First Match at the Modern Lord's — MCC v Hertfordshire, 22 June 1814

The new ground at St John's Wood had been ready for play by mid-May 1814 but Thomas Lord and the MCC committee were anxious to test the surface before staging anything ambitious. Hertfordshire, an old MCC opponent, were a convenient choice. The fixture was advertised in the Morning Post a week beforehand at the modest entry price of one shilling.

The previous evening Lord himself walked the ground with his head groundsman, checking the rolling and the boundary markings. Beauclerk arrived from his Hertfordshire parish in his own carriage and was the first MCC player to bat on the new ground.

Hertfordshire, a county of declining cricket strength after the great years of the 1790s, were the chosen opponents largely because their secretary was a friend of Thomas Lord and the geography made it possible to mobilise a side at short notice. MCC fielded a side close to its strongest available — Lord Frederick Beauclerk, E.H. Budd, William Ward and Benjamin Aislabie among them. The match was played over a single day in the modern reckoning but with two-innings completion, the form usual at the time. MCC's first innings of 153 was anchored by Beauclerk and Budd; Hertfordshire replied with 41, helped by some loose underarm bowling, and were forced to follow on. They made 85 in their second innings and lost by an innings and 27 runs. The crowd was small — perhaps a few hundred — and the press coverage modest. The Sporting Magazine carried a brief notice but no full scorecard. The Father Time Wall at Lord's now commemorates the date, and the modern MCC keeps the 22 June 1814 fixture as the foundational match of the ground.

“On Wednesday last a match at cricket was played at the new ground in Marylebone, between the Mary-le-bone Club and a Hertfordshire eleven. The former gained the victory by an innings and twenty-seven runs.”

The fixture was followed by a more high-profile match a fortnight later between Old and Young MCC members, attended by a larger crowd. By the end of the 1814 season the new Lord's had hosted six senior matches and was firmly established as the central ground of the sport. Hertfordshire never again played a senior match against MCC of comparable significance.