Barry Greenbank (Northumberland Cricket - Early Years) - Michael Gauntlett reports:

In their new venue at Riverside - the Cathedral Suite, members gathered and were complimentary on the definite improvement of facilities now made available for this winter's meetings and the Annual Dinner. Accordingly, November's speaker was welcomed to address them on a subject of particularly local interest.

Barry Greenbank claimed the first reference to cricket in Newcastle is in 1827, when two teams were playing on Town Moor.

Sides from Newcastle and Sunderland were playing one another in 1834, and the first club side is mentioned in the following year when Newcastle Albion played the Garrison.

Further to the north, the Alnwick club was formed in 1837 - after that year's Shrove Tuesday mammoth football match.

At the furthest north of the county the Berwick club appeared in 1845. They were to play regular international cricket, ie: Berwick v. Berwickshire.

The most important club at this time was the Northumberland CC - a private club and not a county team. They were formed in 1838 and also ran the county team from the first match in 1868 until 1881, when Northumberland CCC was formed. Their ground was in the centre of Newcastle until they lost it to the builders in 1881...

There are only two cricketers who have been born in Newcastle and subsequently have played for Northumberland and England. The first was Arnold James Fothergill, the only Test cricketer to have been born in Newcastle. He played in eight matches for the county 1874-78. He then went to Somerset in 1880-89, and subsequently joined the Lord's staff 1882-92. Much of Fothergill's first-class cricket was for MCC. He was a lower order left-hand bat, and left arm medium fast bowler. Fothergill played two Tests in the England team to South Africa in 1888-89 under the captaincy of Sir C. Aubrey Smith.

The second was Hylton Philipson who was born at Tynemouth in 1866. Remarkably, he was one of four British born cricketers whose England Test match career was over before they played for a first-class county. Philipson was a middle or lower-order right-hand batsman and wicket-keeper. He was educated at Eton College; secured a blue at Oxford University 1887-89 (all three years), and played ten matches for Middlesex (1895-98). He went on two tours to Australia (1891/92 and 1894/95) playing in five Test matches. In 1887, for Oxford University, he took part in a stand of 340 runs - the highest in first-class cricket at the time. His final first-class match was for A.J.Webbe's XI in 1899.

Philipson had 7 matches for Northumberland 1884-1893. He also represented Oxford University at rackets, tennis and soccer - being a full back in 1889.

Stephen Ransome thanked Barry for his most interesting talk and also Jack Chapman who projected on screen some relevant pictures.