About Us

We are a travelling team, but our official homeground is at Brasenose College, Oxford, which is where the club began, and where we tend to play at least four games a season.  If anyone ever wonders why we play so many games at Oxford Colleges and Brasenose in particular, it's because where else can you get a first class wicket with a proper pavilion in delightful surroundings at a low price, within 60 miles from London?  Lifts are almost always available.

How It All Began

Captain Scott Invitation XI was dreamed up in Oxford in the autumn of 1978, by Harry Thompson, Marcus Berkmann, Richard Corden and Terence Russoff.  It was borne of Thompson and Berkmann's frustration that despite being fervent cricket fans, they had not been allowed to play cricket at Highgate School (on the grounds that both had reached the age of ten without picking up a cricket bat, and there was no point in starting so late) or subsequently at Brasenose and Worcester Colleges, Oxford, because only the first XI were allowed to set foot on the hallowed turf of the college squares. 

They named their fledgling team after Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the polar hero, because he came second - but in the right spirit.

The Team Today

The accent is, as ever, on inclusiveness, not elitism, though this does not signify lack of ambition.  As well as the infamous World Tour of December 2002/January 2003, (the team having previously travelled to such far flung destinations as Malaysia and South Africa) we won every game in the 2003 season (in memory of the great Cie Malde) and romped to victory in a European Indoor Tournament held in Prague in 2004.  This year's big project is the commemorative game against the world renowned Lashings XI on 2nd June, which is the official launch of PENGUINS STOPPED PLAY and is raising much needed funds for the Roy castle Lung Cancer Foundation.  Future overseas tours are under discussion.

Our Motto

Modo Egredior - 'I'm Just Going Outside', after Captain Oates' final, heroic words.  This signifies that this is a team about putting one's teammates first, and one's ego a firm second.

Our Unoffical Motto !

Jou Ma Buk Vir Renoster .  Er...which means that Your Mother Bends to Take it From a Rhino, in Afrikaans.  It is a rallying cry, dating from the infamous Captain Scott World tour in 2002/3, and a tribute to our much loved band of South African players.