By Ewart Patrick

Havelock Cricket Club, from which Birmingham Moseley is descended, was probably founded in 1858 and was almost certainly named in honour of Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, who was prominent during the Great Indian Rebellion or First War of Independence (1857–59) and who died in India in November 1857.

The first mention of the club in the local press appears to have been in The Birmingham Daily Post on 10th August 1858, when a report of Havelock’s match with the Brougham club, at Mr Sturge’s Field, near what is now Five Ways, appeared.

On the following day The Post printed a letter from Havelock’s M.C. Bellamy protesting that three of the Brougham team were not members of that club, that their introduction was contrary to the terms of the challenge between the two sides, and that Havelock had protested against their inclusion. Two days later a reply from the Brougham club appeared which stated that the three men in question had played because of the non-availability of three club members and that Havelock had been aware of this before play began. The writer also suggested that Havelock had played some non-members of its own.

This appears to have been the end of the matter, as no further letters were published by The Post, although it should be noted that in the following month the newspaper published the following admonition: ‘We really must discountenance, as far as we can, the tendency of local cricketers to quarrel, and inflict their grievances on the public through these columns.’

No reports of Havelock Cricket Club matches during 1859, 1860, 1861 or 1862 have been traced, and it is not possible to ascertain whether this was because the club had gone into abeyance or simply because its activities did not attract the attention of the local press. When the club reappeared in the local newspapers, the reports unhelpfully stated that games took place at Havelock’s home ground without specifying where exactly it was situated.

There was then another absence of reports until 1866, when a team described as Havelock United played a couple of matches in Aston Park. It is not clear whether or not this was the same club as Havelock Cricket Club.

Havelock Cricket Club definitely reappeared in the local sports columns in 1871, by which time it was based at Adderley Park.

The following year saw the club transferring to a ground in St Paul’s Road, Balsall Heath, where a number of future Havelock Football Club/Moseley Football Club players were members of the team. These included Arthur Alabaster (Havelock/Moseley 1873/74–1878/79), Walter Lawrence Breedon (Moseley 1876/77–1878/79), Thomas Ground (Moseley 1874/75–1878/79), William Joseph Chatwin (Havelock/Moseley 1873/74–1876/77), Octavius Valentine Smith (Havelock/Moseley 1873/74–1877/78) and Edward William Wingrove (Havelock 1873/74).

During the 1873 season Havelock played its home games in Moseley, at a ground in Trafalgar Road, where Alabaster, Breedon, Chatwin, Ground, Smith and Wingrove were joined by three other future Havelock Football Club players, namely James Heaven (Havelock 1873/74), Frank William Padmore (Havelock 1873/74) and Thomas George Fosbroke Rice Hobbes (Havelock 1873/74).

As most readers will know, in October 1873 a group of young men from the Havelock Cricket Club decided to take up football in order to play a winter sport as well as cricket during the summer, and formed the Havelock Football Club. During its first season the football club played home matches in St Paul’s Road, possibly on the same ground on which the cricket club had played during 1872.

It has always been assumed that the new club’s first captain, Stephen Henry Deakin, was a member of the cricket club. However, recent research has revealed that if he was, he was not a very prominent playing member.

In 1874 the cricket club played at least one game at St Paul’s Road; however, it is not known if this was a one-off occasion or a permanent move back to the club’s former ground. During the following season the team played at an unknown ground somewhere in Moseley, which may indicate that Trafalgar Road had remained the club’s home despite the match at St Paul’s Road during the previous season.

Despite the fact that Havelock Cricket Club seems to have been a flourishing organisation, it seems to have gone out of existence after 1876.