Reykjavík is the oldest cricket club in Iceland, founded on 14 August 1999. The club has existed in
two incarnations. The first was nicknamed Kylfan (‘the Bat’), formed by Iceland’s first 16 cricketplaying residents. Unusually, all were native Icelanders. The first captain was Ragnar Kristinsson who
is famous for bringing the game of cricket to Iceland. Kylfan won the Icelandic Cricket Cup in 2000,
2001 and 2003. As the initial surge of Icelandic interest in cricket slowed, games became less
frequent, though there was a late flowering in 2008 when Kylfan fielded two elevens for the summer.
The club lay dormant until its renaissance was brought about by Lee Nelson in 2015, when the team
adopted its new moniker, ‘the Vikings’. In that year, the Icelandic Cricket Cup became the Volcanic
Ashes, an annual indoor series which Reykjavík won in 2017 and 2019. The club also won the
Summer Solstice Sixes in 2019 and 2020.
Reykjavík’s traditional home ground is the Klambratún park, but it has not played a home game since
the Kylfan era. The last club cricket match to take place in Reykjavík was on 5 July 2008, though the
Iceland national team continued to play at Klambratún until 2014.