National news
Daily Retrospection - Friday 29 Jan 2021
To kick off our centenary year, instead of looking forward to our birthday, we wanted to take a quick look back at some important moments in our history. This week we’re posting an extract from our archives, every day, which highlight the history we share with some of the UK’s greatest sporting institutions.
Perhaps 1926 was the last time there was ever a meeting of 5,000 civil servants all in one place. It’s amazing what sport can do to both unite and enliven people. But that’s exactly what Cricket did in Chiswick, back in September of that year. Or perhaps it was just the chance of seeing Australia get a good thumping between the creases.
Civil Service versus Australia
The cricket match against the Australians, played on 4 and 6 September at Chiswick was a great and historic event in our annals.
The estimated attendance on the first day was between four and five thousand.
The match was played on Saturday and Monday and with Sunday rest day. Monday’s Times carried a long report on Saturdays play in which tribute was paid to the fielding and bowling of the Civil Service until the bowlers tired!
Extract from CS Sports Journal – October 1926
Cricket was just one facet of the many avenues of sports & athletics that came to pass through the Civil Service Sports Council. Another example of a sporting event with the theme of friendly rivarly would happen a few short years after the Civil Service vs Australia cricket match.
Visit this link to find out about Sir Sefton Brancker, and his passion for athletics which brought about the first cross departmental cross-country match between the civil service, Middlesex county athletics association & the RAF in 1929.
If you’d like to know more about CSSC’s illustrious history, or know of any stories you’d like to share, you can find out more here.
