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#all england eleven

20 incidents tagged

George Parr — All-England Eleven Captain Through the 1860s

All-England Eleven vs United All-England Eleven; vs touring sides

1870-09-01

George Parr — captain of Nottinghamshire from 1856 to 1870 and of the All-England Eleven over the same period — was the dominant figure in English professional cricket between William Clarke's death and W.G. Grace's emergence. Tour captain in North America in 1859 and Australasia in 1863-64, he scored 6,626 first-class runs at 20.20 in conditions that were brutal to batters, and ran the AEE through the great rivalry years against the United All-England Eleven from 1857 to 1866.

#george-parr#all-england-eleven#captaincy

George Parr's Final Season — The Lion of the North Retires, 1869

Nottinghamshire and All-England representative sides

1869-08-01

George Parr, the Lion of the North, played his final first-class season in 1869 and retired from the game he had dominated as England's premier batsman for fifteen years. His career spanned the transition from roundarm to overarm bowling, from county cricket without a championship to county cricket in its organised modern form, and from the All-England Eleven touring era to the beginnings of Test cricket. His farewell was the end of an epoch.

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

John Wisden's Playing Career — From the 'Little Wonder' to Retirement, 1846-1863

Sussex, Kent, Middlesex; All-England Eleven; United All-England Eleven

1863-09-01

Long before John Wisden's name appeared on the spine of an almanack, he was the most feared fast bowler of his generation. At five feet four he was the smallest fast bowler in first-class history; nicknamed the 'Little Wonder' by umpire Bob Thoms, he took more than 1,000 first-class wickets at 6.66 between 1846 and 1863. In 1850 at Lord's he took all ten North-South wickets in an innings — every one bowled, the only ten-bowled innings in first-class history.

#john-wisden#little-wonder#sussex

George Parr Takes Command of the All-England Eleven After Clarke's Death — 1856

All-England Eleven

1856-08-26

When William Clarke died on 25 August 1856, George Parr of Nottinghamshire — already England's leading batsman — took over effective leadership of the All-England Eleven. Parr's first act was to end Clarke's boycott of United All-England Eleven players, reuniting the two professional bodies and arranging the annual AEE v UAEE fixture that from 1857 drew the largest crowds in English cricket.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1850s

William Clarke's Death — End of the Founder of the All-England Eleven, 25 August 1856

n/a

1856-08-25

William Clarke, the Nottinghamshire slow underarm bowler who founded the All-England Eleven in 1846 and turned professional touring cricket into a paying business, died on 25 August 1856 at Priory Lodge, Wandsworth Road, London, of paraplegia. He was 57. His death ended the four-year boycott of the United All-England Eleven and opened the way for the AEE v UAEE annual match that would shape the next decade of English cricket.

#william-clarke#all-england-eleven#death

All-England Eleven at Sheffield — The Biggest Cricket Crowd in England, 1849

All-England Eleven vs Twenty-Two of Sheffield

1849-08-20

The All-England Eleven's August 1849 visit to Sheffield's Hyde Park Ground attracted a crowd estimated at between 12,000 and 15,000 — among the largest ever seen at a cricket match in England at that point. The Sheffield fixture was the AEE's most reliable commercial event, reflecting the city's massive working-class enthusiasm for cricket and its willingness to pay to see the best professionals. The match against Twenty-Two of Sheffield was a showcase of the touring format at its most commercially successful.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1840s

All-England Eleven Spreads Cricket — Manchester, Bristol, Derby and the Country Towns, 1847-49

All-England Eleven vs local sides

1849-08-01

Between 1847 and 1849 the All-England Eleven extended its fixture list from the north and midlands into the West Country, the Welsh borders and East Anglia. Visits to Manchester, Bristol, Derby, Newcastle, Norwich, Stourbridge and dozens of other towns turned cricket from a southern English diversion into a recognisably national game and triggered a wave of local club foundations.

#all-england-eleven#william-clarke#manchester

John Wisden Emerges as a Bowler — Sussex and AEE, late 1840s

Sussex / All-England Eleven

1849-08-01

John Wisden of Sussex — five feet four and weighing under nine stone — broke into first-class cricket in 1845 as a fast roundarm bowler and within four years was a fixture in the All-England Eleven. By 1849, aged 23, he was being talked of as the most promising young bowler in England; the publishing empire and the all-ten-bowled feat would come later.

#john-wisden#sussex#1849

William Clarke's Iron Grip on the AEE — Player Grievances and the Coming Rebellion, 1848

All-England Eleven — players vs Clarke management

1848-07-01

By the late 1840s, William Clarke's management of the All-England Eleven had generated serious discontent among the players he recruited. Clarke kept the lion's share of gate money for himself, paid players a fixed day rate regardless of receipts, and selected and dropped players according to personal favour rather than merit. By 1848–49 a core of leading professionals — including John Wisden and James Dean — had concluded that Clarke's terms were exploitative and were planning the breakaway that would become the United All-England Eleven in 1852.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1840s

George Parr Emerges — Notts Run-Maker and AEE Heir Apparent, 1846-1849

Nottinghamshire / All-England Eleven

1848-07-01

George Parr of Nottinghamshire, who would later succeed William Clarke as captain of the All-England Eleven and lead the second English tour of Australia, emerged in the late 1840s as the most powerful leg-side hitter in English cricket. By 1849, aged 23, he was the leading batsman in the AEE and the natural heir to Clarke's professional empire.

#george-parr#nottinghamshire#1848

All-England Eleven's First National Tour — 1847

All-England Eleven vs local 18s and 22s

1847-09-01

In its first full season after foundation, William Clarke's All-England Eleven played a programme of fixtures across the north and midlands — the first systematic national cricket tour ever organised. Sides of 18 or 22 local players were engaged at Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham, Liverpool, Stockton and Derby; the eleven won the great majority of fixtures and drew crowds of three to five thousand at most venues.

#all-england-eleven#william-clarke#1847

Eleven vs Eighteen, Twenty-Two of Locals — The Odds Format of AEE Tours, 1846-49

All-England Eleven vs local 18s/22s

1847-07-01

From the foundation of the All-England Eleven in 1846 every fixture the eleven played against a local side was contested at odds — eighteen, twenty-two or occasionally even more local players against the AEE's eleven. The format kept the contests competitive for spectators and for promoters' returns; it remained the standard structure of touring cricket for the next forty years, including the first English tours of Australia in the 1860s.

#all-england-eleven#william-clarke#odds-cricket

William Clarke Founds the All-England Eleven — 1846

n/a

1846-08-31

In late August 1846 the Nottinghamshire lob-bowler William Clarke, then a 48-year-old professional working as the practice bowler at Lord's, gathered eleven of England's leading professional cricketers and founded the All-England Eleven. The travelling side that resulted would, over the next two decades, take first-class standard cricket to every corner of the British Isles and create the commercial template for professional touring.

#william-clarke#all-england-eleven#aee

Joseph Guy of Nottinghamshire — Stylist of the 1840s

Nottinghamshire / All-England Eleven

1846-08-01

Joseph Guy of Nottinghamshire — a graceful right-handed batsman whose style Lord Frederick Beauclerk likened to 'cricket of the most gentlemanly kind' — was a charter member of William Clarke's All-England Eleven in 1846 and one of the leading professional batsmen of the 1840s.

#joseph-guy#nottinghamshire#1846

Player Payment Structure of the All-England Eleven — £4-£6 a Match Plus Expenses, 1846-1849

All-England Eleven

1846-09-01

William Clarke paid his All-England Eleven professionals between £4 and £6 per match plus travelling expenses through the late 1840s — at a time when a skilled labourer earned around £1 a week. The pay was generous by the standards of the day, but Clarke kept the gate as promoter and the disparity between his earnings and his players' would, by the early 1850s, drive a series of breakaways and the eventual foundation of the United All-England Eleven.

#all-england-eleven#professional-cricket#player-payment

Alfred Mynn's Continued Recovery and the Folklore of the Leicester Leg — through the 1840s

Kent / All-England Eleven

1846-08-15

Alfred Mynn's near-amputation at Leicester in 1836 — when, having batted on with a leg blackened by repeated fast roundarm blows, he was reportedly carried back to London on the roof of a stage coach — passed into cricket folklore through the 1840s. By 1846 the story was retold at every Mynn match, and the Leicester injury had become as much a part of his identity as his bowling and single-wicket dominance.

#alfred-mynn#leicester-1836#kent

George Parr's Early Career — The Lion of the North Emerges, 1845–1847

Nottinghamshire and All-England elevens

1845-07-01

George Parr of Nottinghamshire made his first-class debut in 1844 and by 1845–47 had established himself as the most promising young batsman in England, succeeding Fuller Pilch as the country's leading run-scorer in the 1850s. In the mid-1840s his leg-side hitting — which would eventually send a famous elm branch into orbit at Trent Bridge — was already drawing comment from critics who regarded him as the game's next great figure.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1840s

Tom Box of Sussex — The Wicketkeeper of the Pre-Pad Era, 1840s

Sussex / All-England Eleven

1845-07-15

Tom Box of Sussex was the leading wicketkeeper in England through the 1840s — keeping wicket without the pads, gloves or specialised gear of later eras and standing up to the fast bowling of Mynn, Redgate and the young John Wisden. He played first-class cricket for 25 years and dropped only one stumping chance in his entire career, according to the Lillywhites' near-contemporary count.

#tom-box#sussex#wicketkeeper

William Hillyer — Kent's Fastest and Most Feared Roundarmer, 1840s

Kent and All-England elevens

1844-07-01

William Hillyer of Leybourne was Kent's leading fast roundarm bowler through the 1840s and one of the most effective in England, taking over 1,000 first-class wickets in a career that ran from 1835 to 1853. His high-arm roundarm delivery and ferocious pace on hard pitches placed him alongside Alfred Mynn as the most dangerous member of the Kent attack, and his appearances for the All-England Eleven made him known across the country.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1840s

William Martingell — Surrey's Match-Winning Roundarmer, 1840s

Surrey and All-England elevens

1843-07-01

William Martingell of Nutfield was Surrey's leading roundarm bowler through the 1840s and early 1850s, combining pace with exceptional accuracy to take 762 first-class wickets at 10.38 — an average that ranked among the best in the game. An early member of Clarke's All-England Eleven, Martingell toured England's industrial north every summer and was instrumental in the AEE's competitive success against local twenties-and-twos.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1840s