for the champions of the district,

   Staithes have made their foes to yield;

They’ve been tryers all around, and their efforts have been crowned,

   For they’re now the gallant winners of the League.

Eleven matches they have won, four others they have drawn,

  And I’m sure it makes us all rejoice tonight;

To their credit, ‘tis I’ll vow, when I say that up to now,

   They’ve only had their colours lowered once.

Now a word or two I’ll say about the lads who play,

   All through, they’ve really played a winning game;

There is one for years we’ve had, who to us has been a dad,

   He’s a champion, and Geo Bennison is his name.

Mr Anson with his bat is always minding what he’s at;

   And Richard Dix still is worth his place;

Mr Allan too, whom we’ve seen bat right through,

   While good old Bottomley’s always in the race.

Mr Brotchie with his play has a most peculiar way

   Of getting all his runs so nice and smooth;

And another I will name, who knows well the noble game,

   I mean that sterling batsman, Mr Scott.

Now a word or two of Allan, our very worthy pro.,

   He is clever with the bat, without a doubt; 

And if a batter leaves his crease, his innings’ sure to cease,

   For good old Dawson’s there to stump him out.

In the field and with the ball, young Birdsall beats them all,

   Deny it, I’m sure there’s no one can;

And a fact we cannot hide for youth is on his side,

   Rudgard is the coming all-round man.

Our team upon the whole is good with bat and ball,

   As first-class cricketers they’re no disgrace;

If by chance there’s one can’t play, no matter what the day,

   Willie Colfer’s always there to take his place.

Now I’m sure it would be rude, if I were to conclude

   Without a word or two of praise for one

Who a point has not let slip, all through his captainship,

   I refer to Mr Samuel Browne.

                     CHORUS

Cheers for the captain of the champions,

   If ever there was a good’un, he’s the one;

Since the captain he has been, prosperity we’ve seen,

   So we’ll give three ringing cheers for Mr Browne.

Now winter has come in, and we’ll give them all a rest,

   Until another season comes around;

And this to you I’ll say, upon that final day,

   Bang in front again they’re certain to be found.

Written and performed by William Bottomley, to the tune of ‘Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching’, at the Staithes Cricket Club dinner at Samuel Browne’s, Ridge House, Wednesday November 17^th 1897. Printed in the Loftus Advertiser, November 26^th, 1897. 

Cricket in the Whitby area was slow to get going, compared with the rest of Yorkshire. There is a record of a Whitby club in 1838, but only one. It obviously did not last, as in 1858 an advertisement appeared in the Whitby Gazette for ‘persons wishing to become Members of a club for this healthful exercise’. There must have been a few, as in the following year there was a club, and it was playing matches. This was the Streonshalh Club, and it was the linear ancestor of today’s Whitby CC. Soon, other clubs sprang up in the vicinity: Hinderwell had one by 1861, and played Lythe, so there must have been one there too. In the next year, a clergyman wrote to the Gazette noting that someone had said that the young men of the area had ‘gone stark staring mad after cricket’; and a jolly good thing too, he said, if it meant that they were getting some healthy exercise thereby. They kept at it, too: by the end of the century every village, however small, seems to have had a cricket club; there were works teams, church teams, country house teams, school teams. Staithes was no exception.

The first record of Staithes cricketers is in 1870, when a team from there (it may not have been a ‘club’ as such) played Boulby, whose players were workers from the Boulby Alum Works. No more is heard of cricket at Staithes until 1882, by which time there clearly was a proper club: its secretary wrote to the Gazette thanking Sir FA Milbank MP and three other MPs for their donations to it. But it did not last: in 1889 we hear that a club has been formed at Staithes, and ‘is progressing in a very satisfactory manner’, and has 20 members already. This time, we know the names of the players, as two of their matches are reported in the Gazette, with scorecards.

One name which stands out is that of the Revd GH Hancock, Pastor of the Staithes Congregational Church. Many cricket clubs in the nineteenth century were started or supported by the clergy: playing cricket, they thought, was a good way of keeping young men healthy and active – and out of the pub, at least while they were playing. It is a reasonable conjecture that the Revd Hancock, who was known as a temperance campaigner, was involved in the revival of the club. In 1891 he was transferred to another Church, and in the sporadic reports of the next few years, another clergyman, this time a Methodist, the Revd JW Houghton, occasionally appears, presumably carrying on Mr Hancock’s good work.

Until 1896, matches are reported only occasionally. A club calling itself Staithes Lane End is recorded, which is very likely just Staithes under another name: obviously there is no room to play cricket in Staithes village proper, so it is likely that then, as later, the cricketers played in the Lane End area. There is also one reference to Mr J Bennison’s Staithes team, consisting of some of the same personnel, so probably also simply Staithes, Mr Bennison being its organiser. 

Up to now, the Staithes club or clubs had been represented by local men, with familiar Staithes names: Bennison, Dix, Mayes, Trattles, Hugill, Dunn, and so on. In 1896, this changed. When Staithes played the Loftus 2^nd XI in August, three men with the surname Wreford-Brown, and another called simply Browne, appeared. These Wreford-Browns, Gerald, Eric, and William, were three of five brothers of that name from Gloucestershire, all of whom were good sportsmen. Another one, Charles, played football for England, and was a leading light in the formation of the FA. All were good cricketers, and some played at first-class level. But it is the other Browne who, despite the different spelling, was related to the Wreford-Browns (newspapers play havoc with his and their surnames, both here and in other contexts), who was responsible for the revival and temporary success of the Staithes Cricket Club, and he is the captain referred to in the song printed above. 

Samuel Browne was born at Clifton, Bristol, probably in 1862, and educated at Clifton College. He was a man ‘of independent means’, and a keen sportsman in all senses. Probably in 1894, he took a lease on Ridge House, just outside Staithes, where he was the ‘shooting tenant of a great part of the Roxby, Grinkle and Seaton estates’. He seems first to have interested himself in the Loftus Cricket Club, of which he was a Patron, as he was of the Loftus Football Club. He played some cricket for Loftus, and in 1895 and 1896 also played for Hinderwell, before beginning to play for Staithes late in the 1896 season. (Local cricketers during this period are often found playing for different clubs apparently interchangeably, and no one seems to have minded.) 

Mr Browne obviously decided to make the Staithes Club his project. In 1896 several local clubs had got together to form the Whitby and District Cricket League. In 1897, Staithes entered this for the first time, and won it: which was the occasion for the celebrations commemorated in William Bottomley’s song. As noted above, many village cricket clubs in the Victorian era were sponsored by clergymen; many others were encouraged by their local squires. Staithes had no squire (and no doubt would not have wanted one), but Mr Browne can be found doing various squire-like things – making speeches, supporting fund-raising activities; and sponsoring the cricket club.

One important thing that he did in 1897 was to bring to Staithes a professional cricketer by the name of Allan, whom I have not been able to identify, partly because he is sometime referred to as HS Allan, sometimes HG, and once W, and also sometimes as Allen. He was not in any case a famous cricketer, but rather one of the jobbing professionals who made a living by moving from club to club, coaching the players, reinforcing their teams, and maintaining their grounds. This last was an important role. Much village cricket at this time was played on pitches at which the most modest village cricketer nowadays would turn up his nose. (And scores were accordingly low: in 1902 Staithes batted first at Grosmont, were all out for 29, and still won, bowling Grosmont out for six!) There are occasional references in the Whitby Gazette to the Staithes Club improving its facilities; when it folded some years later, it had a pavilion, a mower, a roller, and other ground equipment, very likely provided by Mr Browne, and no doubt used by Allan and his successor in 1898, one H North. 

Where this ground was, incidentally, is not clear. I mentioned Lane End above, and there is no reasonable doubt that it was in this area – perhaps even where the Staithes Cricket Club plays now – but its exact location remains obscure to me. Samuel Browne also ran his own cricket club, the Ridge House Club, which played a good number of matches in 1897 and 1898 (22 in the latter year) which are sometimes reported as being played ‘at Staithes’; but Ridge House is at Staithes, and it seems that he may well have had his own ground prepared actually at Ridge House, which would have been another job for his professionals.

Another possibility is that Staithes played on land belonging to Seaton Hall Farm, which evidently extended as far as Lane End. For many years before WW1, the annual Grinkle Mines sports day was held on a field belonging to the farmer, William Dawson, which is variously described as ‘near to Lane End’, and ‘close to Seaton Hall’; Staithes may have played cricket there too. This man is the ‘good old Dawson’ mentioned in the song; he was the wicket-keeper, and a good batsman, who had played for Hinderwell, and turned out regularly for the Ridge House team. He was also a good horseman, and actively involved himself with the Grinkle sports as well as providing the venue. 

Some of the miners played cricket for Staithes: one was Richard Dix (sometimes spelt Dicks in the Gazette). By 1914 he is described as a ‘mines deputy’, and also had a lock-up shop in the village. He was an all-round sportsman, who is recorded as having won races at various local athletics events, and played football for Staithes Grinkle Rovers, of which he was captain for a time. I am not sure why Bottomley says that he is ‘still worth his place’; he was still a young man; perhaps it indicates that the Staithes team this year is rather different from the previous ones, and that Dix is one of the survivors. Another miner seems to have been George Bennison, recorded in the census of 1901 as a machine worker and ironstone miner, resident at Lane End. A number of Bennisons played cricket over the years, but he seems to be the only possible George: he had a son also called George, but if the one in question has been ‘a dad’, it must be George senior, who was in his early 40s – not much older, in fact, than William Dawson, and probably younger than Samuel Browne. 

I have already noted that the professional Allan is not readily identifiable: nor is ‘Mr Anson’. In fact, he is probably not Mr Anson at all, but Mr I’Anson, which is how he generally appears in the newspaper scorecards, as W, WM, and once as WEM I’Anson. There are no WEM I’Ansons that I can trace, so it seems likely that he is William Mangles I’Anson, son of another William I’Anson, of Saltburn, who at the time was 26, and living with his parents. His father was an engineer, and manager of the Cleveland Water Company, and the 1901 census records the younger William as also being a civil engineer. 

Brotchie is George Herbert Bedford Brotchie, seemingly known as Herbert or Bertie (which accounts for his being recorded as G, GH, H, or B in scorecards. He was the son of George Brotchie, agent of the Grinkle Estate, who also occasionally played cricket, despite originating from Orkney. Young George (born 1877) had moved south by 1901, when he was a partner in a building firm, and married in London in 1902. In 1921 he was an ‘export agent’ and living in Surrey, where he seems to have stayed. 

Ernest Henry Rudgard, who did not play much for Staithes (perhaps he gets mentioned because he was at the dinner), came from Scalby, where he was living in 1901 at the house of his father Richard, Scalby Hall, and aged 27. Richard was for a time Chairman of Scalby Urban Council, and he and Ernest were men ‘of private means’. He seems to have been a good cricketer, playing for Scalby and sometimes at Scarborough, and also a golfer and a member of Scarborough Rifle Club.

Apart from Bennison and Dix, these were not Staithes men, and it seems likely that Browne’s friends rather squeezed out some of those who had played previously. But some who do look like locals, though not mentioned in the song, did play from time to time: J Codling, WB Heslop, J Bennison (unless this is really George), and T Hopper. One JW Hobbis, who played once, may be a Knaresborough cricketer of that name, so presumably a visitor. A man called Brittain may have been one of Browne’s associates from Bristol. No fewer than four Wreford-Browns played this year, and they certainly were, as was HS Scott. This was Hopton Stratford Scott, a man of distinguished background: his grandfather was the Irish-born General Sir Hopton (or Hopetoun) Stratford Scott, but young Scott, who had been educated at Rossall, and been an associate of Browne in Bristol, obviously needed to earn a living, as he became a bank cashier at South Shields, where he seems to have lived for the rest of his life. If he is the same Scott who played for Staithes in 1895, he had been about for a while, and may even have introduced Browne to the club. 

Not only Browne’s friends played, but his employees. Mark Birdsall, originally from Leeds and a good bowler, is recorded in the census of 1901, aged 26, as a coachman and groom, in which capacity he no doubt worked for Browne. Later, like many such with the decline of horse transport, he became a chauffeur. Willie Colfer, a young Irishman, mentioned in the song as an occasional player, is described in the same census as a butler/manservant, which is presumably his role in Browne’s establishment. Not long before the club dinner, he reached his 21^st birthday, for which Browne held a party to which several of the cricketers came. 

Frustratingly, the man who wrote the song, William Bottomley, has defied identification. There were Bottomleys at Loftus, and at Great Ayton, and he may have been one of them, but he is described once in the Gazette as Mr Bottomley of Hinderwell, so he must have lived there for a time – he also played cricket for Hinderwell, as well as for Ridge House. But he was not there in the censuses of 1891 or 1901.

1897 was Staithes CC’s great year. In 1898 they started badly, but recovered to achieve second place in the league. But in February 1899, Samuel Browne left the area, to rent a property at Northiam in Sussex, and with him went Birdsall and Colfer, and another cricketer who had arrived in 1898 and seems to have been employed in some capacity by Browne; this was Edward Southall of Leeds, perhaps the best cricketer ever to play for Staithes, having played for Yorkshire 2^nd XI. (He might well have reached the 1^st XI, but it was discovered that he had been born in Lancashire, and in those days only Yorkshire-born players could represent Yorkshire.) Browne’s other associates likewise disappeared, and the result was that Staithes dropped out of the league, and no cricket is recorded there in 1899 or 1900. 

But they did not give up, and re-formed in 1901. William Dawson was still there, and may have been captain now, as he attended a meeting in March at which Staithes re-joined the league. More local names begin to reappear in the teams: Dix again, at least one Bennison, Trattles, two Lightfoots, Gargett, Cole, Duell, and Bell. Reinforcements this time came from another source: the Staithes artists. Fred Mayor, a good cricketer, had already played in 1897, and must have known Dawson, as they played together for Ridge House, and – as he seems to have been an organising sort of man – may have been responsible for recruiting other cricketing artists: Arthur Friedenson, Mark Senior (who had both previously played for Hinderwell), Harold Knight, JR Bagshawe, Frank Hillyard Swinstead, and possibly Frederick Stuart Richardson and Fred Jackson, all played for Staithes this year. 

Despite their best efforts, only two league matches were won, and they finished bottom. Nevertheless they resolved to soldier on in 1902 and, despite the absence of Fred Mayor until halfway through the season, with the help of Knight, Bagshawe and Friedenson and other visitors, managed to come second. But at a meeting of the league after the end of the season, it was resolved that ‘eight players in every team must in future be resident in the North Riding of Yorkshire’. This may have been aimed at Staithes, although other clubs also made use of visitors, and it is not clear whether players such as Mayor, Knight, and Friedenson who rented properties for part of the year, would have counted as residents. 

In the event, it did not matter. If I am right that Fred Mayor had been important in keeping the club going, his disappearance from the area from late in 1902 when he eloped to France with another artist, Hannah Hoyland, may have been a contributory factor, but one way or another, Staithes CC folded in 1903. It had joined the league again, but by June was unable to fulfil its fixtures. A Staithes team consisting of local men did play one further match, in August 1903, but that seems to have been it. In March 1904 the Gazette carried the sad announcement that Staithes CC was selling its pavilion, mower, roller, and other equipment. There was apparently no further organised cricket at Staithes until after WW1 when the present club was established.

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Our sincere thanks to Roy for generously sharing his research and allowing us to publish it here. This article, along with the final version of the text, will be added to the Staithes Museum archive so that future researchers, visitors, and members of the community can continue to access and build on it.

If you have any photographs, memories, or local knowledge connected to Staithes cricket — or if there is anything here you can help to correct, clarify, or expand — we would be delighted to hear from you. Please email us at staithesmuseum@gmail.com , and I will pass your message on to Roy. Contributions like these help ensure that Staithes’ history continues to grow through shared knowledge and community voices.