Early Beginnings

The Twenties & Thirties

The War Years and Aftermath

Independence and Onwards

Early Beginnings

It is said that you can't get three Englishmen together in a foreign country without them forming a club. Thus in Kenya it was not surprising that all sorts of clubs came into being in the early colonial days. The history of the Mombasa Sports Club can be traced back to 1896 and together with the Mombasa Club, which was established in the same year, has the distinction of being one of the two oldest clubs in Kenya.

In 1896 the number of Europeans in Mombasa was very small numbering just over one hundred of whom most were administrative officials and railway employees. The East African Protectorate had been proclaimed the year before in July 1895 and in 1896 the building of the Uganda Railway had just started. Sir Arthur Hardinge, the Commissioner for the new Protectorate, was the first president of the Club and the Sports Club became
a focus of Mombasa life even before Mombasa was declared a township in 1903.

There is very little information about the earliest years of the Sports Club. This is because, like many other clubs, the Mombasa Sports Club began as an informal gathering of a few keen sportsmen who got together and organised teams and matches amongst themselves and then asked their friends along to join in and participate. Proceedings were very casual and minutes of meetings were not kept until 1905. Unfortunately even these valuable records have disappeared in recent years and the writing of this history has been hampered by the lack of any written documentation kept by the Club.

Cricket and a military encampment provide the first clues in the search for how and why a sports club was started in Mombasa. In 1896 there was a rebellion against the British presence and troops were hastily brought in from India to quell the uprising. Barracks to house 900 soldiers, officers' quarters, an officers' mess where parties were held, a dispensary and other military facilities were quickly built on land made available by the Sultan
of Zanzibar's chief representative in Mombasa, Salim bin Khalfan. The site, which included a military parade ground besides the already mentioned amenities, was situated in a central position on the island, next to the narrow railway line that ran from Fort Jesus to Kilindini following more or less the path of present day Nkrumah Road and Moi Avenue, close to the present site of the Sports Club.

It was there "on ground near the Sikh's Lines" the first ever cricket match in the British East Africa Protectorate was played in September 1896. The occasion was a visit of the British naval vessel, HMS Sparrow from Zanzibar, having on board Judge de Sausmarez, and the match was won by the Sparrow team in the first innings. 

Bertie Cator, who was appointed legal vice-consul in Mombasa on 9th June 1896, and Major Hatch of the Sikh regiment were the leading lights behind the formation of this Mombasa cricket team and were ultimately responsible for the birth of the Sports Club which began life primarily as a cricket club. Both were very keen cricketers and the following year the Zanzibar Gazette reported on the official opening of the new Mombasa cricket ground, 19th April 1897, which was celebrated by two matches between the teams of HMS Sparrow and Mombasa, the second of which was won by the Mombasa team. The riotous party held afterwards, when the sailors cut the telegraph wires, took the Sub Commissioner prisoner in his bedroom and proceeded to "attack" the military lines shows that even in those far off days the Sports Club upheld its reputation for after-match entertainment.

The Sports Club owes much to the efforts of Bertie Cator and to the generosity of Salim bin Khalfan. Bertie Cator not only introduced the British judicial system into Mombasa but also set up the legal framework for land tenure and the issuing of title deeds, and he made sure that the Sports Club received one of the earliest official grants of title for the land which it still occupies. Salim bin Khalfan donated the land and together with his son Ali bin Salim were made the first honorary life members of the Club in 1898.

The original Mombasa Sports Club title deed is numbered 228 of Series A, dated 1/6/1900 and registered 26/6/1900. It reads "This is a grant in perpetuity, free of cost, by Salim bin Khalfan, Liwaliof Mombasa, to Sir Arthur Henry Hardinge (Her Majesty's Commissioner and Consul General of East Africa Protectorate) and to Ralph Bertie Peter Cator (HM Judge) and others, as Trustees of Mombasa Sports Club." 

The land was given jointly for use by HM Government as a "military parade ground" and by Mombasa Sports Club for "games" and further stated that "If at any time the gran tees wish to cease using the land for these stated purposes, the land reverts back to the Commissioner of Wakf, who will use the land for the benefit of Musselmen".

The 1900 grant, refers to the land as "now in occupation by Mombasa Sports Club" and does not mention the actual date of occupation. The map shows a pavilion, a tennis court and several mango and jambul trees. Since 1900 the plot number has undergone various changes and the boundaries have been altered by the sale and purchase of peripheral sections, but the cricket ground and Club house still occupy the original grant of land.

In the absence of Club records, early photographs and newspaper articles provide the best source material. The earliest picture we have of the sports ground depicts a scene from the celebrations held for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in June 1897. It shows the very first cricket pavilion, a modest makuti and mabati structure set under the mango trees, a refreshment tent and a group of Indian employees of the railways in the foreground.

Both the East African Standard and the East Africa and Uganda Mail, first printed in Mombasa in 1902,carried interesting information about the goings on at the Club. In February 1903 we are told that the Sports Club ground was used for a wedding reception for H. R. Phelips, Auditor of The East African Protectorate, attended by the Governor Sir Charles Eliot and all his staff. On 24 July 1903 a public holiday was declared on the occasion of the annual Agricultural Show~ being held for the third time but for the first time in Mombasa at the Sports Club ground. This was a major public event, timed to coincide with the arrival of the Eastern Fleet which was stationed in South Africa at the Cape. There were cricket matches and tennis games as well as coconut shies, races and prizes for the best vegetables and livestock. German East Africa participated and sent up some good displays of the latest farming machinery.

Nearly every week there were reports of cricket capped". matches held at the Sports Club sometimes against visiting naval ships or, very occasionally, teams from up country. In April 1903 a match was reported between the Mombasa Sports Club and the Portuguese Cricket Club, whose members consisted of Goan Government clerks from Nairobi. Mostly, however, Mombasa cricketers had to fall back on local talent and they showed considerable ingenuity in ringing the changes. Judge Cator until his departure from Mombasa in 1905, organized many of these early matches and had his own cricket XI who took on anyone else who could raise
a team.

Sometimes matches took the whole weekend and as there were not many people to choose from, anyone who could play cricket was invited. In the teams there are several non-European names, such as Virji, Ali, Sadiki, Dinshaw and Boy Jumah, all of whom regularly played for the Sports Club side, showing that in those early days the Club was far
more open than it became later on when only Europeans were selected for the teams. With no television or alternative amusements, the weekly cricket matches seemed to have been the major source of entertainment for the European community, and indeed the whole of Mombasa who turned out en masse to watch. Ingenious combinations of teams were thought up such as Law & Order v. The World, Football players v. Cricketers, Cleanshaven v. Moustaches, Married v. Single, More v. Less than Three Years in East Africa and
Under 30s v. Over 30s. As explained in one report for September 1905, "A great deal lies in the spin of the- coin, as the side that gets the mid-afternoon sun when batting is considerably handicapped". Sometimes there were reports that the ball landed too near the ladies sitting in the pavilion, while on one occasion "Mr. Peacock lost three teeth in the slips." On Apri112th 1905 a Ladies v. Gentlemen cricket match was held which caused much amusement. The gentlemen played left-handed and used broomsticks instead of bats and the ladies won 54- 47.

Football matches were also played. In August 1903 Mombasa played HMS Partridge, a "rather slow" game according to the reporter. On October 8th 1904 there was a football match Europeans v. CMS Boys, the freed slaves from the Church Missionary Society settlement at Freretown. The match was won by the CMS Boys and the commentator wrote that "it was a bit hot for Europeans and on the Sahara Desert Sports ground the advantage went to those not wearing shoes". It was difficult to find enough Europeans to make up a football team and often the CMS Boys were invited to make up numbers.

On 24th August 1905 a major sporting weekend was held at the Sports Club with tea-parties laid on by the Deputy Commissioner and Treasurer of the Club. By this time the Club's own three tennis courts were ready and the ladies played in long dresses. There were also football and cricket matches. The reporter for this weekend waxed lyrical as he described how "the sunshades and airy summer dresses backed by the great mango trees with their rich green foliage made a very pretty picture." 

Tennis was another of the first sports to be played in Mombasa, originally by the missionaries, and there were two courts just behind Fort Jesus. But this area was soon needed for administrative offices and in 1908 the land was sold and the proceeds given to the Mombasa Sports Club to expand the tennis section and build extra tennis courts. By 1905 the Club participated in three main sporting activities, cricket, association football and tennis. There was a committee of eight members and the first hotly debated improvement to Club facilities was a new cricket pavilion, funds for which were eventually obtained by raising debentures. The entrance fee and subscription stood at 75 rupees and 12/50 rupees per quarter respectively, and although there are no exact figures available for membership, it was certainly less than a hundred members. 

A chapter about the early years of the Club cannot finish without a mention of the Honorary secretary J.W.H. Parkinson who looked after Club affairs from 1907 until his death in 1923. The subsequent success of the Club owed much to his dedicated efforts and his name is commemorated by a brass plaque which still hangs in the Club.

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