Surrey - Sport

Sport

• Cricket makes its first appearance in history in Surrey, in a reference to the game being played at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford in the 16th century (see History of English cricket to 1696). Mitcham Cricket Club, formed in 1685 and the oldest documented club in the game's history, was within Surrey's borders until 1965. The Surrey County Cricket Club, founded in 1845, represents the historic county of Surrey, although its main ground, The Oval in Kennington, is now in Greater London. The club also uses Whitgift School, South Croydon and Woodbridge Road, Guildford for some games. It was one of the original participants in the County Championship and has won the competition 18 times, more than any other county except Yorkshire.

• Epsom Downs Racecourse is the venue for the most prestigious event in British flat horse-racing, the Derby, which has been held there annually since 1780; Lingfield Park Racecourse, Kempton Park Racecourse and Sandown Park Racecourse are also in Surrey.

• Brooklands between Woking and Weybridge was the world's first purpose-built motorsport race circuit, opened in 1907, partly now Mercedes-Benz World. Currently Woking plays host to the headquarters of the McLaren Formula One team, giving Surrey the rarity of having a local F1 team. James Hunt, the 1976 Formula 1 World Driver's Champion was born in Belmont, Sutton, then part of Surrey, in 1947.

• Surrey's leading rugby club, Esher, currently compete in the RFU Championship, the second tier of English rugby.

• Surrey is one of a handful of English counties with no teams in the top 80 teams, the Football League. Its leading football teams are Woking, currently playing in the fifth-tier Conference National and Staines Town, in the sixth-tier Conference South.