Greatest Cricket Moments

William Ward Elected MCC Treasurer — November 1820

1820-11-08n/aMCC committee election, November 18201 min readSeverity: Mild

Summary

On 8 November 1820 William Ward — banker, batter and rising MCC figure — was elected club treasurer. He held the office for fifteen years. The election placed Ward on the central committee and prepared the ground for his 1825 purchase of the Lord's lease that saved the ground from being sold for housing.

What Happened

Ward had been an MCC member since 1808. By 1820 he was a senior partner at Ward's Bank, a regular MCC player, and the rising administrative figure of the post-war era. The November 1820 treasurer election made him formally responsible for MCC finances. Beauclerk remained the dominant committee voice, but Ward's financial stewardship became the practical centre of MCC administration.

Timeline

1808

Ward joins MCC

1820

Elected treasurer

1825

Buys Lord's lease for 5,000 guineas

1835

Steps down as treasurer

Aftermath

Ward served as MCC treasurer until 1835. His 1825 purchase of the Lord's lease for 5,000 guineas saved the ground from sale.

⚖️ The Verdict

The administrative coronation of one of cricket's great patrons — preparing the ground for his 1825 rescue of Lord's.

Tags

#roundarm-era#regency-cricket#william-ward#mcc#1820#iconic-moment

Related Incidents

⭐Mild

Middlesex County Cricket Club Founded — Cricket Comes Home to Lord's, 1864

Middlesex cricket establishment

1864-02-02

Middlesex County Cricket Club was founded on 2 February 1864 at a meeting in London, the same year in which the MCC legalised overarm bowling and John Wisden published his first Almanack. It was one of several county clubs formally constituted in the busy years of 1863–65 as English cricket reorganised itself around a county structure that would eventually evolve into a formal championship.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s
⭐Mild

Lancashire County Cricket Club Founded — Manchester's Game Gets Organised, 1864

Lancashire cricket establishment

1864-01-12

Lancashire County Cricket Club was formally constituted at a meeting in Manchester on 12 January 1864, giving England's most cricket-passionate industrial county a formal organisational structure to match the grassroots enthusiasm that had been filling grounds at Old Trafford and elsewhere for decades. Lancashire, alongside Yorkshire, represented the great northern cricket public that William Clarke's All-England Eleven had first mobilised commercially in the 1840s.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s
⭐Mild

V.E. Walker Takes All Ten — Every Wicket at Lord's, Middlesex v Lancashire, 1865

Middlesex vs Lancashire

1865-07-26

Vyell Edward Walker of Middlesex took all ten wickets in a Lancashire innings at Lord's on 26 July 1865 — one of the earliest documented instances of a bowler taking all ten in a first-class match. Walker, a medium-pace round-arm bowler who also captained Middlesex, achieved the feat without assistance from any other bowler, delivering one of the most complete individual bowling performances of the Victorian era.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s