CRICKET SCOTLAND PARTNERS WITH NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND TO ARCHIVE SCOTTISH CRICKET

Cricket Scotland has announced the donation of the Scottish Cricket Archive to the National Library of Scotland.

The archive is now listed on the Library catalogue and can be consulted in the Library’s Special Collections Reading Room in Edinburgh.

The records include a wide variety of documentation relating to the history of the Scottish Cricket Union and Cricket Scotland, from 1908 to the present day. Items of interest include minute books, scorebooks, publications and programmes across men’s, women’s and junior cricket, all of which have now been safeguarded and archived.

The archive provides a complete overview of the sport within Scotland at the national level for the last 117 years and allows for detailed statistical analysis.

This includes research files compiled by historians Sandy Thorburn and Neil Leitch, with information relating to the formation of clubs across Scotland, office bearers, internationalists to 1980, information relating to the first recorded cricket match in Scotland in 1785 and a large volume of statistics relating to the Scotland teams and players.

Neil Leitch, scorer and official historian of Cricket Scotland, said:

"As Historian of Cricket Scotland, over the years I have answered queries by referring to the Scottish cricket records that I held, whilst increasingly over time much material has become available on the internet.

"I wanted to ensure that this material was available for consultation in a library, so I was delighted when the National Library of Scotland agreed to form an archive for Scottish Cricket Union and Cricket Scotland material.

“I would also like to thank former Cricket Scotland Secretary Bert Barclay in assisting in this process, by making available the Main Committee Minutes for the new archive.”

Charles Paterson, Cricket Scotland’s Head of Communications, said:

“We are delighted that the National Library of Scotland has agreed to work with Cricket Scotland to archive and safeguard this documentation. It’s hugely important that our sport’s long and rich history in this country is safeguarded for the future, and I would like to pay tribute to Neil Leitch and Bert Barclay for their time and diligence on this project.”

Rachel Beattie, Curator (Land and Sport Collections) at the National Library of Scotland, said:

“We’re delighted that Cricket Scotland has chosen the National Library to be the new home of their archive. This donation will ensure that this comprehensive record of more than a century of Scottish cricket will be preserved and available to the public to peruse at their leisure.

“This national cricket archive is important for the history of the sport within Scotland.

This generous donation complements our existing sporting collections and will further bolster the Library’s position as a centre for cricketing history in Scotland.

“The Library welcomes research queries about this archive and Scottish cricketing archives more generally. Please get in touch with us at manuscripts@nls.uk”