History

Full source with comments (if applicable): click here.

History of the Club

[sourced from Repton Cricket (1901-1951) by F.R.D'O. Monro and Repton (1557-1957) by Bernard Thomas]

The first Old Reptonian match against the School was in 1857. It was a two-day match with the School winning by 42 runs, with further matches each year. See FIRST MATCH

From 1881 to 1884 there were matches in the London area managed by M. Forbes Tweedie (P'1875), who founded the OR Club in 1880 and was Honorary Secretary until it was re-organised as the OR Society in 1896. See 1880 OR CLUB

Matches around London were mostly lost owing to the difficulty of raising sufficiently good teams and the London matches lapsed for 16 years.

There was a tour based at Repton from 1886 to 1898, plus matches against Warwickshire Club and Ground at Edgbaston and against Eton Ramblers at the County Ground in Derby. These matches were more successful, losing only 8 matches in 59 with 21 wins.

It was the appointment of Lionel Ford as headmaster that put new life into the OR Society and in February 1902 a meeting was called to re-start OR Cricket and Football. Matches were arranged around London in 1902 and a South Coast Tour in 1903, while the Repton Week was restarted.

In 1907 a special match against the School XI was played to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the founding of the school. See 350th MATCH

OR Cricket, just before and after the First World War, was of a very high standard - from 1910 until 1914 and 1919 to 1921 (no matches being played from 1915 to 1918 inclusive) the South Coast tourists were never beaten.

[The last match of the Old Reptonians was on Saturday 16th July 1921 against Brighton College.] See LAST MATCH

This led to the decision, strongly supported by Dr. Fisher, to start a club with an active committee to run its affairs. Thus the Repton Pilgrims came into being, the first match being played against Repton School on 23rd/24th June 1922.

Post Script

The official 1905 scorebook has the following entry:

There was no South Coast tour in 1905 owing to my marriage at the time when it should have taken place. Shame! F.R. D'O. Monro. See 1905 South coast Tour

F.R. D'O. Monro, who ran O.R. Cricket from 1902, was elected the first Honorary Secretary of the Repton Pilgrims in 1921.