Related Research Articles
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It became an official title in 1890. The competition consists of eighteen clubs named after, and representing historic counties, seventeen from England and one from Wales.
The 2005 English cricket season was the 106th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. Before it began, a resurgent England cricket team had won four Test series in a row, going unbeaten through the 2004 calendar year. The start of the international season saw England defeat Bangladesh 2–0 in their two-match series, winning both Tests by an innings. This was followed by a tri-nations one-day tournament that also featured Australia. Australia still started the Test series as favourites but most fans expected England to put up a challenge.
Hampshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Hampshire. Hampshire teams formed by earlier organisations, principally the Hambledon Club, always had first-class status and the same applied to the county club when it was founded in 1863. Because of poor performances for several seasons until 1885, Hampshire then lost its status for nine seasons until it was invited into the County Championship in 1895, since when the team have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England. Hampshire originally played at the Antelope Ground, Southampton until 1885 when they relocated to the County Ground, Southampton until 2000, before moving to the purpose-built Rose Bowl in West End, which is in the Borough of Eastleigh. The club has twice won the County Championship, in the 1961 and 1973 seasons.
The years from 1726 to 1771 saw cricket establish itself as a leading sport in London and the south-eastern counties of England. In 1726, it was already a thriving sport in the south east and, though limited by the constraints of travel at the time, it was slowly gaining adherents in other parts of England, its growth accelerating with references being found in many counties to 1771. Having been essentially a rural pastime for well over a century, cricket became a focus for wealthy patrons and gamblers whose interests funded its growth throughout the 18th century.
In the 1772 English cricket season, it became normal practice to complete match scorecards and there are surviving examples from every subsequent season. Scorecards from 1772 have been found for three eleven-a-side matches in which the Hampshire county team played against an England team, and for one top-class single wicket match between Kent and Hampshire. The three Hampshire v England matches are the first to have been retrospectively, though unofficially, recognised as first-class. Prior to 1772, only four scorecards have survived, the last from a match in 1769.
The White Conduit Club (WCC) was a cricket club based on the northern fringes of London that existed between about 1782 until 1788. Although short-lived, it had considerable significance in the history of the game, as its members created Lord's Old Ground, the first cricket venue which would go on to become Lord's, and subsequently reorganised themselves as the new Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
Christopher Charles Benham is an English cricketer. Benham is a right-handed batsman who bowls right-arm off break. He was born at Frimley, Surrey. He attended Yateley School across the county border at Yateley in Hampshire. Making his debut at the professional level for the Hampshire Cricket Board in 2001, he spent nine years playing for Hampshire, before being released by the county after the 2010 season. He is now playing club cricket for Wimbledon CC in the Surrey Championship Premier League whilst working as a financial planner at St James's Place Wealth Management.
The Napoleonic Wars had deprived cricket of investment and manpower, particularly after 1810 as the conflict in the Peninsular War reached its height and the invasion of France followed. A recovery began in 1815, the year of the Battle of Waterloo, and a more widespread return to normality can be observed from 1816, although it was not until 1825 that inter-county matches resumed when Kent played Sussex.
Kent county cricket teams have played matches since the early 18th century. The county's links to cricket go back further with Kent and Sussex generally accepted as the birthplace of the sport. It is widely believed that cricket was first played by children living on the Weald in Saxon or Norman times. The world's earliest known organised match was held in Kent c.1611 and the county has always been at the forefront of cricket's development through the growth of village cricket in the 17th century to representative matches in the 18th. A Kent team took part in the earliest known inter-county match, which was played on Dartford Brent in 1709. Several famous players and patrons were involved in Kent cricket from then until the creation of the first county club in 1842. Among them were William Bedle, Robert Colchin and the 3rd Duke of Dorset. Kent were generally regarded as the strongest county team in the first half of the 18th century and were always one of the main challengers to the dominance of Hambledon in the second half. County cricket ceased through the Napoleonic War and was resurrected in 1826 when Kent played Sussex. By the 1830s, Kent had again become the strongest county and remained so until mid-century.
Hampshire county cricket teams have been traced back to the 18th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that. Given that the first definite mention of cricket anywhere in the world is dated c.1550 in Guildford, in neighbouring Surrey, it is almost certain that the game had reached Hampshire by the 16th century.
Frederick William Lillywhite was an English first-class cricketer during the game's roundarm era. One of the main protagonists in the legalisation of roundarm, he was one of the most successful bowlers of his era. His status is borne out by his nickname: The Nonpareil.
James "Jem" Broadbridge (1795–1843) was an English professional cricketer who is widely accounted the outstanding all-rounder in England during the 1820s. He is best remembered for his part in the introduction of roundarm bowling. He played mainly for Sussex and made 102 known appearances in first-class cricket from 1814 to 1840. He represented the Players in the Gentlemen v Players series and the South in the North v. South series.
George Brown was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1819 to 1838.
1826 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
1825 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
George Wenman was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1825 to 1834.
Charles Henry Ridding was an English cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman who occasionally played as a wicketkeeper.
Thomas Crimble was an English cricketer. Crimble was born in Overton, Hampshire.
Thomas Philip Alsop is an English first-class cricketer. Born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, Alsop is a left-handed batsman who plays as a wicket-keeper, and plays for Sussex on loan from Hampshire.
References
- ↑ Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826), Lillywhite, 1862. p.527.