Marylebone Cricket Club

“ At the Blackheath school Watts spent many of his evenings, studying music, French, Italian, and to some extent Greek, and acquiring from his new friend both a fresh zest for life and a wider range of reading. As a commission from him Watts drew and lithographed seven positions in the game of cricket, several of the figures being portraits of the famous cricketers of the day. These lithographs are now rare: five of the original drawings are preserved in the Marylebone cricket club. Life was however still a struggle to the young man. ”

“ We all make mistakes sometimes, and the Marylebone Club are not infallible. They have done great things for our noblest national sport, so we may conclude this article by wishing them and all cricket-clubs an uninterrupted career of success in promoting a sport which is dear to rich and poor. ”

“ Sporting Magazine, 1833; Gale's Game of Cricket, 1888; information supplied by the Rev. F. C. de Lona Lane, Whissonsett Rectory, East Dereham, and Henry Perkins, esq., secretary to the Marylebone Cricket Club. ”

“ Affairs settle down after the war in South Africa, and the time arrives when the Colonies are prepared to try their strength against the mother country.
South African cricketers are anxious to receive a visit from an English team, to treat all the members as their guests, and to pay the salaries of the professionals. In a spirit of the most confident loyalty, African cricket places herself in the hands of the Marylebone Club. ”

“ From these matches and their results we are now able, I think, to infer two things—first, that cricket had been played for some long while, not as an imported invention, but as an aboriginal growth, in these northern counties before these teams visited them from the south, and secondly, that the southern counties had brought it to a much higher pitch of perfection, for they could never have gone down so ninepinlike before any eleven of the Marylebone Club. ”

“ Most men, who think at all, pass through many phases of it in their lives. It would not be surprising if this early earnestness had somewhat cooled down.
Another group of clubs consists of those the members of which are bound together by a common interest in some athletic sport or pursuit—as the Marylebone Cricket Club, which dates from 1787; the Alpine Club, which was founded in 1857; the Hurlingham Club, in 1868; and to these may perhaps be added, as approximating to the same class, the Bath Club, 1894. ”

“ Eight 1858–9; played in the Univ. Eleven 1856 and 1858–60, captain 1860; won the Univ. racquets; played for Surrey 1856–61, played for Gentlemen against the Players 1857–61, played in the First Eleven of England v. Next Fourteen 1860; played for the Veterans against Marylebone cricket club in the M.C.C. centenary week at Lord’s 1887 when he scored double figures in each innings; a brilliant batsman and fine field especially at long-leg; member of the Hogarth club at Oxford; C. of Great Witley, Worcs. 1862–5; C. of Little Gaddesden, Herts. 1868–70, rector 16 Jany. 1870 to death ”

“ Charles Box, in his magnum opus 'The English Game of Cricket,' states that more than a century ago Hampshire was one of the most attractive spots for cricket in the kingdom, and it was the centre to which cricket talent gravitated long before the Marylebone Club existed. Hambledon was the cradle of the game, and it is difficult to trace when cricket was really first played in this happy valley. ”

“ With his sons John and Frederick he kept a shop for the sale of cricketing appliances at 10 Prince's Terrace, Caledonian Road, Islington, London, where he died of cholera 21 Aug. 1854. He was buried in Highgate cemetery. The members of the Marylebone Club erected a monument to his memory above his grave, on which is inscribed the single word ‘Lillywhite.’ His characteristic definition of cricket, ‘me bowling, Pilch batting, and Box keeping wicket,’ is well known. ”

“ Middlesex also, exclusively of the Marylebone Club, had its Eleven in these days; or, we should say, its twenty-two, for that was the number then required to stand the disciplined forces of Hampshire, Kent, or England. And this reminds us of an "Uxbridge ground," where Middlesex played and lost; also, of "Hornhurch, Essex," where Essex, in 1791, was sufficiently advanced to win against Marylebone, an occasion memorable, because Lord Frederick Beauclerk there played nearly his first recorded match, making scarce any runs, but bowling four wickets. ”

“ In cricket, the Americans met with success, defeating the Marylebone, Prince's and Surrey clubs, in London, the Sheffield club, Manchester club, and the All-Irelands in Dublin. The Richmond game was drawn on account of rain. It was not exactly as if green cricketers had visited the old country, for Harry, George, and Sam Wright were first-class players. The first two were excellent bowlers, while McBride also showed up well as a bowler.
George Wright bore the palm for the largest score in a match, rolling up fifty runs at Manchester. ”

“ The Oxford University Eleven, and the Cambridge University Eleven, and the Marylebone Club, of course they cannot contend against at such a disadvantage, but they sometimes give even to these strong Elevens, the odds of a Player or two, from their own ranks, whenever it is thought by so doing they can more-nearly equalize the sides, and consequently impart greater interest to the game. ”

“ Surplus plants and cuttings are generally distributed without charge to educational or charitable institutions, and to the poor. Provision is made for cricket, football and other games in a number of the parks. Large gatherings of spectators are attracted to the first-class cricket matches played at Lord’s ground, St John’s Wood, by the Marylebone Club and the Middlesex County teams, Eton College against Harrow School, and Oxford against Cambridge University; to the Kennington Oval for the matches of the Surrey club, and the Leyton ground for those of the Essex club. ”

“ His life was almost entirely devoted to sport. In youth he was an active cricketer. While at Eton in 1793 he was in the school cricket eleven, and at Oxford he played with the Bullingdon Club. He first appeared at Lord's on 11 July 1796, in the match Bullingdon Club versus Marylebone Club; he made fifty-two in his first innings and fifty-nine in his second. He was frequently seen at Lord's up to 1821. Still more conspicuous was he in the hunting field. From 1806 to 1816 he was the master of the Quorn hounds in Leicestershire, and from 1816 to 1824 of the Burton hounds in Lincolnshire. ”

“ South, and Gentlemen v. Players were completely spoiled, owing to the northern players declining to play. No less than thirteen players in the North refused, and at last the committee of the Marylebone Club spoke out clearly and firmly. At a committee meeting of that club, held on May 21st, the following resolutions were passed:
"1. ”

“ He was a member of the committee of the Marylebone Club, and, having a great knowledge of the game, managed many of the matches at Lord's. He had a free and forward style of hitting, and also excelled at long-stop and mid-wicket. ”

“ But I haven't space, that's the fact, and so you must fancy it all, and carry yourselves on to half-past seven o'clock, when the School are again in, with five wickets down and only thirty-two runs to make to win. The Marylebone men played carelessly in their second innings, but they are working like horses now to save the match.
There is much healthy, hearty, happy life scattered up and down the close; but the group to which I beg to call your especial attention is there, on the slope of the island, which looks towards the cricket-ground. ”

“ No cricketer ever came to Lord's so late in life and afterwards had so long and brilliant a career, lasting upwards of twenty seasons. He was the first bowler of eminence in the round-arm style, which was first introduced by Tom Walker of the Hambledon Club at the end of the last century, but not legalised by the Marylebone Club until 1828. His bowling was slow, marvellous for accuracy of pitch and straightness, and specially remarkable for a very quick rise from the pitch. He was known as the ‘Nonpareil Bowler,’ his average being estimated not to have exceeded seven runs per wicket. ”

“ Since his first appearance in 1895 he has put in consistently good work both with ball and bat, and, whether for his county, or for the Players, or the Marylebone Club, he is always one of the most useful men on a side, as he also proved himself to be when, with Mr. Warner’s team in New Zealand, he took 177 wickets at a cost of under seven runs a-piece, and, in the West Indies, with Lord Brackley’s team, he took 126 wickets for ten runs a-piece. ”

“ Sir, — Now that cricket has been put aside for some few months to come, and cricketers have assumed somewhat of the chrysalis nature (for a time only 'tis true) , but at length again will burst forth in all their varied hues, rather than allow this state of torpor to creep over them, and stifle their new supple limbs, why can they not, I say, form a foot-ball club, and form a committee of three or more to draw up a code of laws? If a club of this sort were got up, it would be of vast benefit to any cricket-ground to be trampled upon, and would make the turf quite firm and durable; ”

“ As the Eleven grew in strength and popularity, the desire to be considered, worthy of a place in it became the aim of evry young and rising cricketer, and on more, than one occasion some of the celebrated amateurs were to be found playing in its ranks for the honour alone. Of course the difficulty was to find clubs of any strength to compete against. Usually the number of their opponents was twenty-two; but very often that was found inadequate to make a fight against so strong a combination of talent, and recourse was had to players outside of the club. ”

“ The authors had not only to pay the penalty in claret, but to profess their unfeigned delight at its being imposed on them.
While the Keep-the-Line loved fun, others loved athletics. The Mary-le-bone Cricket Club of the olden days did not at all resemble what it afterwards became when known as Lord’s. In its early age, there was as much difficulty in passing a ballot successfully, as in the most exclusive clubs of the present day. ”

“ Cricket may be played six months in the year, and those who play it think six months none too much. It is a social game also, and a good club can always arrange matches with neighboring clubs, and so friendly is the feeling among players that a visiting eleven nearly always declare, when they go home after a match, that they were never better treated in their lives. In the skill required, the variety of excitement, and the friendly feeling that it promotes, lie the claims of cricket to the favor it enjoys. ”

“ After the Cricketers had partaken of the refreshments prepared for them, the ground was again cleared, and Carpenter and Hayward in simple dress arrayed, entered the arena with bat in hand, as the representatives of the All England Eleven. They promptly take their places at their respective wickets ready to defend them, but not before with cautious step, the ground is traversed o'er, lest ought unseen should lurk there to turn a ball, or interrupt the striker's speed in making a run. ”

“ J. H. Brain would be the two last who have donned the garment in first-class cricket. Long life and unabating good fellowship to Harlequins, present and future! There is every sign that the wish is destined to be fulfilled.
The Authentics Cricket Club was founded by Everard Britten-Holmes, in November 1883, who, from its birth in Brazenose College, Oxford, has acted as its Hon. ”

“ They did much good work in popularizing the game, and an annual match between the two at Lord’s on Whit-Monday was once a great feature of the season; but the increase of county cricket led eventually to their disbandment.
At this period, and much later, the first-class matches of “M.C.C. and ground” (i.e. ground-staff, or professionals attached to the club) occupied a far greater amount of importance than is at present the case. In recent years over 150 minor matches of the utmost value in propagating the best interests of cricket are annually played by the leading club. ”

“ Happy Elysium, how different from the haste and hurry of our modern life, even when we say we are at play! The modern undergraduate does not even lunch or dine on his college ground.
By these considerations, and only thereby, we can understand why even the University Cricket Club used to play a mile from Magdalen Bridge, when they could have played, so to say, in Oxford itself. They did not think they were far off, partly because they were so used to horses, arid partly because they were so much nearer than Bullingdon cricket. ”

“ There are two sides to cricket. There is cricket as a game consisting of bowling, fielding, and batting; and there is cricket in the shape of clubs and club management. The two aspects of the game naturally are almost inextricably mixed up, and react continuously upon each other.
The evolution of skill in cricket is by no means easy to trace. Whether the players of to-day are better or worse than those of the past is not and cannot be decided, so different are the conditions under which the game is played now from what they used to be. ”

“ Players, or represented England against Australia! No wonder the boy becomes imbued with keenness for the game, when everyone in the village, from, the parson to the old lady who keeps the sweetshop, is continually talking about cricket. As the boy grows older he begins to make his mark in the village club, and when he is eighteen or nineteen, to the delight of his father, mother, sisters, and himself, he is selected to make one of the twenty-two colts of his county that are chosen to play against the county team. ”