The Primary Club is one
of those slightly odd, very English, institutions that happened almost
by accident. The Club was started at Beckenham Cricket Club, Kent,
in 1955 by four slightly inebriated young bachelors, depressed by
their own performance with the bat. They vowed to support F R Brown's
Fund for Blind Cricketers. Membership was initially limited to those out first ball in matches for or against Beckenham and in nine years, the Club raised £45.
As it became increasingly apparent
that there could be a real role for The Primary Club, what began
almost as a joke became a serious, if idiosyncratic, charity which
grew rapidly.
In 1973 the BBC's Test Match
Special team, in particular the late Brian Johnston, started to talk
about the Club on the radio and members were recruited from
cricket-playing countries all over the world.
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The late Brian Johnston with Test Match
Special Producer Peter Baxter,
both sporting
Primary Club ties.
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There are now just under
9,600 members who have donated £2 million to the Club.
In 2006, The Primary Club made grants in excess of £200,000
to clubs and schools for the blind throughout the United Kingdom.
Originally all Club donations went to
Dorton House School, run by the Royal London Society for the Blind. In recent years the Club
has given considerable support to British Blind Sport and provided funds
for sporting and recreational facilities to over 40 schools and clubs for
the visually impaired all over the UK.
In 1997 Derek Underwood MBE, one of
England's finest cricketers, who began his cricket career in Beckenham,
became Patron of the Club.
In 2006, the Club launched the Primary Club Juniors for those under 18, with Andrew Strauss as their first President.
Click here for a pdf of the earliest Club document, circa 1955.
Click here to read the Club's current Rules
To view pdf files download Adobe Reader
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