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Middlesex 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 Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial county of Greater London. The club was founded in 1864 but teams representing the county have played top-class cricket since the early 18th century and the club has always held first-class status. Middlesex have competed in the County Championship since the official start of the competition in 1890 and have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England.
Greville Thomas Scott Stevens was an English amateur cricketer who played for Middlesex, the University of Oxford and England. A leg-spin and googly bowler and attacking batsman, he captained England in one Test match, in South Africa in 1927. He was widely regarded as one of the leading amateur cricketers of his generation who, because of his commitments outside cricket, was unable to fulfil his potential and left the game early.
In the years from 1726 to 1750, cricket became an established 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 elsewhere with references being found in other southern counties. 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.
The original London Cricket Club was formed in 1722 and was one of the foremost clubs in English cricket over the next four decades, holding important match status. It is closely associated with the Artillery Ground, where it played most of its home matches.
William "Silver Billy" Beldham was an English professional cricketer who played for numerous teams between 1782 and 1821. He was born at Wrecclesham, near Farnham in Surrey, and died at Tilford, Surrey. In some sources, his name has been given as "Beldam" or "Beldum". A right-handed batting all-rounder, he is widely recognised as one of the greatest batsmen of cricket's underarm era. Using an underarm action, he bowled pitched deliveries at a fast medium pace. He generally fielded in close catching positions, mostly at slip and sometimes played as wicket-keeper.
White Conduit Fields in Islington was an early venue for cricket and several major matches are known to have been played there in the 18th century. It was the original home of the White Conduit Club, forerunner of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Later it was used by The Islington Albion Cricket Club, who played their last game at the ground in 1834. Maps from the time show that the cricket field was a few hundred metres north of the White Conduit House, in the land surrounding the modern Richmond Crescent, and paintings suggest it was also possibly on the adjacent field to the south at the modern Barnard Park.
The White Conduit Club (WCC) was a cricket club based on the northern fringes of London that existed from about 1782 until 1788. Although short-lived, it had considerable significance in the history of the game, as its members created the first Lord's venue and reorganised themselves as the new Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
Hertfordshire 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 Hertfordshire.
William Fennex was a famous English cricketer. He was a noted all-rounder and right-arm underarm fast bowler who played major cricket from 1786 to 1816.
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.
1868 was the 82nd season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It featured the first organised group of Australian sportspeople to travel overseas, being an all-Aboriginal cricket team.
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.
In the 1788 English cricket season, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) published a revised code of the Laws of Cricket, thereby confirming itself as the body in sole charge of the Laws, and taking responsibility for the sport's governance. MCC was then called "The Cricket Club at St. Marylebone", contrasting with its predecessor, the White Conduit Club of Islington, which remained active in 1788. As in 1787, their two teams played against each other at Lord's. A total of fifteen match scorecards have survived and there are brief newspaper mentions of five other matches, including two played under single wicket rules.
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.
Cricket, and hence English amateur cricket, probably began in England during the medieval period but the earliest known reference concerns the game being played c.1550 by children on a plot of land at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, Surrey. It is generally believed that cricket was originally a children's game as it is not until the beginning of the 17th century that reports can be found of adult participation.
Sunbury Cricket Club had a noted team in the early 18th century which played in major matches. One of its players was William Goodwin, whose skill received comment in a 1724 newspaper report. Goodwin is one of the earliest cricketers named in contemporary sources. In 1730, a Sunbury patron known only as Mr Andrews successfully led the team in a match against the Duke of Richmond's XI. In 1731, Sunbury defeated Kent on Sunbury Common. In 1732, a combined Brentford and Sunbury team lost to London on Walworth Common. Little is known of cricket in Sunbury for the next 200 years.
Lamb's Conduit Field, also known as Lamb's Conduit Fields was an open area in what is now the London Borough of Camden. The fields lay north of the Lamb's Conduit water feature that gave it its name, and lay mostly in the parish of St Pancras. It was a noted cricket venue in the first half of the 18th century.
Cattle Market Ground was a cricket ground in Islington, London. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1863, when Middlesex Clubs played a United England Eleven.
There are signs of increasing media interest in English cricket during the summer of 1729 as reports of seven matches have survived, compared with four in each of the two previous years. Although the source information is confusing, Sir William Gage's XI achieved the earliest known innings victory when they defeated Edwin Stead's XI at Penshurst Park in August. Cricket continued to spread throughout England and is known to have reached both Gloucestershire and Norfolk in 1729; also, its popularity at the University of Oxford was attested by Dr Samuel Johnson, a student there at the time. The oldest known bat, now on display in the Kennington Oval pavilion, is dated 1729.
References
- ↑ Bryant, John (2005). "Where was the White Conduit?". CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ↑ Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell. p.7.
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