William Lambert's Senior Debut — Surrey v England at Lord's, July 1801

Surrey in 1801 was not yet the formal county club it would become; teams were raised by individual patrons. The match against England was the most important fixture available to a young Surrey professional and was watched by a crowd of MCC members and gambling backers.

Lambert had played for Surrey clubs through 1799 and 1800 and impressed the local committee enough to be picked for Lord's. His selection was in part a wager: the patrons backed him against more experienced names because his all-round skill was already noticed in the village game.

Lambert was born in 1779 at Burstow on the Surrey-Sussex border and learned his cricket on village pitches in the closing years of the eighteenth century. By 1801 he had attracted the attention of the patrons who ran Surrey cricket and was given his chance in the season's most important fixture, Surrey v England at Lord's Old Ground. Surrey were dismissed for 109 in their first innings and 169 in their second; England, captained by the Duke of Hamilton's nominee, won comfortably. Lambert went in at number ten and contributed 0 and 5, the kind of unobtrusive debut that gave no warning of what was to come. The bat he used was the curved blade of the underarm era, no more than four inches at its widest. The pitch was a rough strip on the Dorset Fields ground that Thomas Lord had opened in 1787; bowlers were given enormous help and a score of 169 in the second innings was respectable. Lambert returned to club cricket and played intermittently in major matches for the next four seasons before establishing himself as a regular by 1806, the year he was drafted as a given man for the Gentlemen in the inaugural Gentlemen vs Players match.

“One of the most successful cricketers that has ever yet appeared, excelling as he did in batting, bowling, fielding, keeping wicket, and also single wicket playing.”

Lambert played sparingly in major matches between 1802 and 1805, but his reputation grew with every season. By 1806 he was good enough to be selected as a 'given man' for the Gentlemen against the Players in the very first match of that fixture. By 1810 he was one of the half-dozen most-feared cricketers in England.