I Zingari
Encyclopedia
I Zingari
Established 1845
Founders John Loraine Baldwin
John Loraine Baldwin
John Loraine Baldwin was a prominent English cricket enthusiast who was a co-founder of the I Zingari nomadic cricket club....


Frederick Ponsonby
Frederick Ponsonby, 6th Earl of Bessborough
Frederick George Brabazon Ponsonby, 6th Earl of Bessborough was a British peer and cricketer. He was the third son of John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough and his wife Lady Maria Fane...


Spencer Ponsonby
Spencer Ponsonby-Fane
Sir Spencer Cecil Brabazon Ponsonby, later Ponsonby-Fane, GCB ISO was an English cricketer and civil servant.He was born in 1824 in Mayfair, the sixth son of John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough.-Cricket:...


Richard Penruddocke Long
Richard Penruddocke Long
Richard Penruddocke Long JP, DL was an English landowner and Conservative Party politician. He was a founding member of the amateur cricket club I Zingari...

First match v Newport Pagnell
29, 30 August 1845
First-class matches 17 (1866–1904)

I Zingari (from dialectalized Italian
Italian dialects
Dialects of Italian are regional varieties of the Italian language, more commonly and more accurately referred to as Regional Italian. The dialects have features, most notably phonological and lexical, percolating from the underlying substrate languages...

 i zingari, meaning "the Gypsies"; corresponding to standard Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 gli zingari) are English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n amateur cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 clubs.

History

The English club was formed on 4 July 1845 by a group of Old Harrovians
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...

 at a dinner party and thus is one of the oldest cricket clubs still in existence. The English team still plays around 20 matches each year. Also known as IZ, I Zingari is a wandering (or nomad
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...

ic) club, having no home ground. Uniquely for an amateur club, Wisden
Wisden
The Wisden Group was a group of companies formed by John Wisden & Co Ltd, publishers of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. As well as John Wisden & Co, the group included the The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Cricinfo – the world's highest traffic cricket website – and the Hawk-Eye computerised...

reported all of its matches since 1867, although ceased to do so in 2005.

I Zingari was founded by John Loraine Baldwin
John Loraine Baldwin
John Loraine Baldwin was a prominent English cricket enthusiast who was a co-founder of the I Zingari nomadic cricket club....

, Hon. Frederick Ponsonby (later 6th Earl of Bessborough
Earl of Bessborough
Earl of Bessborough is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1739 for Brabazon Ponsonby, 2nd Viscount Duncannon, who had previously represented Newtownards and County Kildare in the Irish House of Commons...

), Hon. Spencer Ponsonby (later Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane) and Richard Penruddocke Long
Richard Penruddocke Long
Richard Penruddocke Long JP, DL was an English landowner and Conservative Party politician. He was a founding member of the amateur cricket club I Zingari...

, who were dining at the Blenheim Hotel in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Bond Street
Bond Street
Bond Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London that runs north-south through Mayfair between Oxford Street and Piccadilly. It has been a fashionable shopping street since the 18th century and is currently the home of many high price fashion shops...

 after a match against Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...

. They decided to form a club to foster the spirit of amateur cricket, and the club rules are famously idiosyncratic. William Boland
William Boland
William N. "Bill" Boland is a retired American Hall of Fame jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing....

, a barrister, was appointed the Perpetual President, and remains in post after his death. As a result, the leader of the club is termed its "Governor". Recent Governors of I Zingari include Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham
Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham
Charles John Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham, KG, GCMG, GCVO, TD, PC was the ninth Governor-General of New Zealand and an English cricketer.-Early life and family:...

 (1956 to 1977) and Alec Douglas-Home
Alec Douglas-Home
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel, KT, PC , known as The Earl of Home from 1951 to 1963 and as Sir Alec Douglas-Home from 1963 to 1974, was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1963 to October 1964.He is the last...

 (1977 to 1989)

The club was at its strongest in the nineteenth century. It played seventeen first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 matches between 1849 and 1904, including matches against the Australians
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...

 in 1882 and 1884.

Colours

Its club colours are black, red and gold, symbolizing the motto "out of darkness, through fire, into light". The colours are curiously similar to the egg-and-bacon colours adopted by the MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

 in 1860, except on the tie the stripes go in the opposite direction.

I Zingari Australia

The Australian club, I Zingari Australia, was formed in 1888, and claims to be the oldest social cricket club in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, although there are older school, university and district teams. It first played on 29 September 1888, defeating Newington College
Newington College
Newington College is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Stanmore, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

 Past and Present by 37 runs. The Australian club was recognised by the English club in 1891 and given permission to wear the club colours. The Australian team still plays approximately 70 fixtures each year against other club, school and representative sides. Also in Australia, an I Zingari Rowing Club was established in Adelaide in 1882; it was renamed Adelaide Rowing Club
Adelaide Rowing Club
The Adelaide Rowing Club is a rowing club located in Adelaide, South Australia. The Patron of the ARC is the Right Honourable Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Mr Michael Harbison....

 shortly afterwards, but retains the same colours and motto as the English cricket club and the club's eight oared boats have all been named "I Zingari".

External links


Further reading

  • I Zingari: The Club, the Cricket, the Characters, R.L. Arrowsmith, B.J.W. Hill, A. Winlaw, ISBN 1-899163-82-4
  • The History of I Zingari, R.L. Arrowsmith, R.L., B.J.W. Hill, ISBN 0-09-150550-X
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