CRICKET

Amateur Cricket

Bank Holidays

The banker and M.P. Sir John Lubbock was keen on cricket. He believed that by closing the banks for bank holidays all other work would be unable to take place and so other workers would be granted the day off. This would provide people with the time to attend local cricket matches. The bank holiday was instituted by the Bank Holidays Act of 1871.

(The Lubbocks bank merged with Coutts in 1914.)

Location: 48 Grosvenor Street, W1K 3HW. Sir John's home. (purple, blue)

15 Lombard Street, EC4N 7BJ. The bank. (orange, yellow)

Website: www.natwestgroup.com/heritage/companies/robarts-lubbock-and-col

Entertainment

Entertainment-linked amateur cricket sides have included Harold Pinter's (1930-2008) Gaieties and Tim Rice's Heartaches.

The Bunberries

The Bunberries is an amateur cricket side that was set up by David English (1931-1998), a figure in the pop music industry. On one occasion, Eric Clapton turned out for the team on the eve of a tour that he was about to make of Japan. He broke a finger while catching a ball. As he left the field, he was stung on the other.

Literary

The cricket of P.G. Wodehouse Society (U.K.) - the Gold Bats - was set up by Robert Miller (1947-2014), a literature loving police detective inspector. It plays fixtures against the likes of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and the masters of Dulwich College. The Holmesians play under the 1894 laws and Victorian protocols that require players to have facial hair, wear cravats, and not play strokes on the leg side.

Captain Scott's Invitation XI

Captain Scott's Invitation XI was formed at the University of Oxford by a group of inept non-cricketers. The side's name derived from the polar explorer¹ because he came second, and because he did so in the right spirit . The team continued as the group pursued their post-university careers. Some of its members broke away to form a separate side because they believed that some of their colleagues, particularly one Harry Thompson, seemed too keen on trying to win.

Location: The Scott of The Antarctic Monument, Waterloo Place, SW1Y 5ED (purple, yellow)

Website: https://captainscottinvitationxi.org

¹. Robert Falcon Scott.

The Ashes

The Ashes were cremated in 1882.

In 1952 Len Hutton captained England. Under him, the side won the Ashes for the first time since 1926.

In 1986 England retained the Ashes in Melbourne.

In 2005 England won.

Website: www.lords.org/lords/our-history/the-ashes

The Birth of Cricket

Originally, cricket was a regional game that was played in the counties to the south of London - Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. In 1550 a form of cricket was played at Guildford School in Surrey. In 1700 the first organised match of which there is a record took place on Clapham Common (now part of inner city, south London but then part of rural, north-western Surrey).

The 2^nd Duke of Richmond, a Sussex landowner, and Alan Brodrick (later 2^nd Viscount Midleton), a Surrey landowner, drew up the first laws of cricket in 1727.

In the 18^thC gamblers took to waging large sums of money on the outcome of individual matches. This prompted one of the regional/county groups of aristocrats that met at The Star & Garter tavern to establish a committee in 1755 that codified the game. In 1774 a second committee met at the tavern to revise the 1755 rules.

The first great cricket match in England was contested between Kent and All England in 1774 on the artillery ground outside the Honourable Artillery Company s headquarters in the City of London.

The Star & Garter in Pall Mall was the venue for a long-running aristocratic club. The White Conduit Club cricket club was an offshoot of The Star & Garter. Originally, its teams were composed of members of aristocracy and the gentry. In 1786 the club started raiding the Hambledon for players

The game's rules were essentially set by 1787, a hundred years ahead of most other sports. That year Thomas Lord, with the financial backing of Charles Lennox (the 4^th Duke of Richmond) and the 9^th Earl of Winchilsea, opened a cricket ground on what is now Dorset Square. Lennox was a Sussex landowner and Winchilsea a Kent one, therefore, they both had a strong regional identification with the game.¹ In 1811 Mr Lord moved the ground's turf to St John's Wood.

Location: Artillery Lane, E1 7LP (blue, yellow)

Holy Trinity Church, Beaumont Road, Wandsworth, SW19 6SP. Midleton was buried in the church.

Armoury House, City Road, EC1Y 2BQ (purple, blue)

Dorset Square, NW1 6QB (blue, yellow)

The Star & Garter, 100 Pall Mall, SW1Y 5NQ (orange, purple)

Lord s, St John's Wood Road, NW8 8QN (orange, blue)

¹. Lord came from Yorkshire.

Cricket Clubs

Middlesex is the most urban of the three cricket clubs that play in London. Surrey the next, having a substantial non-metropolitan element in its supporter. For Essex playing in East London sometimes is a marginal activity.

Essex County Cricket Club

Gambling is probably why cricket in Essex entered the historical record. In 1724 Chingford played Mr Edwin Stead s XI. When it became evident that the latter were probably going to win the former refused to carrying on playing. The matter went before the Court of the King's Bench, where Lord Chief Justice Pratt (1657-1725) ruled that the match should be completed at Dartford Brent.

1732 was the first time that had the word Essex in its name occurs. Essex & Herts played London Cricket Club at the Artillery. A return match was played in Ilford

In the 1780s Hornchurch became a prominent cricketing team. It may have been a de facto county side. However, after 1794, there is minimal evidence of the game having been played in the county at a county level.

Essex County Cricket Club was founded in 1876 at a meeting that was convened at the Shire Hall in Chelmsford. Initially, the club had minor county status. Essex played its inaugural first-class match in 1894. In played Leicestershire in Leyton. The following year, it was admitted to the County Championship. Initially, Essex flourished. However, from 1899 to 1932 it failed to finish any higher than sixth. The late 1920s were its lowest ebb.

In the mid- and late 1930s Essex's form improved overall but uneven. This derived from the team being heavily reliant upon amateurs, who were often not available to play. From 1945 to 1957 the county always finished in the bottom half of the table, coming last in 1950.

In the 1970s Essex started to develop a momentum. In part, this derived from it being allowed to field foreign players. It also came from the emergence of Graham Gooch. His commitment to a physical training regime enabled him to continue playing at a high level long after most of his contemporaries. The county won six County Championships over the years 1979 to 1992.

In 2005 Essex won the National League Division One title. It was the county's first major title for eight years. The following year it retained it. In both 2017 and 2019 Essex won the County Championship.

Essex s home ground is the County Cricket Ground in Chelmsford. However, it plays at a number of sites in London that formerly lay within the county. These are: Gidea Park Sports Ground, Romford; Leyton Cricket Ground; and Valentines Park, Ilford.

Website: www.essexcricket.org.uk

The Honorable Artillery Company Cricket Club

The H.A.C. grounds east of Finsbury Square are largely composed of a cricket field.

Location: Armoury House, City Road, EC1Y 2BQ (purple, blue)

Website: www.haccricket.org

Middlesex C.C.

Location: Lord s Cricket Ground, St John's Wood Road, NW8 8QN (orange, blue)

Website: www.middlesexccc.com

Surrey C.C.

The Surrey captain and England all-rounder P.G.H. Fender (1892-1985) set the record for the fastest (in terms of time) century scored in first-class cricket.

For seven seasons in succession (1952-8) Surrey were county champions. The side included the identical twin brothers Alec and Eric Bedser (1918-2006).

1956 was Jim Laker's annus mirabilis. He took 57 wickets at an average of 18.17 runs each (in the same season Eric Bedser took 68 at 17.22).

Location: The Oval, Kennington Oval, SE11 5SS

Website: www.kiaoval.com

Teddington C.C.

Teddington C.C. played in Bushey Park. Its members wanted something to do something during the winter. They created hockey.

Location: Dora Jordan Road, TW11 0EP

Website: www.teddingtoncc.co.uk

The Cricket Society

The Society of Cricket Statisticians was founded in 1945. Three years later the organisation changed its name to its present one. The charity promotes cricket in a variety of ways.

Location: 15 Great Scotland Yard, SW1A 2HJ. Where the Society was founded. Now The Civil Service Club. (red, yellow)

Website: www.cricketsociety.org.uk

The England & Wales Cricket Board

In 1968 the Marylebone Cricket Club transferred its supervision of first-class cricket to the Test & County Cricket Board.

In 1992 Scotland withdrew from the T.C.C.B.. Five years the Board, the Cricket Council, and the National Cricket Association formed the England & Wales Cricket Board.

Location: Marylebone Cricket Club, Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood Road, NW8 8QN (orange, blue)

Website: www.ecb.co.uk

Gentleman and Amateurs

In 1952 Len Hutton became the first amateur to captain England. Under him, the side won the Ashes for the first time since 1926.

Late Nineteenth-Century Seriousness

During the late 1880s and the 1890s sports grew to be more serious. Cricket's rules were changed. In 1889 the number of balls in an over was raised from four to five and the following year from five to six. A spirit of subordinating the individual to the team developed. Sir Henry Newbolt s tub-thumping poem Vitai Lampada (1897) articulated this attitude.

The M.C.C.

In 1968 the M.C.C. transferred its supervision of first class cricket to the T.C.C.B..

Location: Marylebone Cricket Club, Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood Road, NW8 8QN (orange, blue)

Website www.lords.org/mcc/the-club/about-the-mcc

Lord's

The soil that was excavated during the construction of the Maida Vale Canal Tunnel was laid on Lord's cricket pitch.

Location: Marylebone Cricket Club, Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood Road, NW8 8QN

Website: www.lords.org

The Rapid Rabbi

For many years David Goldberg (1939-2019) was the Rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue on St John's Wood Road, which is close to Lord's Cricket Ground. He adored cricket and his sermons tended to be distinctly shorter if there was a match due to start across the road.

Location: 28 St John's Wood Road, NW8 7HA (orange, grey)

Website: www.ljs.org

Media

The Cricket Writers Club

The Empire Cricket Writers Club was founded in 1946 by fourteen British cricket journalists who were covering an England tour in Perth, Australia. Its members adopted a skull and crossbones tie that was available locally in sufficient numbers. The following year the organisation adopted its present name.

Website: www.cricketwriters.com

Test Match Special

Website: www.B.B.C.co.uk/programmes/p02nrsl2 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/test-match-special/id205892240

Players

W.G. Grace

W.G. Grace took twelve years to qualify. He studied at Bristol, Westminster and Bart s.

Location: Fairmount, Mottingham Lane, SE9 4RT.

Elmer s End Cemetery, Beckenham, BR3 4TD. Where Grace's corpse was buried.

Jack Hobbs

Jack Hobbs played for Surrey. He had a self-depreciating manner. He was a trained gas fitter. Hobbs was happiest playing at the Oval. He linked the pre- and post-First World War eras of the game. He became a working-class hero. He became known as The Master .

He overtook W.G. Grace's record of 126 first-class centuries and finished his career with 197.

He ran a sports equipment business in Fleet Street. In 1953 he was knighted.

Location: 59 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1JU (orange, grey)

Women's Cricket

Racheal Heyhoe-Flint

In the 1920s the Women's Cricket Association asked that the England Women's cricket team might be allowed to play at Lord s.

Racheal Heyhoe-Flint (1939-2017) grew up into Wolverhampton as the daughter of two physical education instructors. As a child she played street cricket with the boys who were her age who lived in the neighbourhood. Upon occasion a policeman told them that they should not and took down the boys names. She was outraged that he did not take down hers and demanded that he should. He refused to do so because she was a girl, and in his view, girls did not play cricket. She came to know the West Midlands businessman Sir Jack Heywood who appreciated her commitment to the sport. He acted as a patron to her. Her talent led her to become the Captain of the England Women's Cricket Team. In 1973 she organised the first Cricket World Cup - only women's teams participated. Two years later the men's game copied the event. The following year the England Women's cricket team played at Lord's for the first time. England won the toss and she chose that England should field just so the team should walk out onto the pitch first. Traditionally, an England team walked through the Long Room before going out onto the pitch. While it did so, members of the M.C.C. who were present would applaud it. She was unsure of what the situation was, therefore, she opted to lead the team out through another route.

She continued to play superbly. In 1977 she was deprived of the captaincy for reasons that were never expressed clearly. She was not selected for the following Test; again, no reason was stated. Heywood withdrew his sponsorship of the national team. She continued to play internationally. For many, she became morally compromised

In 1999 she became the first woman, other than a reigning female monarch, to have the right to Lord's Pavilion. She achieved this result by quiet lobbying that pointing out that she had played at a high-level in the sport.

David Backhouse 2024