The provisional Olympic programme "des Jeux Olympiques de 1896",
published in Paris in January 1895 and drawn up previously by the
organisers in Athens in late 1894, listed cricket as one of the
official sports. In the event, insufficient entries were received and
cricket did not appear in the 1896 Games.
The only cricket match to take place in the Olympics was staged at
the 1900 Games held in conjunction with the Paris Exhibition. Indeed
the handbills for the match only mention 'Exposition Universelle de
1900". However a 1900 fixture card for the Albion Cricket Club (one
of the 8 Clubs playing cricket in Paris at the time) shows that three
matches were scheduled
Aug 4/5 Belgium v Frnace
Aug 11/12 Holland v France
Aug 19/20 England v France
Only the last match took place.
The match was oficially recognised as a formal Olympic competition in
1912 , when the International Olympic Committee drew up a roll of all
the events that had taken place in the Paris Olympiad of 1900.
The minutes of the Dutch Cricket Board show that at their meeting
on 16 July 1900 there was a discussion on participation in the
tournament. It was noted in the minutes that a match was scheduled
between Holland and France on August 23/13. The invitation was
declined due to lack of finance and there not being much interest.
The prime mover at this period behind the Castle Cary Cricket Club
was W.S.Donne. He organised over 20 tours for the Club - when on tour
the Club called itself the Devon and Somerset Wanderers. Their tour
to France in 1990 included three matches of which the 'Olympic' one
was the first, the other two being one-day matches on the following
two days which they won by 15 runs and by two wickets. They stayed in
the Hotel des Trois Princes in Paris for four days. The other two
members of the party - who did not play in the Olympic match were
F.Thompson and E.Thompson.
Contributed by Peter D. Griffiths (pete@pgr-computing.co.uk)
