NSW Premier Cricket
NSW Premier Cricket, formerly and still commonly known as Sydney Grade Cricket is a cricket competition played in Sydney, Australia, and is highest level club cricket competition in the state of New South Wales The competition began in 1893 when a number of clubs that had been playing for many years on an ad hoc basis voted to create a formal competition structure.
The NSW Premier Cricket competition is played on turf wickets, and is played on Saturdays and begins in mid-September and continues until the grand final is played on the first weekend of April. Spectators are mostly few and far between at matches, mostly family members, partners or club members. The exception to this is at T20 matches which can attract crowds into the hundreds and occasionally the low thousands. Generally, players for New South Wales are selected from the first-grade competition, and whilst modern day cricketers have few breaks outside the international calendar, when they do, NSW players will often return to play in the first-grade competition.
History
Origins
The origins of NSW Premier Cricket date back to April 1859, when a public advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald called on local social cricket clubs to convene with the goal of forming a formal association. This initiative led to the establishment of the New South Wales Cricket Association in December 1859, with one of its principal aims being to organise local cricket more systematically to strengthen the colony's representative team, which had begun competing against Victoria in 1856.By the 1880s, a loosely structured Sydney club cricket competition had emerged. While some clubs were locality-based—such as Bathurst, Carlingford, Petersham, and Stanmore, the more dominant teams were non-localised, including Albert, Belvidere, Carlton, Incogniti, University, and Warwick. As Sydney's population expanded and municipal councils developed new parks and sporting grounds in emerging suburbs, the infrastructure improved, allowing the NSWCA to further expand organised cricket.
In response to continued growth and the desire for a more community-based structure, the NSWCA voted unanimously on 22 May 1893 to establish a new club competition based on electoral boundaries. This initiative marked the formal beginning of what was then known as 'Electoral Cricket' and later evolved into Sydney Grade Cricket, now known as NSW Premier Cricket, with the first matches beginning on 7 October 1893.
The inaugural 1893/94 season featured eight teams: East Sydney, Glebe, Manly, Paddington, Sydney University, Central Cumberland, Redfern, and Canterbury. The first premiers East Sydney, winners of the 'Hordern Shield'. Although club boundaries were linked to New South Wales Legislative Assembly electorates, Sydney University was allowed to participate despite lacking a corresponding electorate. The competition expanded rapidly, Four more clubs, Waverley, North Sydney, South Sydney, and Leichhardt, were added in the 1894–95 season, increasing the total to 12. The competition's success led to the creation of a Second Grade in 1895–96 and a Third Grade in 1899–1900, laying the foundation for the modern multi-tiered structure of NSW Premier Cricket.
Additionally, in 1921 the NSW Cricket Association decided to expand the first-grade competition to 16 teams with the admission of four news clubs, Marrickville, Mosman, Randwick and St George.
Later history
This competition has grown substantially since its formation and by 1985 the Sydney Grade Cricket Competition encompassed 20 clubs. Since the 1940s there had been a number of club mergers. In 1965 Sutherland joined the competition, followed by Nepean and University of NSW in 1973. In 1985 Sydney District CC left the competition but 3 new clubs from the outer suburbs of Sydney joined - Fairfield, Campbelltown and Hawkesbury. In the late 1990s there was a push to remove some inner-city clubs from the competition, but although no clubs were forced out, in 2001 Randwick and Petersham-Marrickville decided to merge and formed the Randwick Petersham club. Some clubs were renamed to reflect their wider representation. Finally in 2002 Blacktown were promoted from the second-tier shires competition to bring the number of clubs back up to 20. Each of the 20 clubs fields a side in each of the five senior grades as well as a side in the Poidevin-Gray Shield and AW Green Shield junior competitions.In recent times some clubs have started broadcasting scorecards in real-time on the Cricket Australia website. Some clubs also have detailed video and photographs each weekend. Most but not all clubs actively update their website and have information across a variety of social media platforms.
Sydney grade cricket also has a proud history of welcoming budding, current or former first-class and Test cricketers from around the world. Players are primarily sourced from England's county competition. In 2015/16, there were over 10 players in the competition plying their trade in the first-grade competition. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss amongst others played seasons in Sydney. Such is the strength of the competition that some well-known players have been known to play multiple matches in second grade.
To address shortcomings in players making the transition from first-grade to State cricket, two seasons ago a different type of ball was introduced into the first-grade competition. This ball is the same used by state players but had not previously been used due to its cost. While the ball is still a four-piece ball, its seam is less pronounced and more difficult to swing. Bowlers, in particular fast bowlers, have had to work much harder at getting wickets. Since its introduction scores within the competition have increased. There have been higher team and individual scores.
In the 2016/17 season, the competition changed its name to NSW Premier Cricket. The name change was part of a Cricket Australia initiative to standardise the naming of the elite men's cricket competition within each state's capital city.
Clubs
Current clubs
Former clubs
Competition format
The competition consists of 20 clubs who field one side in each of the five grades. In the 1st Grade competition, each side plays every other side over a total of 19 rounds. All other grades play only 15 rounds, thus missing out on playing 4 teams each season. The additional 4 rounds that are played by the 1st Grade sides are generally one day matches that take place on Sundays.The 2010/11 season, for all grades, included 10 two-day matches, 4 one-day matches and 1 Twenty-20 match. The 1st Grade sides played an additional one-day match and 3 Twenty20 matches. The 1st Grade Draw can be found here and the 2nd Grade draw, which is identical to the 3rd, 4th and 5th Grade draws, can be found here .
The final series generally consists of Qualifying Finals, Semi-Finals and a Final. These matches are played over two days, with the First Grade Final being played over three days. In the Qualifying Finals, the 1st placed team plays the 6th placed team, 2nd plays 5th and 3rd plays 4th. The three winning teams and the best placed losing team go through to the Semi-Finals.
Points are allocated to the teams according to the results of each match. These points go towards the Club Championship which is awarded at the end of the regular season.
All of the current NSW first-class cricket players are selected from their performances in Premier Cricket. This includes those players who also represent Australia although the demands of the international schedule means the Australian players rarely get to play at grade level these days.
Premiers
Poidevin-Gray Shield
The Poidevin-Gray Shield, or PG's as it is more commonly known, comprises teams who represent their grade sides in an Under 21 competition. All points received in this competition go towards the Club Championship.| Season | Premiers |
| 1926/27 | Waverley |
| 1927/28 | Balmain |
| 1928/29 | Waverley |
| 1929/30 | Balmain |
| 1930/31 | Randwick |
| 1931/32 | Waverley |
| 1932/33 | Marrickville |
| 1933/34 | Northern Districts |
| 1934/35 | Glebe |
| 1935/36 | Gordon |
| 1936/37 | Marrickville |
| 1937/38 | Marrickville |
| 1938/39 | St. George |
| 1939/40 | Glebe |
| 1940/41 | St. George |
| 1941/42 | No Competition |
| 1942/43 | No Competition |
| 1943/44 | No Competition |
| 1944/45 | No Competition |
| 1945/46 | No Competition |
| 1946/47 | Paddington |
| 1947/48 | Paddington |
| 1948/49 | Mosman |
| 1949/50 | Manly |
| 1950/51 | St. George |
| 1951/52 | Petersham-Marrickville |
| 1952/53 | St. George |
| 1953/54 | Petersham-Marrickville |
| 1954/55 | St. George |
| 1955/56 | St. George & Manly |
| 1956/57 | Gordon |
| 1957/58 | St. George |
| 1958/59 | Glebe |
| 1959/60 | Mosman |
| 1960/61 | Bankstown-Canterbury |
| 1961/62 | Petersham-Marrickville |
| 1962/63 | St. George |
| 1963/64 | Western Suburbs |
| 1964/65 | Glebe-South Sydney |
| 1965/66 | Sydney |
| 1966/67 | St. George |
| 1967/68 | Randwick |
| 1968/69 | Manly |
| 1969/70 | Northern Districts |
| 1970/71 | Sydney |
| 1971/72 | Waverley |
| 1972/73 | Petersham-Marrickville |
| 1973/74 | Mosman-Middle Harbour |
| 1974/75 | Gordon |
| 1975/76 | St. George |
| 1976/77 | University of NSW |
| 1977/78 | Manly |
| 1978/79 | Northern Districts & Western Suburbs |
| 1979/80 | Northern Districts |
| 1980/81 | St. George & Northern Districts |
| 1981/82 | Mosman-Middle Harbour |
| 1982/83 | Central Cumberland |
| 1983/84 | Penrith |
| 1984/85 | North Sydney |
| 1985/86 | Manly-Warringah |
| 1986/87 | Mosman-Middle Harbour |
| 1987/88 | Sutherland |
| 1988/89 | Bankstown-Canterbury |
| 1989/90 | Bankstown-Canterbury |
| 1990/91 | Campbelltown |
| 1991/92 | St. George |
| 1992/93 | Campbelltown |
| 1993/94 | Fairfield-Liverpool |
| 1994/95 | Campbelltown |
| 1995/96 | Campbelltown |
| 1996/97 | Sydney University |
| 1997/98 | Fairfield-Liverpool |
| 1998/99 | Sutherland |
| 1999/2000 | Northern Districts |
| 2000/01 | Penrith |
| 2001/02 | Northern Districts |
| 2002/03 | Northern Districts |
| 2003/04 | St. George |
| 2004/05 | St. George |
| 2005/06 | Hawkesbury |
| 2006/07 | St. George |
| 2007/08 | St. George |
| 2008/09 | Bankstown |
| 2009/10 | Penrith |
| 2010/11 | Sydney University |
| 2011/12 | Sutherland |
| 2012/13 | Parramatta |
| 2013/14 | Bankstown |
| 2014/15 | Sutherland |
| 2015/16 | Sutherland |
| 2016/17 | Parramatta |
| 2017/18 | Penrith |
| 2018/19 | Mosman |
| 2019/20 | Fairfield-Liverpool |
| 2020/21 | Gordon & Parramatta |
| 2021/22 | Sutherland |