The first recorded game of cricket in the Clarence Valley was on New Years Day in 1859. Due to transport of the day, games were few and far between.

Within a few days of this game a meeting was held at John Gilmore’s “The Cricketers’ Arms”.  At the end of the meeting the Pickwick Cricket Club had been formed.  The first suggested name was the Clarence River Cricket Club.

In June 1863, the Rev A.E Schwyn revived the Clarence River Cricket Club and the game then started to gather momentum.

The first competitions were held between the following teams:  Grafton Waricks, Alberts, Perseverance, Zingaris, Alumy Creek, Swan Creek, Lawrence, Ulmarra, Southgate, Copmanhurst and South Grafton.

During these times the teams were primarily made up of family members, hence teams like Alberts and Waricks cropped up.  Later larger families like the Eggins (Alumy Creek), Ford (Grafton), Ellem (Grafton & Richmond), Allison (Glenreagh), Martin (Coaldale), Chapman (Glenreagh), McIntosh (Coutts Crossing) and Bailey (Tucabia) families became dominate.

In 1884, a touring professional English team visited the Clarence Region.  In an attempt for the local competition to look more professional, it tried to form the “Association of the Clarence River Cricketers” and unfortunately it failed.

During 1889 an asphalt pitch was laid at Fisher Park, which was the first official wicket in the Clarence Valley.  The ground also consisted of a Grandstand for the many spectators.

At the end of 1889, representatives from Maclean, Lawrence, Brushgrove, Grafton Waratahs and the Grafton Warriors met at the Brushgrove Pub.  Here they revisited the formation of a combined association which succeeded.  The Clarence River Association had now been formed.  The South side of the river had not joined, possibly because of the fact that they were on the other side of the river.

In 1891 three more clubs joined the C.R.A.  They were The Carlton’s, Braunstone and Palmers Island.

1891 was the first year that there was a perpetual trophy awarded.  It was donated by E.J. Cato.  It was awarded to the best All-Rounder of the Winning team of the final.

There were 29 teams that played in the 1891/92 season. Due to the rules that all games must be played out, only 9 teams qualified to enter the competition for the trophy.  Chas Eggins from the Alumy Creek side was the Inaugural winner of the Cato trophy.

Records of the era are few and far between, however I have found a notation that suggests that Mr McFarlane from the Waratahs had the top score for the season with 81.

The 1891/92 season was also marred by a big flood.  Cricket recommenced with-in 4 days of the Mighty Clarence subsiding.  The 1891/92 season finished in late MAY.

Over the next 20 years cricket exploded in the area, and in 1918, South Grafton, now known as Southhampton, had become so strong as a single entity that it was re-named South Grafton District Club. It also joined the C.R.A at this time. J.J. Lawrence was South's’ first Secretary.

At the end of 1918 the C.R.A underwent a name change and became the Grafton District and Upper Clarence Association.

1923 saw the Carlton’s defect to the South Grafton District Club with 2 other teams.  The Independents and the Undaunteds.

In 1924, the South Grafton District Club had so many independent teams that it decided to re-structure itself and became the South Grafton Cricket Association.

In 1925/26 the G.D.U.C.C.A was made up of 5 teams from Grafton, 8 from South Grafton, 5 teams from Ulmarra (Mid Clarence) and 15 teams from Maclean (Lower Clarence).    There were several independent clubs as well, such as Southgate, Grafton, Colts and Copmanhurst.

The next few years proved frustrating.  There was the S.G.C.A, the G.D.U.C.C.A as well as several teams from the Maclean area, all wanting a better way of organising cricket matches.  In August of 1928, a meeting of all concerned parties was held and the Clarence River Cricket Association was born, with M Bailey as President and J.J. Lawrence as Secretary.

In 1931 Alan Kippax’s International Team toured Grafton and played at Fisher Park against the first CRCA Rep side.  Proceeds from the gate takings allowed the CRCA to replace the asphalt wicket with Grafton’s first Turf Pitch.

I’ll point out at this point that during the early years, cricket was really survived by the families mentioned earlier.  The First Ellem Family team played in 1879 at Alumy Creek.  The Ellem Family toured the surrounding districts between 1905 and 1912.  After the  1^st World War the games started up again and continued for the next 29 years.  The last game of the tour was always at McKittrick Park, against the staff of McKittrick’s Store on New Years Day.

The 1930’s saw Clubs such as The Colts, Old Students, Alumy Creek, Coutts Crossing, Glenreagh, South Grafton, Ulmarra, Grafton and the Waratahs playing in the district.

Even in its infancy, the CRCA sent rep teams to Country Week in Sydney, which we always performed well at.  In 1939 the CRCA team finished 15^th out of 28 teams.

Some scores of the day were hard to comprehend.  During a game in the mid 30’s The Colts Defeated Glenreagh at Glenreagh, with the Colts putting on 350 runs in just on 2 ½ hours.

Glenreagh figured well on other occasions.  Below is a score card from a game held on the 4 & 11 Feb 1939.

Glenreagh All out 504

South Grafton

1938/39 also saw the inauguration of the Clarence River Women’s Cricket Association.  4 teams competed with the North team victorious.

Miss Ena Page, from the Grafton team made the NSW State 2^nd XI squad.  She was the granddaughter of G.A. Gray of Southgate, who founded the Alumy Creek Club in 1874.

By the time the 40’s rolled around some clubs had gone and new ones took their places.  Old Students, South Grafton, Ulmarra, Grafton had all stayed strong, with St Mary’s, Tyndale and Southgate coming into the fold.

This era also saw the start of Inter-District cricket, with the CRCA, Upper Clarence, Orara, LCCA and Woolgoolga all fielding representative teams.

The CRCA dominated the North Coast team in the late 40’s.  In the 47/48 team 6 CRCA members made the squad.  H. Cameron, R. Gerrard, R. Ellem, A. Fernance, C. Hutchinson and W. Endicott.

This squad played a NSW Colts team at Fisher Park with the CRCA president at the time, C.S. Smith organising a formal reception after the game.  It was the first of such events.

The 1948-49 season was the last season prior to the commencement of Zoning. The St Mary's Colts Cricket Club were the last Premiers of the "old" system. 

With the CRCA becoming stronger, and wider spread, the official zoning of the Association was brought in at the beginning of the 1949/50 season.

The Zones were: Western, Southern, Eastern (Ulmarra), Northern, Central and Westlawn.  The Northern Zone had no boundaries to the north which meant that players as far away as Whiporie would have qualified to play for the Zone.

Each club entered 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd grade sides in the first year of Zoning, giving the CRCA 21 senior teams.  I will point out here that at this stage there was no Junior Competition.  Most of the kids that played, played in the 3^rd grade competition, some as young as 12.

One little digression here. In 1952, Miss Francis Aspinall, gained her NSW Umpires ticket with a pass of 94%.

Again the CRCA was strong at Inter-district level.  A score card that was not dated showed that the rep games of this era appeared to be normal games, as Limited Overs matches had not even been thought of.  The game in question saw CRCA defeat Lismore, with our lads declaring their innings at 7 for 442.

The CRCA, seeing how popular the sport now was opened the junior ranks in the 1954/55 season.  It was only available to players under the age of 14.  The first season saw teams known as the:  Northern Warriors, Westlawn, South White, South Red, Central, North Rovers, Boys Brigade and the Brothers early team known as “The Convent”

The first Junior Premiership was won by South Red.  The coach was none other than JJ Lawrence.  The team was K Blain, I Small, H Welsh, T Wilks, Col Mitchell,  B Hayes, J Lawrence (Capt), R Livermore , G Kedzlie, G Rouse and R Buist.  B Pullen was the team’s scorer / Manager.

Early in the 1956/57 season a touring New Zealand squad visited Grafton. The management of the NZ squad applauded the quality of the Fisher Park Turf and gave sincere thanks to the Curator, G Gerrard. They described as “First Class”

With cricket now thriving, the CRCA along with Council and The South Grafton Parks Improvement Committee installed a Turf wicket at McKittrick Park in 1956.  The South Grafton Municipal Council offered the labour to remove the old concrete wicket, with the full financial burden being absorbed by the CRCA.

Driving force behind the turf wicket were 35 year South’s Veteran JJ Lawrence and Southern Districts John Moy.  JJ Lawrence single handedly rolled and watered the pitch for 3 months prior to the first game.

The Turf was officially opened on the 19^th January 1957.  Alderman W.E. Crisp bowled the first ball to CRCA President, C.S. Smith.

The CRCA Treasurer at the time, Mr B.J. Sexton, reported at the end of the season that the association had balance of 84 pound.  Ground fees cost a staggering 101 pound with Umpires fees 200 pound.  The 56/57 season also saw the CRCA Committee fine clubs 10 shillings for non-attendance at a CRCA Delegates meeting.

In the 8 seasons since the Zoning, North had won the Championship 4 times with Westlawn the other 4 seasons.

Cricket on the river flourished from here on with the popular Zoning regulation finally being out grown in the early 70’s.  This is where our current clubs were born.

In the first season of Non-Zoning there were 5 new clubs spawn.  Westlawn, a carry over from the Zoning Era, Copmanhurst, Grafton RSL, Easts – which were actually a club made up of players from Ulmarra, Brushgrove, Lawrence and Maclean, and of coarse, South’.

Over the next 2 season numbers fluctuated, with South fielding 2 First Grade sides.  We also saw the emergence of the Royal Colts and the Tucabia teams.

The 74/75 season saw so many teams and clubs nominated that the competition was split into 2 divisions.  This was the first year that Brothers entered the competition.

With this many teams, it was decided to let logic into the mix.  76/77 saw the competition reduced to 4 Clubs.  Westlawn, Easts, South Services and Tucabia-Copmanhurst.  Each club was allowed to nominate as many teams per grade as they could.  Easts at this stage were still primarily players from the Cowper, Tyndale and Maclean areas.

Throughout this time there were many teams in the 2^nd grade comp that had no CLUB affiliations, and in 1978/79, the down river team, Easts, being drained by the surging Maclean Competition, joined with 2^nd grade team Peters, thus forming the Easts-Peters Club.

The early powerhouse club was South winning 4 premierships in a row.  From here the CRCA has had its ups and downs.  Like most sports it has wainded from time to time but has always come back strong. 

From 1982/83, 4 grades were contested with Brothers being the other dominate club.  In 1984/85 the CRCA started its Night Competition.  It was hard to get sponsors to start with but eventually it prevailed and a strong proving ground for young players had been established.

The Night comp was the vision of Neil Frame, who later had a shield named after him and his Wife, Coral, which was awarded to the winner of the Night Competition.  Neil had played all of his cricket with the South Club, but wanted the younger generation to get a chance.

The early 90’s saw a rapid decline in numbers.  The CRCA invited clubs and teams from the Lower Clarence Cricket Association to join them.  United, Maclean and Harwood took up the challenge and today’s Premier League was born.

On the 5^th October 1997, Fisher Park was renamed Ellem Oval, in recognition to the Ellem Family’s influence on the game of cricket in Grafton.

Over the next few years the competition was extremely strong.  The down river teams felt the pressure of travel and a slightly stronger competition and slowly they fell by the wayside.  Harwood is the remaining LCCA team playing on the Premier League, and were classed as “Invited Guests the Premier League” and as such had no voting rights at Delegate meetings.

At the AGM of the CRCA held in July 2007, the Harwood Cricket Club was voted in by club delegates to be a fully fledged CRCA team.  This means that Harwood now have an equal say in the running and operation of the CRCA.

As the 07/08 season approached, excitement was at hand with the news that Easts would again be entering a 1st grade team. On the back of that news, the Coutts Crossing club announced that after nearly 15 years absence they too would field a 1^st XI side.

The CRCA hit a minor stumbling block at the beginning of Season 08/09, with a Association not being able to conclude its AGM due to not being able to fill the executive.  After a 21 day adjournment, the AGM continued and the executive was completed, making it possible for the season to progress.