The Royal Air Force cricket team is a cricket side representing the British Royal Air Force. The team played 11 first-class matches: nine between 1922 and 1932, mostly against other branches of the Services, and another two in 1945 and 1946. Their home ground is the Royal Air Force Sports Ground, Uxbridge.[1]
A number of notable cricketers played for the RAF team in its first-class days. Their side for the first such game, against Rest of England at Eastbourne in September 1922, included no fewer than eight current or future Test cricketers: Jack Hobbs, Wally Hardinge, Frank Woolley, Percy Fender, Harold Gilligan, George Geary, Charlie Parker and Abe Waddington (though none of them were currently serving in the RAF).[2] However, after this festival game, the RAF did not play another first-class match for five years.
Douglas Bader's only match of first-class cricket came for the RAF against the Army at The Oval in 1931.[3]
Since the 1940s, the RAF side has continued to compete in minor cricket.