Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club matches at Fenner's, Cambridge University's ground, and occasionally play games there still. In recent years, matches have also been held at Wisbech and Saffron Walden (in northeastern Essex). Cricket must have reached Cambridgeshire in the 17th century. The earliest reference to the game being played there is at Cambridge University in 1710. Outside the university, the earliest reference is a game in 1758 between the parishes of Saffron Walden and Cambridge. Cambridge Town Club and Cambridgeshire were effectively the same team as the town club teams were representative of the county as a whole. The town club's earliest known match
Saffron Walden market place. This was demolished in 1847 to make way for a corn exchange. In the 16th–17th centuries the saffron crocus ("Crocus sativus") was widely grown, thanks to the town's favourable soil and climate. The flower was valuable, as the extract from the stigmas was used in medicines, as a condiment, in perfume, as an aphrodisiac, and as an expensive yellow dye. The industry gave Walden its name. The town and surrounding area, like much of East Anglia, was strongly Puritan during the 17th century. The population was influenced by the missionary John Eliot. By 1640, Samuel Bass's family and