n/a
1822-05-04
In May 1822 a group of Sheffield merchants and industrialists formed the Sheffield Cricket Club at Darnall, on the eastern edge of the town. The club leased a strip from a local landowner and laid out the Darnall ground that would, within five years, host major matches against MCC and Sussex. Sheffield CC is the earliest constituted Yorkshire cricket club of major-match standing.
Nottingham vs Sheffield
1822-08-12
On 12-13 August 1822 Nottingham played Sheffield on the Forest ground at Nottingham — the earliest documented major match at the Forest, the open common ground that served as Nottingham's principal cricket venue for the next forty years. The Forest's history is the foundation of the cricketing tradition that would, by mid-century, produce William Clarke and the All-England Eleven.
MCC vs Kent
1822-07-15
Opening the bowling for Kent against MCC at Lord's on 15 July 1822, the Kent farmer John Willes — pioneer of the new roundarm action — was no-balled by the umpire for raising his hand above the prescribed level. Willes threw the ball down, walked off the ground, mounted his horse and rode out of cricket forever. He was the first man to be no-balled in a first-class match for an illegal bowling action and never played another important fixture.
Sheffield vs Nottingham
1822-08-12
The first major match at Sheffield's Darnall ground in 1822, a 15 of Sheffield v 11 of Nottingham fixture, was marred when a temporary spectators' stand collapsed under the weight of the crowd, injuring nearly two dozen people. The incident was the first known crowd-safety disaster in English cricket and a foretaste of Lord's-era complaints about hastily built spectator scaffolding.
Eton vs Harrow
1822-08-02
The Eton v Harrow cricket match, first played at Lord's in 1805 with Lord Byron in the Harrow side and resumed in 1818, became an annual fixture from 1822 — the foundation date of what would become the longest-running schools cricket fixture in the world. The annual rhythm, briefly interrupted by the 1829-31 ban, has otherwise survived almost unbroken to the modern era.