Scottish Cricket Archive Donated to the National Library of Scotland

A wide variety of documentation relating to the history of the Scottish Cricket Union and Cricket Scotland from 1908 to the present day have been acquired by the National Library of Scotland.

Among the archive are minute books, scorebooks, publications and programmes across men’s, women’s, and junior cricket. The archive has already been listed on the library's catalogue and can be consulted in its Special Collections Reading Room in Edinburgh.

It provides a complete overview of the sport within Scotland at the national level for the last 117 years, including 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.

"Over the years I have answered queries by referring to the Scottish cricket records that I held, while increasingly over time much material has become available on the internet," said Neil Leitch, scorer and official historian of Cricket Scotland. "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.
 
Rachel Beattie, Curator (Land and Sport Collections) at the National Library of Scotland, added: "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."