Lord's Middle Ground was a cricket venue in London that was established by Thomas Lord in 1811. It was used mainly by Marylebone Cricket Club for major matches until 1813, after which Lord was obliged to relocate because the land was requisitioned for the cutting of the Regent's Canal.
The first match known to have been played at Lord's Middle Ground was B Aislabie's XI v G Osbaldeston's XI in July 1811. [1] Only three first-class matches were ever recorded at the ground, one in each season between 1811 and 1813 at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. [2]
James Rice played all three matches of his first-class career at the Middle Ground and, equally, all the matches ever played at the Middle Ground featured James Rice. [3]
Lord's Middle Ground was at North Bank at the north end of Lisson Grove, just south of the modern ground. In 1814, Lord opened the present Lord's Cricket Ground, formerly a duckpond in St John's Wood.
Today, the Beverly House apartment complex stands on the site of Lord's Middle Ground. A commemorative plaque, bearing the MCC monogram, is on the complex's eastern fence.
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club, formerly the governing body of cricket, retains considerable global influence.
Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the ICC Europe and, until August 2005, the International Cricket Council (ICC). Lord's is widely referred to as the Home of Cricket and is home to the world's oldest sporting museum.
Shardeloes is a large 18th-century country house located one mile west of Amersham in Buckinghamshire, England. A previous manor house on the site was demolished and the present building constructed between 1758 and 1766 for William Drake, the Member of Parliament for Amersham. Shardeloes is a Grade I listed building.
Broadhalfpenny Down is a historic cricket ground in Hambledon, Hampshire. It is known as the "Cradle of Cricket" because it was the home venue in the 18th century of the Hambledon Club, but cricket predated the club and ground by at least two centuries. The club is in the parish of Hambledon close to the neighbouring parish of Clanfield. The club took the name of the neighbouring rural village of Hambledon, about 2.7 miles away by road.
Herbert Tremenheere Hewett was an English amateur first-class cricketer who played for Somerset, captaining the county from 1889 to 1893, as well as Oxford University and the Marylebone Cricket Club. A battling left-handed opening batsman, Hewett could post a large score in a short time against even the best bowlers. Capable of hitting the ball powerfully, he combined an excellent eye with an unorthodox style to be regarded at his peak as one of England's finest batsmen.
County cricket teams representing Middlesex have been traced back to the 18th century, although for long periods the county was secondary to the London Cricket Club which played at the Artillery Ground. Middlesex teams played at various grounds throughout what is now the Greater London area. Islington and Uxbridge were often used but home matches were also played on Kennington Common and in Berkshire. Middlesex teams were less frequent in the 19th century until 1859 when the Walker family of Southgate became involved in county cricket.
The 1787 cricket season in England is noteworthy for the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) after the opening of Thomas Lord's first ground in the parish of Marylebone, north of London. MCC soon became the sport's governing body with the new ground as its feature venue. The first match known to have been played at Lord's was on Monday, 21 May, between the White Conduit Club and a Middlesex county team. The first match known to involve a team representing MCC was against White Conduit on Monday, 30 July. Including these two, reports and/or match scorecards have survived of numerous eleven-a-side matches played in 1787. Eleven are retrospectively, but unofficially, recognised as first-class.
Prince's Cricket Ground in Chelsea, London was a cricket ground, created by the brothers George and James Prince as part of the Prince's Club, on which 37 first-class matches were played between 1872 and 1878. The ground was built on in 1883. The boundaries of the site, laid out on the former Cattleugh's nursery gardens, are marked by Cadogan Square West, Milner Street, Lennox Gardens Mews, Walton Street and Pont Street.
Goodwood Cricket Club is a Sunday cricket team that play in the grounds of Goodwood Park, near Chichester. The ground overlooks Goodwood House and is owned by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon.
Lord's Old Ground was a cricket venue in London that was established by Thomas Lord in 1787. It was used mainly by Marylebone Cricket Club for major matches until 1810, after which a dispute about rent caused Lord to relocate.
James Rice was an English amateur cricketer during the Napoleonic Wars.
The United South of England Eleven (USEE) was an itinerant cricket team founded in November 1864 by Edgar Willsher, as secretary, and John Lillywhite, as treasurer. The USEE had no home venue as its prime purpose, like all similarly named teams of the time, was to operate as a travelling show and bring top-class cricket to places in Great Britain and Ireland which rarely received it. Fourteen USEE matches have been recognised by CricketArchive as first-class, mostly against the rival United North of England Eleven (UNEE). The USEE is estimated to have played 217 "odds" matches as a visiting team against local club sides which generally used 22 players.
Lansdown Cricket Club Ground is the cricket grounds in Bath, Somerset. Between 1825 and 1850, it was the name given to Lansdown Cricket Club's (LCC) ground 'Cricket Down'. In 1850, LCC moved to Sydenham Field, also in Bath. In 1869 the club moved again, and the name was then used for their 'Combe Park' ground, where they have played ever since.
W. H. Laverton's Ground is a historic cricket ground in Westbury, Wiltshire. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1888, when W. H. Laverton's XI played O. G. Radcliffe's XI. The ground hosted a single first-class match in 1890, which saw W. H. Laverton's XI playing the touring Australians.
King's House Sports Ground is a multi-use sports ground in Chiswick, London. King George V presided over the official opening in 1926 and inspected the teams. The first recorded cricket match on the ground was in 1926, when the Civil Service cricket team played Australia in a non first-class match. The following year, the ground held its only first-class match when the Civil Service played the touring New Zealanders. This match was also the Civil Service's only appearance in first-class cricket.
The Recreation Ground is a cricket ground in Banstead, Surrey. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1955, when South Women Second XI played the Women's Cricket Association. It hosted its only first-class match in 1984, when Surrey played Cambridge University.
Reigate Priory Cricket Club Ground is a cricket ground in Reigate, Surrey. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1853 when East Surrey played West Sussex. It hosted its first first-class match in 1909 when Surrey played Oxford University. The next first-class match came in 1924 when HDG Leveson-Gower's XI played the touring South Africans. HDG Leveson-Gower's XI returned to the Priory to play first-class matches in 1934, where they played 3 further matches from 1934 to 1936, playing their final first-class match there against Oxford University.
Chiswick Park Cricket Ground was a cricket ground in Chiswick, London. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1886, when Chiswick Park played the Parsees during their tour of England.
Lord Hawke selected a cricket team of ten amateurs and two professional players to tour Australia and New Zealand from November 1902 until March 1903. After an opening game in San Francisco, the tour began of eighteen matches - seven of them considered first-class - in New Zealand followed by three further first-class games in Australia. Hawke's team was the first to tour Australasia with New Zealand as the primary destination and, as was the norm at the time, was privately run and funded. The Australian leg of the tour was a "profit making venture", however the games in New Zealand were scheduled at the behest of the New Zealand Cricket Board in order to raise the profile of cricket in the country. Two of them were against a New Zealand cricket team, before its international Test status. The inclusion of such games on the tour were considered "a sign that cricket in New Zealand was starting to be taken more seriously, and a move towards official international status was possible."
Through the Napoleonic Wars, county cricket virtually died as cricket was impacted by losses of investment and manpower.