1811 English cricket season

1811 English cricket season

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1811 was the 25th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Lord's Middle Ground came into use for important matches. Details of only one match are known. ^{[note 1]}

Honours

• Most runs ^{[note 2]} – William Lambert 51
• Most wickets – Thomas Howard 8

Events

• In time for the start of the 1811 season, MCC reluctantly followed Thomas Lord to his new Middle Ground, the lease on the original Lord's Old Ground having expired. MCC were resident at the Middle Ground for the next three years.
• Only one first-class match has been recorded as the Napoleonic War took an increasing toll of cricket's manpower and investment:
  • 8–9 July — B Aislabie's XI v G Osbaldeston's XI @ Lord's Middle Ground ^[3]

Debutants

1811 debutants included:

• J. Poulet (MCC)
• Andrew Schabner (MCC)

Notes

1. Some eleven-a-side matches played before 1864 have been rated "first-class" by certain sources, but there was no such standard at the time. The term came into common use from around 1864, when overarm bowling was legalised, and was formally defined as a standard by a meeting at Lord's, in May 1894, of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the county clubs which were then competing in the County Championship. The ruling was effective from the beginning of the 1895 season, but pre-1895 matches of the same standard have no official definition of status because the ruling is not retrospective. However, matches of a similar standard since the beginning of the 1864 season are generally considered to have an unofficial first-class status. ^[1] Pre-1864 matches which are included in the ACS' "Important Match Guide" may generally be regarded as top-class or, at least, historically significant. ^[2] For further information, see First-class cricket.
2. Scorecards created in the first quarter of the 19th century are not necessarily accurate or complete; therefore any summary of runs, wickets or catches can only represent the known totals and computation of averages is ineffectual.

References

1. ACS 1982, pp. 4–5.
2. ACS 1981, pp. 1–40.
3. Haygarth, p. 365.

Bibliography

• ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709–1863. Nottingham: ACS.
• ACS (1982). A Guide to First-class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS.
• Haygarth, Arthur (1862). Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Lillywhite.

Further reading

• Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
• Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
• Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
• Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.