Shanklin Cricket Club was formed in 1871 by a group of volunteers. Their first ever 'home ground' was the very same ground where cricket is now played, in what was then the grounds of Westhill Manor.

At this time, the ground was also used for tennis, and the two sports shared the same pavilion. The ground was named "Shanklin Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club", and hosted the South of England Tennis Championships.

The first recorded match took place on 25th May 1871 when Shanklin played against the Concord and Peace Benefit Society. Later in the year, on 8th and 9th July, Shanklin played host to the London Clown Cricketers, who boasted several professionals and the match was attended by between three and four thousand spectators! Amongst those spectators were the specially invited Crown Prince and Princess of Germany.

There is a gap in the Club records between 1871 and 1885, but it appears as though the Club continued playing games throughout this period. In 1885 there were several games against Appuldurcombe College, who managed to bowl Shanklin out for 14 on 2nd July, and the first recorded game against Ventnor : Shanklin scoring 101 and 58 against Ventnor's 48 and 99.

In 1886, a new Pavilion was built at Westhill. This was, however, for the exclusive use of the tennis club. The cricketers continued to use the old building. The first recorded game against Ryde was on 14th July 1887, when Shanklin won by 14 runs. The first games against Sandown took place in 1889. Between then and 1900, several games were played at the County Ground, where a special railway halt had been built to allow the public to alight there and watch sports.

Shanklin Cricket Club moved, just after the First World War, away from its Westhill home and matches were played on a meadow at Upper Hyde, and then for several more years at Lower Hyde. This is described as "a pleasant meadow with a reasonably hard and level wicket, though a somewhat undulating outfield…The Pavilion consisted of a wooden hut with two changing rooms, used in the winter by the football club". Most of the matches were played against Isle of Wight clubs with a few sides from the mainland making the journey.

The Clarendon Hotel and the Crab Hotel appear to have been the two 'locals' for after-match entertainment. The records show that Shanklin CC were far from a settled side during the 1920's and 1930's. The club captain 1924-32, A B Cooke, recalls that "for a time it was a struggle to find eleven players on a Saturday to represent Shanklin, but as the season advanced it was usually possible to fill up with visitors…sometimes I would lead the team out on the field with four or five complete strangers, culled from the beach by the untiring efforts of Bill Tucker [who is described as "secretary/groundsman/talent-spotter]".

After many years playing at Lower Hyde, many well-established local cricketers began to drift away. In the winter of1935, the already struggling Club was told that the Hyde ground would no longer be available to them in 1936 as it had been sold. A frantic search around the district for a new ground proved unsuccessful, and so the decision was made to play in 1936 as a wandering side. The following season saw 'hitherto unknown problems' and it was eventually agreed that the Club should be wound up. One club member, a farmer, generously offered one of his fields as a 'home ground' for 1937, but after a lot of legal argument the offer was turned down and the Club ceased to exist.

1939 nearly saw a reformation of the Club, as one of the members (Ted Rodd, later a Councillor) was trying to persuade the Council that Big Mead should be used as a home ground for the Cricket Club. However, the war came along and frustrated those ideas.

Many people think that the war in fact played a major part in the Club eventually re-forming. Westhill Sports Ground, where the Club had begun its days in 1871, was used in the war by The Wardens (a group formed to assist the Police and public in case of air raids). The Wardens appear to have been 'given' the ground, and after the war they sold it to the local Council .

To local cricket enthusiasts, this appeared to be the perfect opportunity to start the local Club up again. Here was an ideal ground for a Club, along with a pavilion thrown in. Major Bill Dunlop placed an advert in the Shanklin Guardian asking anyone interested in reforming the Club to get in touch with him, and he also negotiated terms with the Council which saw £80 per annum plus half of profits from the gate paid to the Council in return for use of the premises.

The Club was re-formed at a meeting at Shanklin Town Hall on 3rd October 1950. Bill Dunlop took the role of Fixture Secretary and the first President was E.W.Austin. Dennis Sullivan played a vital role in persuading Sandown & Shanklin UDC to let the Club return to Westhill. The Club was fortunate at this time to have Mrs V Hammond as one of its vice-presidents, who asked her famous son Wally Hammond of Gloucestershire and England, to play in the historical first match in 1951. A large crowd attended the match, and saw Ventnor's 102 beat Shanklin's reply by just one run, with Wally Hammond making only 12 before being given out lbw by the Ventnor umpire.

By all accounts, the Club went from strength to strength from 1951 onwards. The fixture list quickly became full, and as soon as 1952 the Club hosted a minor counties match between Hampshire II and Middlesex II. This is a particularly special achievement when one realises that no cricket had been played at this ground for around 25 years. The original groundsman, Bob Kent, was faced with a former tennis Club covered in two foot high grass - no tennis had been played since prior to the war, which had commenced 12 years earlier. He set about the grass with a scythe, and within 18 months the Club hosted Hampshire II.

The Club was still using the pavilion which had been built in 1886. This building was situated between the current pavilion and the car park. On 16th February 1962 at a Committee meeting, it was learned that the Shanklin Wardens were having second thoughts about the sum of £800 originally offered for improvements to the Westhill ground through the Sandown & Shanklin Urban District Council. The Committee met the Wardens to enter into discussions and it was agreed by the Wardens, and ultimately by the Council and the Club, that a new Pavilion could be built. The sum of £5,000 had to be raised.

The Club were taken aback by a withdrawal of support by the Wardens, who eventually decided to give their £800 to Shanklin Hospital Friends Fund. The Club's bank accounts from the time show that the total funds stood at only £331. The Club embarked upon finding a series of loans and donations, and ran a Fete which later proved to be the forerunner to the famous 'Donkey Derbys'. A bank loan of £3,000 and a National Playing Fields Association grant of £1,000 saw the project near completion. The final pieces in the jigsaw were the first Fete (1963), which was opened by comedian Dick Emery and raised £300, and another grant from the Ministry of Education, which raised £900.

On 18th September 1963, Messrs A G Hookey of Sandown were given the tender to build the shell of the pavilion, for £3,976.15. The work was completed in February 1964. Much of the internal and other work was carried out by a number of Club members free of charge, and such was their enthusiasm and commitment that the new pavilion was ready for the official opening on 17th May 1964. One member who deserves epical mention is Tom Vose, a true stalwart who "during the winter of 1964 virtually lived at the Club, scheming, working and instructing what to him must have seemed a very dim lot".

It is reported that Tom Vose always envisaged a more complex structure to the Pavilion, with two floors. The opening match was between Shanklin and Lords Taverners who were captained by Alf Gover, the former Surrey and England fast bowler. Several hundred spectators watched the match, which took place on 19th July 1964.

Alf Gover himself wrote to the Club in 1965, saying:

"I had never been to the Isle of Wight before taking the Lords Taverners to play on Shanklin Cricket Ground. What a delightful introduction to the Island! A ground that has everything a cricket playing area should have, a first class wicket, good outfield, delightful surroundings. A Pavilion with not only an excellent bar, but members eager to be voluntary barmen. Everything, in fact, that the Cricketer - first class and Club - looks for. Shanklin's fame has gone far and wide, and many Clubs who use my cricket School play Shanklin in their southern 'tour'. When they say they are contemplating a tour which includes the Island, I tell them "write to Shanklin for a game, you can't go there without meeting them".

In 1968, an extension was added to the Pavilion to include increased changing room space, new showers and toilets and a score board. A further grant of £700 from the National Playing Fields Association was required, and a loan of £1,500 from brewers W J Mew was obtained. By 1971, virtually all of the loans for the new pavilion had been repaid.

From the point of reformation onwards, the Club became quickly and increasingly popular with visiting sides, and the legendary Fixture Secretary Roy Tiller was able to arrange at least three games a week. This placed a considerable effort on the members who prepared wickets using a hand pulled roller. Some very good mainland sides were regular visitors, including many who still visit us to this very day.

One of the Clubs' few Honorary Life Members, Phil Addison, sadly passed away in 2005. It was his organisational skills that really spurred on the social aspect of the Club, and it was his hard work that led to 'big games' being arranged between Shanklin and, amongst others, the Lords Taverners (twice), England Ladies (twice, captained by Rachel Heyhoe-Flint) and the SPARKS charity side. Prior to the advent of league cricket, Sunday was the principal day of the week for 'big crowds' when quite often up to 100 spectators would arrive to watch the game, often against a mainland touring side.

The Club was also fortunate, due to its location, to play host each year to the annual Isle of Wight v MCC match. The Club was also chosen to host many representative matches at various levels. This continues today, with the Club being chosen in 2005 as the base for the Isle of Wight Under 16 squad as well as hosting five youth festival matches, senior matches and Isle of Wight Over 50's county games.

In the 1990's a new lease was arranged between the Club and the Isle of Wight Council, which secured the future of the Club at Westhill for another 99 years.

The Isle of Wight became a very popular destination for touring sides and during the last quarter of the century, the Club often entertained more than one touring side per week - in the height of summer, there would sometimes be games every day of the week! In these heady seasons it was not unusual for players to play 40,50 or more games each summer.

The number of teams able to commit to touring, however, gradually dropped through the 1990's. The advent of the year 2000 saw the Club face serious financial problems, and for a few months the spectre of dissolution hung over the Club once more. The rich vein of volunteer labour, which had served the Club so well during the post-war period, was coming to an end and, facing rapidly increasing running costs like so many other voluntary sports Clubs in the modern era, Shanklin were forced to look to other avenues for income. Greater efforts were made with advertising and sponsorship, including advertising boards at the ground and shirt sponsors. For the first time since the 1970's, an annual Fete was held which became so popular in 2005 that over 700 people attended and the Club raised over £2,000.

Due to concentrated effort by a select few - in the same spirit as those who had got the Club up and running again in 1951- the Club's fortunes began to rise once more, and 2005 saw the first major alteration to the Pavilion since its construction in 1964. The unique wooden sliding door design was replaced with a long-lasting plastic alternative. With the youth section of the Club at its strongest, Shanklin Cricket Club looks forward to the future with great hope and optimism.