The Halifax Cup was a cricket tournament held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between 1880 and 1926. A variety of clubs from the Philadelphia region were involved in the competition, including most principally the Philadelphia Cricket Club, Belmont Cricket Club, Germantown Cricket Club and Merion Cricket Club.
![]() |
Club | Season |
---|---|
Young America Cricket Club | 1880 |
Young America Cricket Club | 1881 |
Belmont Cricket Club | 1882 |
Young America Cricket Club | 1883 |
Belmont Cricket Club | 1884 |
Young America Cricket Club | 1885 |
Germantown Cricket Club | 1886 |
Belmont Cricket Club | 1887 |
Merion Cricket Club | 1888 |
Germantown Cricket Club | 1889 |
Belmont Cricket Club/Germantown Cricket Club | 1890 |
Germantown Cricket Club | 1891 |
Germantown Cricket Club | 1892 |
Germantown Cricket Club | 1893 |
Belmont Cricket Club | 1894 |
Germantown Cricket Club | 1895 |
Belmont Cricket Club/Germantown Cricket Club | 1896 |
Haverford is an affluent, unincorporated community located in both Haverford Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, US, and Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) opened Haverford Station in 1880 on their Main Line west out of Broad Street Station in Philadelphia. Haverford sits at milepost 9.17.
John Barton "Bart" King was an American cricketer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. King was part of the Philadelphia team that played from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I. This period of cricket in the United States was dominated by "gentlemen cricketers"—men of independent wealth who did not need to work. King, an amateur from a middle-class family, was able to devote time to cricket thanks to a job set up by his teammates.
William Henry "Harry" Wright was an English-born American professional baseball player, manager, and developer. He assembled, managed, and played center field for baseball's first fully professional team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. He is credited with introducing innovations such as backing up infield plays from the outfield and shifting defensive alignments based on hitters' tendencies. For his contributions as a manager and developer of the game, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953 by the Veterans Committee. Wright was also the first to make baseball into a business by paying his players up to seven times the pay of the average working man.
The United States national cricket team is the team that represents the United States in international cricket. The team was formerly organised by the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA), which became an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1965. In June 2017, the USACA was expelled by the ICC due to governance and financing issues, with the U.S. team being temporarily overseen by ICC Americas until a new sanctioning body was established. In January 2019, associate membership was officially granted to USA Cricket.
The Philadelphia Cricket Club, founded in 1854, is the oldest country club in the United States. It has two locations: Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, and Flourtown, Pennsylvania.
Lincolnshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Lincolnshire.
Angora is a neighborhood in the Southwest section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Although its boundaries are not precise, West Philadelphia is to its north, Kingsessing is to the south, Cedar Park is to the east, and Cobbs Creek is to the west. The Angora Commuter Rail Station on the Media/Elwyn Line, two bus lines, and a trolley line all intersect around Baltimore Avenue and 58th Street, which is unofficially the nexus of the neighborhood.
The Philadelphian cricket team was a team that represented Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in first-class cricket between 1878 and 1913. Even with the United States having played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844, the sport began a slow decline in the U.S. This decline was furthered by the rise in popularity of baseball. In Philadelphia, however, the sport remained very popular and from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I, the city produced a first class team that rivaled many others in the world. The team was composed of players from the four chief cricket clubs in Philadelphia–Germantown, Merion, Belmont, and Philadelphia. Players from smaller clubs, such as Tioga and Moorestown, and local colleges, such as Haverford and Penn, also played for the Philadelphians. Over its 35 years, the team played in 88 first-class cricket matches. Of those, 29 were won, 45 were lost, 13 were drawn and one game was abandoned before completion.
The history of United States cricket begins in the 18th century. Among early Americans, cricket was as popular a bat and ball game as baseball. Though Americans never played cricket in great numbers, the game grew for some time. Around the time of the United States Civil War, the game began competing with baseball for participants, but then slowly declined in popularity. This was followed again by a brief golden age with the Philadelphian cricket team. This lasted until roughly the start of World War I; at this time, cricket again became less popular. In the latter part of the 20th century immigrants from cricket playing nations in south Asia and the West Indies helped spark a resurgence in the game's popularity. This led to participation and success in several International Cricket Council events. In 2007, the United States of America Cricket Association was suspended by the ICC because of problems with its administration, but was again recognized beginning in 2008.
Merion Cricket Club is a private club in Haverford, Pennsylvania, founded in 1865. The current clubhouse is its sixth, the last four having been designed by Philadelphia architect Frank Furness and his partner, Allen Evans, who was also a founder of the club. The club was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987 for its leading role in the promotion, development and continued support of cricket, golf, squash, and tennis in the United States.
The Belmont Cricket Club was one of four chief cricket clubs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that played from its 1874 founding in West Philadelphia until its disbanding in 1914. Bart King, arguably America's greatest cricketer during its 1890-1914 golden age, played for Belmont from 1893 to 1913. Another famous American cricketer, English-born Cecil Hurditch, played for Belmont in 1912 after he returned from playing for the Santa Monica Cricket Club in southern California. In 1913, Hurditch introduced soccer to the club members.
The Germantown Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was one of the four principal cricket clubs in the city and was one of the clubs contributing members to the Philadelphian cricket team. It was founded on 10 August 1854 in what is now the northwest section of the city, and is the nation's second oldest cricket club. Its clubhouse was designed by architects McKim, Mead & White. The U.S. National tennis championship, precursor to today's US Open, was played on Germantown Cricket's lawn tennis courts from 1921 to 1923.
John Borland Thayer II was an American businessman who had a thirty-year career as an executive with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He was a director and second vice-president of the company when he died less than a week before his 50th birthday in the sinking of the RMS Titanic, on April 15, 1912. In his youth, Thayer was also a prominent sportsman, playing baseball and lacrosse for the University of Pennsylvania and first-class cricket for the Philadelphian cricket team. He is the only first-class cricketer known to have died aboard Titanic.
List of champions of the 1889 U.S. National Championships tennis event. The men's tournament was held from 27 August to 3 September on the outdoor grass courts at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. The women's tournament was held from 11 June to 15 June on the outdoor grass courts at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in Philadelphia, PA. The men's doubles event was played at the Staten Island Cricket Club in Livingston, Staten Island, New York. It was the 9th U.S. National Championships and the second Grand Slam tournament of the year. The inaugural U.S. Women's National Doubles Championship was held in 1889 and like the women's singles was played at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.:
List of champions of the 1892 U.S. National Championships. The men's tournament was held from 23 August to 30 August on the outdoor grass courts at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. The women's tournament was held from 21 June to 25 June on the outdoor grass courts at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in Philadelphia, PA. This tournament saw the introduction of the U.S. National Mixed Doubles Championship which was played, like the women's singles and women's doubles competition, at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. It was the 12th U.S. National Championships and the second Grand Slam tournament of the year.
Cricket in the United States is a sport played at the amateur, club, intercollegiate and international competition levels with little popularity, with 200,000 players across the country. Minor League Cricket is the highest level of domestic T20 cricket currently played in America, with T20 being the format of the game that much of the recent growth in American cricket is occurring in.
The Golf Association of Philadelphia is the oldest regional Golf Association in the United States. Better known as the GAP, the Golf Association of Philadelphia was founded in 1897 by members of Aronimink Golf Club, Merion Cricket Club, Philadelphia Country Club and Philadelphia Cricket Club. Its 150 member clubs are spread across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The purpose of the association is simple: to preserve, protect and promote the game of golf.
East Gloucestershire Cricket Club Ground was a cricket ground in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1883, when East Gloucestershire played Worcestershire.
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1908 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for thirty-seven years. It was their fourteenth season in the County Championship and they won five matches to finish fourteenth in the Championship table.
Ellen Hansell defeated Laura Knight 6–1, 6–0 in the final to win the inaugural event of the Women's Singles tennis title at the 1887 U.S. National Championships. It was played on outdoor grass courts and held from September 27 through October 5, 1887 at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in Wissahickon, Philadelphia.