Varsity and Eton-Harrow — The Schoolboy and University Cricket of the 1840s

Eton and Harrow had played cricket since the late eighteenth century; their fixture at Lord's, started in 1805, had become a London social event by the 1820s. Oxford v Cambridge, founded in 1827, had quickly acquired similar status.

Through the 1830s and 1840s the fixtures grew in social importance as the London season expanded and the railways brought more spectators in from the country. Carriages parked around the Lord's boundary were a defining sight.

Eton v Harrow had been played since 1805 (when Lord Byron played for Harrow). Oxford v Cambridge had been played since 1827. By the 1840s both fixtures were annual events at Lord's, with three-day matches and crowds that filled the carriages around the boundary. The cricket was variable in quality — the schools and universities produced occasional first-class players, but most participants were enthusiastic amateurs only — but the social weight was enormous. The fixtures were where the future leaders of the country watched and played the game; the Marylebone Cricket Club's prestige rested in significant part on its association with them. The 1843 Eton v Harrow match was won by Eton; the 1843 varsity match was won by Cambridge by 54 runs. Through the decade the matches established their place as the social peaks of the London cricket calendar, alongside Gentlemen v Players. The varsity match in particular produced players who would go on to first-class careers, though the formal designation of varsity cricket as 'first-class' came later.

Both fixtures continued as central events in the English cricket calendar until well into the twentieth century. The varsity match was treated as first-class from 1850; the Eton-Harrow remained a one-day spectacle.