History

Formed in 1947 at the Rydal Hotel in New Milton the club was originally called the Rydal Cricket Club. From its early nomadic days, with no “fixed abode”, it eventually settled at the Ashley Sports ground in New Milton.

For over twenty years, until 1973, the club played in the Bournemouth Leagues. Initially one side and from 1964 two sides. The best years were 1969 to 1971 when they won the Division 1 title twice and were runners up once.

In 1973 they joined the newly formed Hampshire League and in 1979 moved to their present ground at Bashley. Soon afterwards came the name change to Bashley (Rydal) as they entered the National Village Cup for the first time. An amazing amount of unpaid work has been done continuously since then to develop the ground, the pavilion and colts cricket. The development of an adjacent second ground in 1993 enabled the, by now four Saturday sides, to play at home rather than in Lymington and provide high quality facilities for junior cricket.

The 1st team won Hampshire Division 2 in 1984, Division 1 in 1986 and gained promotion into the Southern League in 1994. In 2000 they played in the inaugural ECB Premier league and won their first ever Premier League knockout cup at the “old” county ground in Southampton. The 2nd team won promotion from Hampshire SW 2, SW1 and County Division 4 in successive years from 1989 and then from County Division 3 in 1997 and 2 in 1999. They now play in the Premier League Division 3. The 3rd team finally gained promotion to the Hampshire League in 2000, after many years of “near misses”. They now play in the SW Division 2 with the 4th team promoted in 2004 to the SW Division 3.

The Colts section goes from strength to strength now fielding an Under 9 side,two U11 sides, two U13 sides, an U15 side and an U17 side. The Colts section has a number of County and District players in its ranks.

In 2001 the club jointly developed indoor practice facilities at nearby Ballard School, which means that indoor facilities are available all year round.