A Written History of Preston Cricket Club
The two documents below were written and compiled by long time follower of both cricket and football in Preston, Brian Membrey.
They describe in great detail the history of the club up to 1955 and also of Preston Park, our home since 1860.
Sadly Brian passed away in July 2023. The club acknowledges the loss of a long time and regular supporter who was always willing to sponsor any initiatives raised by the club. Brian was touched and very proud to be awarded life membership of Preston Cricket Club in 2019.
PRESTON CRICKET CLUB - OUR HISTORY
The club is immensely grateful to Brian for his time and effort in preparing these documents. The long history of the Preston Cricket Club is a regular point of discussion within the club and to have these documents which detail that history so thoroughly is an invaluable asset for the club.
Here is some background on Brian and how he became a historian of sport in Preston.
Boys bred and born in Preston during the post-war "baby boomer" years had little option other to take an interest in sport: yes, we had the radio and an occasional Saturday afternoon matinee at the "flicks" if there was a little spare change left over after the morning's shopping, but our heroes were pretty much all Aussie sportsmen, although the success at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics of several female athletes brought to notice "the fairer sex".
My grandparents moved into Belmont Street, West Preston during the town's boom period of the early 1920's; Dad to Bell Street near Harold Street in 1940 just before he enlisted. I managed to inherit all the family's sporting ability - which amounted to exactly none! For some reason, both my Grandpop and Dad opted to follow Preston rather than a League club and my Saturday afternoons during winter were regularly spent at Cramer Street prior to playing five or six seasons of pretty ordinary football, P.D.J.F.A. to under-18, then Metropolitan open-age league.
I was invited - perhaps "shanghaied" is a better word - onto the football club committee during desperate times around 1999, and while aware that Preston first entered the Victorian Football Association in 1903, was somewhat surprised at how little was known of the past history of a club which was believed to trace back to 1882 (although like the cricket club, there was were two or three false starts and resurrections along the way).
As a result, I perhaps foolishly took on the task of compiling the "anniversary" history of the football club in time for the low-key 2003 "centenary year", noting along the way any other references to either cricket or "Preston Park", all filed under "possibly useful information". When presenting a copy to Dick Norris (who I barely knew at the time), he suggested it might be time he brought together a similar history of the cricket club given his family had scorebooks and other material dating back to the 1930's. I suggested I could pass on the earlier material I had filed away for no apparent reason. Now read on!