Still Going Strong Cricket Club

Lees hier een tweetal artikelen die dit belangrijke evenement uitgebreid beschrijven.

Het eerste artikel is alweer een paar jaar geleden geschreven

Lees hier het artikel van Peter Hargreaves over het ontstaan van het Drielandentoernooi in 1969 : "The Forty Clubs' Triangular Tournaments"
Dank aan Maarten Ingelse die het artikel heeft omgezet naar een uitstekend leesbaar PDF-bestand.

In november 2020 is een nieuw artikel verschenen over het Vierlandentoernooi op de website van de Forty Club dat door Barry Aitken is doorgestuurd aan Duco Ohm op 28 november. Dit artikel is ook weer geschreven door Peter Hargreaves, nu echter als gevolg van de uitbreiding naar vier deelnemende landen. Het is nu geworden het Quadrangular Tournament. Wij publiceren dit onverkort op onze SGS Website omdat dit uitstekend weergeeft wat het toernooi is en betekent.

The Quadrangular Tournament is an annual competition between teams from the UK, Denmark, The Netherlands and Spain. 
The first competition was played in 1969 and was originally a triangular tournament, with Spain being added in 2014. These days, the tournament lasts a week, with the four teams competing in both a 45 over and 20 over competition.
For details of the previous tournaments and Gentleman's Cup winners, click here.

A little bit of history...

In a generation where international meetings within the auspices of the Masters' Games and the Golden Oldies have become established, the annual event of the original three veteran cricket clubs in Europe - the Forty Clubs - deserves a bit more limelight, not least for having been in operation since 1969, with the 20th  of such tournaments having taken place in July 1991. But our story begins earlier than that.

In 1929 the eldest of the trio of the clubs, Still Going Strong CC, was founded in Holland by AJH Eyken, where its activities were confined for almost 10 years. In 1936 in England Henry Grierson and his friends founded The Forty Club, which ranks among the largest in the world today in terms of membership.

In 1940 in Holland a man destined to do much for the game in his country joined the administration of SGS CC.  He was RG Ingelse who in 1951 took the club on tour to England for the first time, and repeated the feat in 1954 and 1956. It was not until 1961, in Rotterdam, where the two clubs SGS and XL met for the first time, and in 1963 The Forty Club returned to Holland.

1963 marked the founding of the third of the clubs, Dansk XL CC. Later that year a side of Forty Club players led by AL Newbery met the new club at Hjørrinq, in North Jutland, and in the same summer SGS met The Forty Club for the first time on English soil, at Sunbury-on-Thames.

In 1965 The Forty Club then met SGS at Amsterdam, followed by SGS making a first visit to Denmark, playing Dansk XL teams at Funen and in Jutland, in the second of which encounters the perennial Aksel Morild made 84. In 1966 two notables were included in the Forty Club's side which visited Denmark, (Sir) Len Hutton and R.T. Simpson - the first being sensationally bowled by Tom Provis fourth ball for a duck and the second falling also to this bowler, in Copenhagen.

When SGS met The Forty Club again at Sunbury-on-Thames in 1966 an historic, first Dutch victory in England resulted, mainly through an unbeaten 89 by Dr G Eikelboom, an achievement which made the BBC's news headlines. Later the same summer SGS then hosted Dansk XL for the first time at Apeldoorn.

In 1967 when The Forty Club visited Holland the West Indies leg-spinner Dr CB Clarke took the first of probably only two hat tricks recorded to date between the three clubs. In 1968 SGS faced a strong Forty Club side at Headingly, and later the same year XL visited Denmark, this time with the West Indies all-rounder, Denis Atkinson, in its ranks.

The series begins

By 1969 it had become obvious that far more enjoyment at less expense could be had if the three clubs could meet annually in a triangular tournament instead of in pairs, and with that year marking the 40th anniversary of SGS CC, the oldest, it was natural for the first of such series to be played in Holland, at Wassenaar. On this occasion two trophies were introduced, the Grierson-Ingelse and the Eikelboom cups. 

The course of the tournaments has contained highlights in plenty, and it is of significance that on only about three occasions over the past 22 years the event has not been able to be completed for some reason or other. On the occasion of the 20th  of them, at Slagelse in Denmark, a check revealed that two men had played in most of them - Jørqen Morild of Denmark. and Daan Ingelse of Holland.

Just for fun

Ludicrous as this might sound to historians and statisticians, study has revealed that in many instances no set tournament or match format was laid down although, fairly obviously, upon one club's team beating the other two it would clearly automatically be the tournament winner. Prior to 1984 drawn matches occurred in plenty, and even upon limited overs becoming introduced in that year the event of rain intervening especially on the third day still frustrated the outcome. Suggestions may have been made about taking averages and other factors into account, but as if by consensus nothing was ever laid down about this, almost as if to leave the issues as interesting material for discussion at the tables of the traditional banquet on the final night each year. In short, an element of playing for the fun of it could be claimed to have been preserved here, for all the keenness generally apparent when any pair of the clubs have clashed. On a single occasion one club, for certain reasons was unable to appear at short notice, leaving the other two to have to make do with a slightly more friendly match than usual in what had to be declared as a ‘no contest’ year.

Where the strength has been concerned, The Forty Club, with so big a membership on which to draw, has generally tended to be the best equipped, especially in batting on turf in England. But there have been exceptions and surprises in plenty, as the accompanying table reveals. Both SGS and Dansk XL have tended to be stronger in their own countries for obvious reasons, where the hurdles of finance and getting time off work have been less difficult for their players.
Individual achievements

Prior to the introduction of limited overs in 1984 there was a greater chance of a single bowler dominating the scene, even if this seldom occurred. The more prominent batsmen of The Forty Club tended to run up big scores, with R.T. Simpson and J.P. Fellows-Smith notoriously in the van, but when they failed the element of uncertainty frequently entered as if with a vengeance. SGS’s doyen batsman, Dr G Eikelboom headed the run-makers of his club, but after he stopped playing the contributions to its batting have been more spread, with powerful hitting in the middle order often being a feature. For Dansk XL the now legendary Aksel Morild was a bulwark to the side's innings in his time, and his younger brother Jørqen has also been a most consistent performer during a long career.

A few performances stand out particularly vividly over the years in these matches.  In 1973 in a Dansk XL vs The Forty Club match, Aksel Morild, at the age of 61, had given his Danish side a feasible chance of a victory when carrying his bat right through the innings.  The Forty Club’s man from Yorkshire, Bill Reader, who had earlier taken 6 wickets then followed this up by making 99 not out, to clinch the game when it might have gone either way.
Another outstanding all-round performance was produced by Carsten Morild in 1980 Edinburgh.  He ripped through The Forty Club, whose team was put out for a record low score despite having Fellows-Smith in its ranks, and then played a winning innings while nursing a very bad injury.

For SGS one has to mention the second hat trick achieved in matches between the clubs, which occurred at Amstelveen in 1990. Following a record high total, the host side opened with Theo Burki, known perhaps for living in the shadow of his brother Coen as a bowler, and within a few overs Dansk XL lost 5 wickets to this man.

The proper spirit

Although these games have been generally played hard, importance has always been placed on their being played fairly, and woe betide the batsman getting a fine edge who dare so much as cast any challenging glance towards the umpire. Now and then walkover victories have occurred, but the number of genuine, uncontrived cliff-hanger finishes has far outweighed these which, without doubt, has been as the players for the most would prefer them, not least as subject matter for discussion at the Tournament dinner. The tournaments are held traditionally in the' third week of July each year, with the venues generally being rotated unless one club happens to have an anniversary to be marked

From Three to Four

In 2012, in a controversial move, The Forty Club hosted the tournament at La Manga in Spain in October. However given that this would not impact upon the usual summer programme of cricket, and that it would be played in broad sunshine and warmth, this turned out to be quite popular with the players.
Having seen the three clubs and our cricket at close quarters, cricketers in Spain who had helped organise the tournament requested that they be allowed to join the trio, and so it was proposed and agreed in 2013 that Cricket Espana be invited to join the three, and to turn the Triangular Tournament into a Quadrangular Tournament, with the first 4-way event being staged in Holland in 2014.
 
“This tournament is important for all of our Clubs, not just for cricket and forging friendships, but also for promoting the game amongst ‘seniors’, generating an enjoyable and valuable cricket experience for our members and for sustaining the tournament into the future.”

Johnny T Barclay, President The Forty Club