MCC
1839-05-15
In 1839 the MCC formally engaged William Lillywhite and James Broadbridge as paid practice bowlers at Lord's — bringing the Sussex roundarm pair, by now in their forties, onto the MCC ground staff. The arrangement marked the moment at which the world's leading club institutionalised roundarm bowling at its own headquarters, a decade after the law had been changed.
Sussex
1839-03-01
Sussex County Cricket Club, founded at Brighton on 1 March 1839, was the first formally constituted county cricket club in the world. Built on the Sussex cricketing tradition that William Lillywhite and James Broadbridge had carried since the 1820s, the club provided the model — committee, subscriptions, ground, professional staff — that all subsequent county cricket clubs followed.
Sussex, Players, South
1839-08-12
By 1839 William Lillywhite was 47 years old — an age at which most cricketers of any era have long since retired — and was still indisputably the leading bowler in England. The 1839 season saw him take wickets in every major fixture: Players vs Gentlemen at Lord's, North vs South, and the Sussex county matches. His longevity at the top of the bowling lists is one of the remarkable features of the late 1830s.