#lord s old ground

26 incidents tagged

Final Match at Dorset Square — The Original Lord's Closes, May 1810

MCC vs Middlesex

1810-05-08

On 8 May 1810 the MCC played Middlesex on the original Lord's ground at Dorset Square — the last major match on the site Thomas Lord had opened in 1787. The Portman Estate's notice to terminate, served in October 1808, took effect at the close of play. The Dorset Square ground was given over to building work within weeks; cricket at Lord's continued at the new Middle Ground at North Bank.

#regency-cricket#underarm#thomas-lord

⭐Mild

Thomas Howard's Emergence — Fast Bowling After Harris, Surrey v England 1809

Surrey vs England

1809-07-04

On the newly opened Lord's Middle Ground in July 1809, Thomas Howard of Mitcham took 9 wickets in a Surrey v England fixture and announced himself as the leading fast underarm bowler in the country — the first since David Harris's death in 1803 to dominate a major match by pace alone. His performance gave Surrey a rare win over England and reset the bowling hierarchy of the late underarm era.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

MCC's First Recorded Tour — A Visit to Petworth, August 1809

MCC vs Petworth

1809-08-21

In August 1809 a Marylebone Cricket Club side travelled to Petworth Park in Sussex to play a side raised by the third Earl of Egremont — the earliest documented away tour by an MCC eleven. The match marked the beginning of the MCC's role as a touring side, a function the club would expand through the nineteenth century into international touring as MCC sides to Australia, India and beyond.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Thomas Lord Loses His Original Ground — Dorset Square Notice, October 1808

n/a

1808-10-04

On 4 October 1808 the Portman Estate served formal notice on Thomas Lord that his lease on the Dorset Square ground — the original Lord's, opened in 1787 — would not be renewed. The land was wanted for housing. Lord had eight months to find a new ground. He did, and opened the Middle Ground at North Bank in May 1809; but the Dorset Square notice is the moment at which the original Lord's was lost.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

William Ward's First Major Match — Surrey v England at Lord's, June 1808

Surrey vs England

1808-06-13

William Ward — the City banker who would, twelve years later, score 278 at Lord's and, in 1825, save the ground itself by buying its lease — made his first major-match appearance for Surrey against England in June 1808. He scored 18 in a low-scoring defeat. The debut is the entry point of one of the great careers of the Regency era and of one of the most important administrators in the history of Lord's.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

📋Mild

MCC Adopts a Maximum-Stakes Rule for Major Matches — Committee, May 1807

n/a

1807-05-13

In May 1807 the MCC committee — alarmed by the runaway side-betting that had attached to single-wicket and county matches through the early 1800s — passed a resolution capping the principal stake on any MCC-arranged major match at 500 guineas. The rule did not stop side betting in the gallery, but it cut the headline stakes on the central fixtures sharply and is the first MCC regulation explicitly aimed at reducing betting influence on major cricket.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Lord Darnley's Match at Cobham Hall — England v Kent, July 1807

England vs Kent

1807-07-14

John Bligh, fourth Earl of Darnley, hosted a major England v Kent fixture on the lawn at Cobham Hall on 14-15 July 1807 — one of the last great patron-funded country-house matches of the underarm era. The young Ivo Bligh, who would as Lord Darnley a generation later bring the Ashes urn back from Australia, was a child of three watching from the terrace. The fixture is the Cobham Hall ground's most important first-class entry.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Edward 'E.H.' Budd's First Major Century — MCC v Middlesex, August 1806

MCC vs Middlesex

1806-08-25

On 25 August 1806 Edward Hayward Budd — eighteen years old and four years into his major-match career — scored 110 for the MCC against Middlesex at Lord's. It was his first major century, and the start of a thirty-year career as the most powerful straight hitter of the underarm era. Budd would, in the 1820s, regularly hit balls clear out of the Lord's ground.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Beauclerk v Beldham Single-Wicket Match — Lord's, June 1806

Beauclerk vs Beldham

1806-06-09

On 9 June 1806 Lord Frederick Beauclerk — Regency cricket's swaggering amateur — challenged William Beldham, the most respected professional in the country, to a single-wicket match for stakes of 50 guineas. The match was played in front of a paying Lord's crowd. Beauclerk won by twelve runs, helped by a much-debated stumping decision against Beldham in the first innings. The contest is one of the great single-wicket fixtures of the period.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

The First Gentlemen v Players Match — Lord's, July 1806

Gentlemen vs Players

1806-07-07

On 7-9 July 1806 a 'Grand Match' between the Gentlemen and the Players was played at Thomas Lord's first ground at Dorset Square — the inaugural fixture of what would become the longest-running representative match in cricket. The Gentlemen, captained by Lord Frederick Beauclerk and aided by two professional 'given men', William Lambert and Billy Beldham, beat the Players by an innings and 14 runs. The series ran continuously until January 1963 — 156 years.

#gentlemen-vs-players#1806#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

The Mary-Le-Bone Tavern Becomes Cricket's Headquarters — MCC Committee, 1805

n/a

1805-04-14

In April 1805 the MCC committee passed a resolution formally adopting the Mary-Le-Bone Tavern in High Street as the club's permanent headquarters. The tavern — already used informally for committee meetings since 1788 — became the site at which all major cricket matches were arranged, all stakes were settled and all rule disputes were resolved. It was the de facto governing body of cricket for the next twenty years.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Major Match at the Vine, Sevenoaks — Kent v England, August 1805

Kent vs England

1805-08-19

On 19-20 August 1805 the Vine ground at Sevenoaks — leased to the Sackville family of Knole and given over to cricket since 1734 — hosted a Kent v England fixture that was, by the standards of the day, a near-Test match. Kent were captained by John Bligh and supported by the Duke of Dorset's tenants; England were raised by the Earl of Winchilsea. The match is the most important first-class fixture played at the Vine in the new century and a marker of Kent's continuing strength.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Lord Frederick Beauclerk's Two Centuries — First Batsman to Score Two in a Season, 1805

Hampshire vs England; England vs Surrey

1805-08-15

In the summer of 1805 the 32-year-old clergyman Lord Frederick Beauclerk became the first batsman known to have scored two centuries in the same season. He made 129 not out for Hampshire against England at Lord's Old Ground in early July and followed it with 102 for England against Surrey in August. In an era when first-class scores over 50 were front-page news, two hundreds in a season was a feat without precedent.

#lord-frederick-beauclerk#1805#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

The First Eton v Harrow Match — Byron Bats with a Runner, August 1805

Eton vs Harrow

1805-08-02

On Friday 2 August 1805, sixteen schoolboys from Eton and Harrow played the first match between the two schools at Thomas Lord's Old Ground in Dorset Square. Eton won by an innings and two runs. Among the Harrow side was 17-year-old George Gordon Byron, batting with a runner because of his clubbed right foot. The fixture, repeated in 1818 and made annual from 1822, would become the longest-running schools rivalry in cricket and the longest-running fixture at Lord's.

#eton-vs-harrow#1805#lord-byron

⭐Mild

Old Etonians v Calcutta — The Earliest Documented Match in British India, January 1804

Old Etonians vs Calcutta

1804-01-15

In January 1804 a side of Old Etonian East India Company officers played a representative Calcutta XI on the Old Course in Calcutta — the earliest match for which a substantial scoresheet survives in British India. The Calcutta Cricket Club had been founded in 1792, but the 1804 fixture is the oldest with a recorded individual scorecard. It is the foundational document of Indian cricket history.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

The Wells Brothers Take Over Surrey's Bowling — 1804 Season

Surrey

1804-06-04

Through the 1804 season John and Joseph 'Joey' Wells of Farnham — brothers and Surrey professionals — formed the most successful underarm fast-bowling pair in the country. Together they took 79 wickets in major matches that summer, drove Surrey to a string of victories, and effectively replaced the late David Harris as the dominant pace attack of the post-Hambledon era.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

William 'Silver Billy' Beldham's 144* — Surrey v England, Greenwich, July 1804

Surrey vs England

1804-07-23

On the Greenwich ground in July 1804, William 'Silver Billy' Beldham — by then in his fortieth year and the most admired batter in England — made an unbeaten 144 for Surrey against an England XI. It was his highest score in major cricket, played on a rough out-ground in three consecutive sessions, and is one of the largest individual scores recorded in the underarm era.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Beldham v Walker Single-Wicket Match — Lord's, August 1803

Beldham vs Walker

1803-08-22

On 22 August 1803 the two greatest survivors of the Hambledon batting school — William 'Silver Billy' Beldham and Tom 'Old Everlasting' Walker — played a single-wicket match at Lord's for stakes of 25 guineas. Beldham, faster-scoring and more elegant, won by 14 runs. The fixture is one of the few well-documented direct contests between the two senior professionals of the period.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

William Fennex Pioneers Running In to Fast Bowling — Middlesex v Surrey, 1803

Middlesex vs Surrey

1803-06-15

In a Middlesex v Surrey match at Lord's in June 1803, the Buckinghamshire professional William Fennex did something contemporaries called 'astonishing': he advanced down the pitch to drive the ball before it pitched. Until that moment batters had played strictly from the crease, blocking length balls and waiting for the loose ball to cut. Fennex's running attack is the first recorded use of the technique that became the foundation of modern off-side play.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Henry Bentley Begins His Cricket Scorebook — MCC Records, 1802

n/a

1802-05-01

In May 1802 Henry Bentley, a Lord's professional and occasional umpire, began the systematic scorebook that he would maintain for the next twenty-one years. His ledger — eventually published in 1823 as A Correct Account of All the Cricket Matches — is the single most important primary source for major cricket between 1786 and 1822 and the foundation of all later Regency-era statistics.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Robert Robinson Plays at Lord's With His Iron Hand — Hampshire v England, July 1802

Hampshire vs England

1802-07-08

Robert Robinson of Farnham, who had lost the use of his right hand in a childhood accident and gripped the bat with a leather-and-iron sheath, appeared for Hampshire against England at Lord's in July 1802. He scored a fluent 30 in the first innings — the first half-century-class score by a one-handed batter in major cricket — and helped Hampshire to a draw against the strongest side of the day.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

E.H. Budd's First Match at Lord's — Twenty-Two of Middlesex v Twenty-Two of Surrey, September 1802

Twenty-Two of Middlesex vs Twenty-Two of Surrey

1802-09-13

On 13-16 September 1802 a 16-year-old War Office clerk named Edward Hayward Budd appeared in his first match at Lord's, playing for a Twenty-Two of Middlesex against a Twenty-Two of Surrey. He scored 9 and 5 in an odds match that Arthur Haygarth's Scores and Biographies records as his earliest senior fixture. Budd would become, alongside Beauclerk, the dominant gentleman batter of the next twenty years.

#eh-budd#1802#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

John Hammond Keeps Wicket for England — Surrey v England, June 1801

Surrey vs England

1801-06-15

John Hammond of Storrington, a 22-year-old Sussex professional, kept wicket for England against Surrey at Lord's in June 1801 — his first major appearance behind the stumps. He took two stumpings and a catch and was praised by contemporaries for his quiet hands. He would keep wicket in major matches for twenty years and is remembered as the leading Regency wicketkeeper.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

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

Surrey vs England

1801-07-20

On 20-21 July 1801 a 22-year-old village professional named William Lambert appeared for Surrey against England at Thomas Lord's first ground in Dorset Square. Listed tenth in the order, he scored 0 and 5 in a low-scoring defeat. Within a decade he would be ranked alongside Beauclerk and Beldham as the finest all-rounder in England, and in 1817 he would become the first man to score two centuries in the same major match.

#william-lambert#surrey#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Tom Walker's Marathon Defensive Innings — Hampshire v Surrey, June 1800

Hampshire vs Surrey

1800-06-23

On 23 June 1800 Thomas 'Old Everlasting' Walker batted for the best part of two days for Hampshire against Surrey at Lord's. Contemporaries said he scored at a rate of barely a run an over. The innings — 41 in roughly four and a half hours — was Walker's longest at Lord's and the most extreme example of the Hambledon-school defensive batting that had governed the major game since the 1780s.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Lord Winchilsea Raises an England XI at Burley-on-the-Hill — August 1800

England XI vs Rutland & Leicestershire

1800-08-12

In August 1800 George Finch-Hatton, ninth Earl of Winchilsea — co-founder of the MCC and the most important patron of late-Hambledon cricket — staged one of his last great country-house matches at his Rutland seat, Burley-on-the-Hill. He brought down a near-Test-strength England XI to play a combined Rutland and Leicestershire side in front of a paying gallery on the lawn below the great house. The fixture is one of the clearest pieces of evidence we have that the patron-led model of major cricket survived into the new century, even as the MCC at Lord's was beginning to absorb its functions.

#regency-cricket#underarm#lord-s-old-ground