Jessica Seal's 175 not out for Ross Cricket Club (From Hereford Times)

Jessica Seal's 175 not out for Ross Cricket Club

1:50pm Friday 6th July 2012 in Sport By Ian Morgan

JESSICA Seal didn’t know much about cricket three months ago — but she’s been bowled over by the history of Ross.

The 21-year-old from Goodrich has just completed a 21,000-word project looking into the history of Ross Cricket Club, which dates back to 1835.

“I knew the very basics of cricket because a couple of my friends from school played, but I had never heard of WG Grace,” said archivist Jessica.

“WG Grace played for Ross against Weston and they completely hammered Weston.

“I looked at a lot of old newspapers and spent a lot of time in Hereford Library.

“People from the club were very helpful — committee members and former players helped me with a lot of information.”

Jessica graduated from Bath Spa University last year and has been applying for historical writing and research jobs.

She got involved with the cricket project after replying to a Herefordshire Voluntary Action advert.

Jessica hopes her research will now form part of a booklet which will be published by the club to mark their 175th anniversary.

Ross Cricket Club are holding a special anniversary match recreating the first fixture played 175 years ago.

The Married v Single men’s cricket match is taking place this Sunday (July 8). The club are also staging a black-tie dinner, with England chairman of selectors, Geoff Miller, at the Chase Hotel on Friday, September 21.

Jessica said: “I appreciate the important role that volunteers play at cricket clubs — I hadn’t realised just how important they are.

“I have gained a lot of experience from the project and enjoyed working with Ross, it should look good on my CV. I have found the project very interesting and I would do something like this again.”