HELP NEEDED: CROWDSOURCING HISTORY
BERNARDSVILLE CRICKET CLUBS
We’re on a mission to locate any families or someone who might possess anything related to cricket clubs in Bernardsville back in the early 1900s – a trophy, a program, a sweater, a logo – anything.
Cricket has deep roots in New Jersey, stretching back nearly two centuries. The Newark Cricket Club, formed in 1841, was among the earliest organized teams in the region, regularly competing against rivals in New York. By the 1850s, Elysian Fields in Hoboken had become one of America’s premier cricket venues, even hosting English professional players during the landmark 1859 international matches.
John Cox Stevens was establishing Hoboken’s Elysian Fields as a center for American cricket in the 1840s. He would go on to lead the syndicate that built the yacht America, winning the 1851 race that became the America’s Cup. In those early years, cricket—not baseball—was the dominant adult team sport in the United States, played on carefully maintained grounds and embraced by clubs across New York and New Jersey.
But by 1845, a new game began to take hold on those very same fields, as the New York Knickerbockers brought baseball to Hoboken. Within a year, the Elysian Fields hosted the first organized baseball game in 1846, marking the beginning of a shift that would eventually overtake cricket as America’s pastime.
From this foundation, cricket also spread. By 1845, the Newark Cricket Club had formed, joining a growing network of teams made up largely of British-born players. For a brief but important period, both sports shared the same ground in Hoboken before baseball ultimately reshaped the sporting landscape.
The sport continued to take hold academically as well, with Princeton University helping found the Intercollegiate Cricket Association in 1881. More recently, the Rutgers Cricket Club brought national attention back to the state by winning a national championship in 2018. Today, cricket is thriving once again across central and northern New Jersey, fueled by vibrant immigrant communities and growing demand for dedicated playing spaces.
First International Cricket Match in Hoboken – 1859
Cricket in New Jersey has deeper roots than most people realize, dating back to the colonial era, when British settlers brought the game to America. By the mid 1800s, the sport had grown so popular that Hoboken became the center of American cricket, hosting the first international sporting event in U.S. history at the Elysian Fields in October 1859, when a United States team faced England before a crowd of more than 20,000 spectators.
New York: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1859.
The print above illustrates the first international match between England and the United States, played at Hoboken, New Jersey, on October 3 – 5, 1859. Founded in 1838 and nicknamed the “Dragonslayers”, the St. George’s Cricket Club hosted the first international cricket match in 1844, between Canada & the US. This was the first occasion that a professional team of players in any sport had played in the US. The All England Team of professionals played a US XXII team comprising five SGCC players. England scored 156, and the US XXII were dismissed for 38 and 54.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, cricket was widely played across New Jersey and the surrounding region, particularly in areas influenced by British culture and travel between New York and Philadelphia. Although baseball would eventually surpass it in popularity, cricket remained an important part of the state’s early sporting identity, leaving a legacy that still surfaces today in places like the Somerset Hills.
Bernardsville Cricket – 1900s
Upton Pyne Cricket Club & Bernardsville Cricket Club
In the early 1900s, cricket was already a well-established and organized part of life in Bernardsville. By 1906, the Bernardsville Cricket Club had formed with a structured membership and leadership, led by President David Buist, Secretary and Treasurer Dr. R. E. Mosedale, and Captain John Dick. The club promoted the game not just as a sport, but as a refined and healthful alternative to baseball, attracting players from across the Somerset Hills and often held their matches at the Polo Grounds in Bernardsville.
Upton Pyne at the top of the Bernardsville mountain was another cricket destination in the area. Upton Pyne in Bernardsville was built in 1899 by Percy Rivington Pyne II, and by 1907 the estate was hosting a cricket club sponsored by Pyne himself, with participation likely led by his son, Percy Rivington Pyne Jr., a Princeton University educated member of their circle of amateur sportsmen, reflecting Princeton’s own role in early American cricket as a founding participant in the Intercollegiate Cricket Association in 1881.
Matches of the time centered around the Upton Pyne grounds, a key local venue that brought together a network of clubs, including the Upton Pyne Cricket Club, Peapack Cricket Club, and players from the Bliss Estate. These were not isolated games. Teams like the O. N. T. Cricket Club of Newark and the Manor House Cricket Club of Glen Cove, Long Island, traveled in to compete, while regional sides such as the Sons of St. George of Somerville were also scheduled as opponents.
home to the Upton Pyne Cricket Club.
Yet cricket in Bernardsville was as much social as it was competitive. Matches often included hospitality for visiting teams, with luncheon served right on the field at Upton Pyne, turning each contest into a community event. Taken together, these accounts show that by 1907, cricket in Bernardsville was part of a structured, regionally connected sporting culture, rooted in both competition and community, and now being rediscovered more than a century later.
The level of play was organized and competitive, with full lineups and named officials. Local players such as R. Hangar, R. Eardley, W. Duthie, G. Few, R. Harrison, A. Robson, M. Linton, G. Hillsden, E. Putrell, J. Frank, and C. Pontijex took the field, while visiting standouts like T. O’Connell and A. Taylor made their mark for Manor House. Matches were overseen by umpires J. Bennett and R. Renton, and scores were carefully recorded, reflecting the seriousness of the competition.
80s Brings Brits to the Pitch
In 1983, on a June afternoon in Gladstone, the athletic field at Gill St. Bernards School became the setting for something that felt distinctly out of place in rural New Jersey and yet completely natural at the same time. About 50 players and spectators gathered, many of them transplanted Britons, bringing with them not just a game, but a culture. Organized by Tony Newton and Ian Somerville, the match marked the first outing of the Mendham Cricket Club, drawing players from across the Somerset Hills, including Basking Ridge, Chester, Randolph, and Long Valley.
The scene was as much social as it was athletic. Wives and children lined the মাঠ while players eased into the rhythm of the game, their unmistakable accents and easy camaraderie setting the tone. During intermission, the field transformed into something closer to a garden party than a sporting event. Tea was served alongside cold beer, fruit salad, sandwiches, and even fried chicken, blending British tradition with American informality. As one observer joked, cricket in England might be about tea and crumpets, but here it carried a bit of everything.
The match itself delivered plenty of drama. Played over four hours, it ended in a razor-thin 121 to 120 finish. Steve Morling of Randolph provided a key moment with two sixes in a single over, while Alan Silver of Basking Ridge closed out the game on defense by retiring the final batter. David Humm of Long Valley stood out as the top bowler, but it was Dave Mason of Basking Ridge who earned unofficial recognition as the day’s most valuable player for his all-around performance with bat, ball, and in the field.
India’s Is All In Putting Their Mark on Cricket
I had the opportunity to travel for work in India and Pakistan in the 2000s, where I quickly learned that while both countries appreciate sports like soccer and Formula 1, nothing comes close to the passion for cricket, especially when India and Pakistan face off.
The rivalry between India and Pakistan in cricket is one of the most intense in the world, shaped by history but sustained by passion, pride, and identity. Since the partition of 1947, every match has carried a weight far beyond sport. Iconic cricket legends like Imran Khan helped define that intensity, turning cricket into a symbol of national belief and resilience.
Today, that same energy has found a new home in places like Basking Ridge. Over the past few decades, the growth of the Indian community across Somerset County has quietly reshaped the local cultural landscape. With it has come cricket not just as a pastime, but as a living tradition. Weekend matches, youth leagues, and new cricket pitches reflect a community bringing its heritage with it and planting it firmly in New Jersey soil.
What makes this moment different is that cricket is no longer something “imported” or occasional. It is becoming part of Basking Ridge’s story. Just as earlier generations left their mark through churches, schools, and civic life, today’s residents are adding cricket grounds and competition to that legacy. The echoes of India versus Pakistan, once heard in distant stadiums, can now be felt on local fields, where the stakes are smaller, but the pride, identity, and connection to history remain just as strong.
Basking Ridge Dives In – Cricket gets a New Pitch
Today, Edison, New Jersey, serves as the state’s leading hub for cricket, with multiple fields in constant use, underscoring both the sport’s rapid growth and the demands of maintaining properly prepared grounds. That same momentum is now reaching Basking Ridge, where Bernards Township is establishing a new cricket ground at Pleasant Valley Park, reflecting rising local demand and the game’s continued expansion across New Jersey.
By 2026, that growth is clearly visible in the Somerset Hills. A recent online post highlighted the rise of grassroots cricket in Basking Ridge, centered on the emergence of the Ridge Cricket Enthusiasts Club. It marks a shift from cricket as a distant, global game to one being actively played and organized at the local level, with community teams forming and competing against neighboring towns.
Cricket is finding new life in Somerset Hills, and at the center of it is the Ridge Cricket Enthusiasts Club (RCEC), a fast-growing women’s team founded in early 2024 by local players Vrinda Deval and Megha Jain. What began as a shared passion has quickly turned into one of the area’s most exciting new sports stories.
The club’s defining moment came on October 5, 2024, when RCEC earned its first victory in a thrilling match against New Providence, the very team that had originally inspired its creation. Deval and Jain had previously played a successful season with New Providence, and that experience helped spark the vision to build something of their own in Basking Ridge.
Starting with a small group of women training at an indoor cricket facility, the team steadily gained momentum under the guidance of coaches Vishal Jain and Sateesh Tatavarty. As interest grew, so did the roster, expanding to nearly 20 players. Midseason, coach Dilip Patnaik joined the effort, further strengthening the program. Together, the coaching trio played a critical role in developing the team’s skills, confidence, and competitive edge.
The Ridge Cricket Club is one of those stories that tells you something real is happening locally. It did not start as an organization or a formal league. It started simply on January 7, 2023, when a small group of about 8 cricket enthusiasts in the Basking Ridge area created a WhatsApp group to find others who wanted to play. From there, it grew fast. Within months, that small circle turned into dozens of players, and today it has expanded into a community of more than 100 members.
What began as casual meetups quickly became something more structured. As interest grew, the group organized regular weekend games and eventually launched its own internal tournament, the Ridge Premier League, giving players a consistent, organized way to compete while still maintaining the relaxed, social atmosphere that defined the club from the start.
As for where they play, the club primarily organizes weekend box cricket matches, typically held on Saturdays and Sundays in local open spaces and adaptable fields around the Basking Ridge area. Because box cricket is a smaller, flexible version of the game, it allows them to set up matches without needing a full traditional cricket ground, making it ideal for a growing, community-driven club like this. In short, Ridge Cricket Club is a grassroots success story. It grew from a handful of players looking for a game into a structured, local cricket community that reflects the rising interest in the sport across Somerset Hills.
New Cricket Field and Pitch Coming
Get ready, cricket fans, because Basking Ridge is establishing a cricket ground at Pleasant Valley Park off Valley Road in Bernards Township. The project will add a cricket pitch within the existing multipurpose fields at the park for up to $59K. “A cricket field was identified as a community need through our 2021 Needs Assessment Survey, part of the update of the Parks & Recreation element of the Township’s Master Plan,” stated Director of Parks and Recreation Jennifer Gander in the resolution. The pitch will be constructed between Fields 3 and 4, allowing the surrounding space to continue supporting soccer and other activities.
Bernards Township has formally approved the development of a dedicated cricket ground and pitch at Pleasant Valley Park. The plan calls for the installation of a 10-foot-by-66-foot concrete wicket with artificial turf, creating a proper cricket surface while preserving the flexibility of the existing fields for multi-use recreation that should be open for the summer season.
More history in the making……. looking forward to see where this story goes.
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New Jersey Culture and Sport History
The World’s First International Match (1844): The Elysian Fields in Hoboken hosted the first-ever international cricket match between the United States and Canada. Canada won by 23 runs in a three-day event that drew over 5,000 spectators.
Minor League Cricket (MiLC): New Jersey teams, such as the New Jersey Stallions and New Jersey Somerset Cavaliers, compete in professional MiLC, with the Stallions based at the Howe Athletics Complex in Somerset.
Edison as a Hub: Edison has become the modern focal point of the tri-state region, with eight fields in constant use by over 50 teams.
Millennium Cricket League (MCL): Registration is active for the 2026 MCL F40 Premier season, which officially starts on April 18, 2026. Participating clubs include the Princeton CC Challengers, Indus CC (North Brunswick), and CricMax CC.
Cricket League of New Jersey (CLNJ): This historic league has officially opened registration for new teams for its 2026 Season. Matches typically run from April through September.
