First Lord's Test — AG Steel's 148 and an Innings Win, 1884

Lord's had been the headquarters of MCC since 1814 but had resisted hosting Tests partly out of disdain for the colonial novelty of the format. By 1884 — with the Ashes a fact and English cricket badly bruised by the 1882 defeat — the resistance was finally untenable.

Australia, captained by Murdoch, had drawn at Manchester (the first Test ever played there). England fielded a strong side under Lord Harris with Steel and Lyttelton from the universities and Ulyett and Barlow from the professional ranks.

MCC had taken 47 years to schedule a Test at its own ground. The Australian touring sides of 1878 and 1880 had played at The Oval but not Lord's; the 1882 match (the famous Ashes-birthing Test) was again at The Oval. Only in 1884, with Lord Harris's lobbying and CW Alcock's intercession, did MCC at last admit a Test.

The Australians batted first and made 229, with Henry Scott's 75 and George Giffen's 63 the main contributions. England replied with 379, of which Steel made 148 — a controlled, classical 230-minute innings with 13 fours that became the foundation of every future Lord's century. Dick Barlow made 38, Lord Harris instructing him at the fall of the fifth wicket: 'For Heaven's sake, Barlow, stop the rot!' The pair added 98.

Australia's second-innings 145 left England nothing to chase; the home side won by an innings and 5 runs. Ulyett took 7/36 to seal it, finishing the match with figures that would have made him man of the match in modern parlance.

Steel's name was the first to appear in gold on the Lord's honours board for an England Test century. He went on to captain England in 1886, score another century at Lord's in 1886, and remain one of Lancashire's greatest amateurs until his death in 1914.

“For Heaven's sake, Barlow, stop the rot!”

Lord's has hosted a Test in every English summer when an Ashes side has visited since (with the exceptions of war years). The 1884 honours board was the first; it now extends to Bradman, Hutton, Sobers, Lara and Tendulkar.

Steel went on to be a leading amateur of the 1880s. He captained England, edited a cricket annual and practised as a barrister. He died in 1914 after a long illness.