Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Sussex, its limited overs team is called the Sussex Sharks. The club was founded in 1839 as a successor to the various Sussex county cricket teams, including the old Brighton Cricket Club, representative of the county of Sussex as a whole since the 1720s; the club has always held first-class status. Sussex 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; the club colours are traditionally blue and white and the shirt sponsors are Aerotron for the Specsavers County Championship, Parafix for Royal London One-Day Cup matches and Boundless for NatWest Blast T20 matches. Its home ground is Hove. Sussex play matches around the county at Arundel and Eastbourne. Sussex won its first official County Championship title in 2003 and subsequently became the dominant team of the decade, repeating the success in 2006 and 2007.
In 2006 Sussex achieved "the double", beating Lancashire to clinch the C&G Trophy, before winning the County Championship following an emphatic victory against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, in which Sussex defeated their hosts by an innings and 245 runs. Sussex won the title for the third time in five years in 2007, when in a nail-biting finale on the last day of the season, Sussex defeated Worcestershire early in the day and had to wait until past five o'clock as title rivals Lancashire narrowly failed to beat Surrey – prompting relieved celebrations at the County Cricket Ground, Hove. Sussex enjoyed further limited overs success with consecutive Pro40 wins in 2008 and 2009 as well as beating Somerset at Edgbaston to lift the 2009 Twenty20 Cup; the south coast county ended the decade having won ten trophies in ten years. On 1 November 2015, Sussex County Cricket Club merged with the Sussex Cricket Board to form a single governing body for cricket in Sussex, called Sussex Cricket Limited.
County Championship – 2003, 2006, 2007 Division Two – 2001, 2010 Friends Provident Trophy – 1963, 1964, 1978, 1986, 2006 Pro40 National League – 1982, 2008, 2009 Division Two – 1999, 2005Twenty20 Cup – 2009 Second XI Championship – 1978, 1990, 2007 Second XI Trophy – 2005 Sussex, along with Kent, is believed to be the birthplace of cricket. It is believed that cricket was invented by children living on the Weald in Anglo-Saxon or Norman times. See: History of cricket to 1725 The first definite mention of cricket in Sussex relates to ecclesiastical court records in 1611 which state that two parishioners of Sidlesham in West Sussex failed to attend church on Easter Sunday because they were playing cricket, they were made to do penance. Cricket became established in Sussex during the 17th century and the earliest village matches took place before the English Civil War, it is believed that the earliest county teams were formed in the aftermath of the Restoration in 1660. In 1697, the earliest "great match" recorded was for 50 guineas apiece between two elevens at a venue in Sussex.
It was an inter-county match and has been classified as the earliest known top-class match in cricket history. Matches involving the two great Sussex patrons Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet were first recorded in 1725; the earliest known use of Sussex in a match title occurred in 1729. From 1741, Richmond patronised the famous Slindon Cricket Club, whose team was representative of the county. After the death of Richmond in 1751, Sussex cricket declined until the emergence of the Brighton club at its Prince of Wales Ground in 1790; this club sustained cricket in Sussex through the Napoleonic Wars and, as a result, the county team was strong in the 1820s when it included the great bowlers Jem Broadbridge and William Lillywhite. For information about Sussex county teams before the formation of Sussex CCC, see: Sussex county cricket teams On 17 June 1836, the Sussex Cricket Fund was set up to support county matches, after a meeting in Brighton; this led directly to the formation on 1 March 1839 of Sussex County Cricket Club, England's oldest county club.
Sussex CCC played its initial first-class match versus Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's on 10 & 11 June 1839. The Sussex crest depicts a mythological, footless bird called the Martlet, is similar to Coat of arms of Sussex. Capped players have six martlets on their sweaters, the crest with gold trimming on their caps. In total, Sussex CCC have played at 17 grounds, 4 of which have been in Hove; the first County match was played at Eaton Road on 6 June 1872 against Gloucestershire. The main venue for the Club's First and Second XI is The County Ground in Hove, although matches are played at the grounds at Arundel and Horsham. Other grounds for first class matches have included Sheffield Park, Worthing and Hastings. No. Denotes the player's squad number, as worn on the back of their shirt. Denotes players with international caps. * denotes a player, awarded a county cap. Director of Cricket: Keith Greenfield Head coach: Jason Gillespie Academy Director: Carl Hopkinson Asst. Coach: Jon Lewis Batting coach: Michael Yardy Bowling coach: Jon Lewis Spin Bowling Coach: n/a Fielding coach: n/a Mental conditioning coach: n/a Fitness trainer: n/a Head Physiotherapist: n/a Masseur: n/a This list includes those Sussex players who have played in Test cricket since 1877, One Day International cricket since 1971, or
Tonbridge
Tonbridge is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, 4 miles north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had a population of 40,356 in 2015; the town was recorded in the Domesday Book 1087 as Tonebrige, which may indicate a bridge belonging to the estate or manor, or alternatively a bridge belonging to Tunna, a common Anglo-Saxon man's name. Another theory suggests that the name is a contraction of "town of bridges", due to the large number of streams the High Street crossed; until 1870, the town's name was spelt Tunbridge, as shown on old maps including the 1871 Ordnance Survey map and contemporary issues of the Bradshaw railway guide. In 1870, this was changed to Tonbridge by the GPO due to confusion with nearby Tunbridge Wells, despite Tonbridge being a much older settlement. Tunbridge Wells has always maintained the same spelling. Tonbridge stands on spur of higher land where the marshy River Medway could be more forded.
Ancient trackways converged at this point. There is no record of any bridge before 1191. For much of its existence, the town remained to the north of the river, since the land to the south was subject to extensive seasonal flooding. One part of the town is called'Dryhill'. Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare founded the Priory of St Mary Magdalene in 1124. A castle was built here in the 11th century by Richard Fitz Gilbert, son of the murdered guardian of William the Conqueror in his infancy. Richard was responsible for governing England in William I's many absences; the town was besieged by William Rufus, soon after his accession to the throne, because the Earl had pledged allegiance to William's brother, Robert. The arrow, which killed William Rufus a few years was shot by Walter Tirel, born in Tonbridge as well as being Richard Fitz Gilbert's son-in-law; the town was soon afterwards taken again, this time by King John only a few months after the signing of the Magna Carta. Both the Earl and his son were signatories and guardians of the document responsible for its compliance.
It was subsequently besieged by Prince Edward, son of Henry III. On this occasion the besieged garrison burnt the town rather than see it fall; the town and Tonbridge Castle were rebuilt after this and in the 13th century became an official residence and records repository of Edward II. In medieval times, Tonbridge was considered an important strategic settlement; some evidence shows Henry III intended it to be a walled town, a charter was issued allowing for walls to be built, a market to be held, court sessions to be held and two members from the town to attend parliament. The walls were never built because the castle's large outer bailey could have accommodated the townspeople in times of strife. A surrounding bank and ditch known. Today only traces of this encircling defence now remain; the historic core of the town still contains a large number of working buildings dating from the 15th century: the oldest is Port Reeves in East Street. Tonbridge School, the famous public school, was established in 1552 under letters patent of Edward VI, to educate the sons of local gentry and farmers During Queen Mary's reign Tonbridge was involved in an unsuccessful uprising against the Queen's marriage to the King of Spain, with 500 townspeople involved in the Battle of Hartley in 1554.
As a result, the town was chosen for a place of execution of a number of Protestants. A memorial to Margery Polly is on the green at Pembury. During the Civil War, the town was garrisoned by the Parliamentarian side who refortified the castle. Royalist sympathisers were repulsed. In 1740 an Act of Parliament was passed to make the River Medway navigable to Tonbridge by the Medway Navigation Company, allowing such materials as coal and lime to be transported to the town, gunpowder and timber to be carried downriver to Maidstone and the Thames. For a hundred years the Medway Navigation Company was profitable, paying out good dividends to its investors, but after the arrival of the railway in 1842 the company went into a steep decline and all commercial traffic ceased in 1911 when the company collapsed; some of the original warehouses and the wharves are still recognisable today, downstream of the town's main bridge. The town and its surroundings became famous for the production of finely inlaid wooden cabinets and other objects called Tunbridgeware, which were sold to tourists who were taking the waters at the nearby springs at Tunbridge Wells.
Another speciality in the town was until the production of cricket balls and other sports goods. The Corn Exchange in Bank Street, conceived as a chapel, dates from 1790. During the March 1880 parliamentary election, Tonbridge was the scene of a riot. On the announcement of the results, several thousand people started to hurl stones and cobbles at each other in the High Street near the Rose and Crown Hotel; the county's Chief Constable Captain Ruskin, with over a hundred policemen, charged the crowds many times during the evening, only to end up as the target of the crowd, who started hurling stones and cobbles at them instead of each other. Many people, including twelve policemen, were injured before the crowd dispersed at midnight; the United Kingdom's first speeding fine was handed o
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Great Stour at the south edge of the North Downs, about 61 miles southeast of central London and 15.3 miles northwest of Folkestone by road. In the 2011 census, it had a population of 74,204; the name comes from the Old English æscet. It has been a market town since the Middle Ages, a regular market continues to be held. St Mary's Church in Ashford has been a local landmark since the 13th century, expanded in the 15th. Today, the church functions in a dual role as a centre for entertainment. Ashford has two grammar schools; the town has been a communications hub and has stood at the centre of five railway lines since the 19th century. The arrival of the railways contributed to the town's growth. With the opening of the international passenger station it is now a European communications centre, with new lines running between London and the Channel Tunnel; the M20 motorway links Ashford to those two destinations for road traffic.
Ashford has been marked as a place for expansion since the 1960s and appeared on several Government plans for growth. Changes have included the County Square shopping centre, the redevelopment of the Templer Barracks at Repton Park, the award-winning Ashford Designer Outlet. In the 1970s, a controversial ring road scheme and construction of the multi-storey Charter House building destroyed significant parts of the old town, though some areas were spared and preserved. There has been evidence of human habitation around Ashford since the Iron Age, with a barrow on what is now Barrow Hill dating back to 1500 BC. Two axes from the Lower Paleolithic period have been found near Ashford. During the construction of the Park Farm estate in the late 1990s, excavation in the area revealed tools from the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic period dating back to the 7th millennium BC. A number of other Mesolithic tools were discovered during construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link through Ashford. During Roman Britain, iron ore was mined in the Weald and transported to Ashford where two ironworks processed the ore into a workable metal.
Archaeological studies have revealed the existence of a Roman town to the north of the current centre at the junction of Albert Road and Wall Road. The present town originates from an original settlement established in 893 AD by inhabitants escaping a Danish Viking raid, who were granted land by a Saxon Lord for their resistance; the name comes from the Old English æscet. At the time of the Domesday Book of 1086 it was still known by its original Saxon name of Essetesford; the manor was owned by Hugh de Montfort, Constable of England and companion of William the Conqueror, had a church, two mills and a value of 150 shillings at the time. One of the earliest houses in the area still in existence is Lake House at Eastwell Park to the north of the town, which contains the grave of Richard Plantagenet. Ashford's importance as an agricultural and market town grew in the 13th century, in 1243, King Henry III granted the town a charter to hold a market for livestock; the pottery industry expanded in the 13th and 14th centuries, with the main works based at what is now Potter's Corner, a few miles west of the town centre.
Evidence from examining waste suggests that production was on a large scale. The Kent Archaeological society have discovered sandy ware at this location dating from around 1125 – 1250. Jack Cade, who led the Cade's Rebellion against corrupt Royal officials in 1450, is believed to be from Ashford. In William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, Cade is shown conversing with "Dick, the Butcher from Ashford". In the 16th and 17th centuries, Ashford became known for nonconformism. A local resident, John Brown, was executed for heresy in 1511, may have inspired the namesake of the song "John Brown's Body". Thomas Smythe acquired the manor of Ashford as dowry from Queen Elizabeth I in the mid-16th century, is buried in the parish church. Dr John Wallis, the internationally recognised mathematician and one of Isaac Newton's main tutors was born in Ashford in 1616, but moved to Tenterden in 1625 to avoid the plague, he was a promising student, subsequently graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. By the 1780s, local farmers had begun to hold informal market days, advertised the town's ideal location between London and the Kent Coast.
The market was held in the High Street until 1856, when local farmers and businessmen relocated to Elwick Road and formed a market company, the oldest surviving registered company in England and Wales. There is still a regular street market in the town, but the market company relocated outside Ashford town centre after part of the 19th-century site was demolished to make way for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, it is still used by around 5,000 farmers. The Army first established a presence in Ashford in 1797 when it built a garrison on Barrow Hill, storerooms along what is now Magazine Road; the military presence was scaled back during the 19th century, though the town was still considered strategically important in the event of an invasion. The Territorial Army established a presence in Ashford in 1910. During World War I, Ashford's importance as a transport hub and its location between the continent and London made it a target for aerial bombing. A bomb fell on the railway works on 25 March 1917, killing 61 people, while the town was a target in the Battle of Britain during World War II, including an attack on 15 September 1940.
During the latter war 94 civilians were
Wicket
In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings. Firstly, it is one of two bails at either end of the pitch; the wicket is guarded by a batsman who, with his bat, attempts to prevent the ball from hitting the wicket. Secondly, through metonymic usage, the dismissal of a batsman is known as the taking of a wicket, thirdly, the cricket pitch itself is sometimes called the wicket; the origin of the word is from a small gate. Cricket wickets had only two stumps and one bail and looked like a gate; the third stump was introduced in 1775. The size and shape of the wicket has changed several times during the last 300 years and its dimensions and placing is now determined by Law 8 in the Laws of Cricket, thus: Law 8: The wickets; the wicket consists of three wooden stumps. The stumps are placed along the batting crease with equal distances between each stump, they are positioned. Two wooden bails are placed in shallow grooves on top of the stumps; the bails must not project more than 0.5 inches above the stumps, must, for men's cricket, be 4.31 inches long.
There are specified lengths for the barrel and spigots of the bail. There are different specifications for the bails for junior cricket; the umpires may dispense with the bails. Further details on the specifications of the wickets are contained in Appendix D to the laws. For a batsman to be dismissed by being bowled, run out, stumped or hit wicket, his wicket needs to be put down. What this means is defined by Law 29. A wicket is put down if a bail is removed from the top of the stumps, or a stump is struck out of the grounds by the ball, the striker's bat, the striker's person, a fielder. A 2010 amendment to the Laws clarified the rare circumstance where a bat breaks during the course of a shot and the detached debris breaks the wicket; the wicket is put down if a fielder pulls a stump out of the ground in the same manner. If one bail is off, removing the remaining bail or striking or pulling any of the three stumps out of the ground is sufficient to put the wicket down. A fielder may remake the wicket, if necessary, in order to put it down to have an opportunity of running out a batsman.
If however both bails are off, a fielder must remove one of the three stumps out of the ground with the ball, or pull it out of the ground with a hand or arm, provided that the ball is held in the hand or hands so used, or in the hand of the arm so used. If the umpires have agreed to dispense with bails, for example, it is too windy for the bails to remain on the stumps, the decision as to whether the wicket has been put down is one for the umpire concerned to decide. After a decision to play without bails, the wicket has been put down if the umpire concerned is satisfied that the wicket has been struck by the ball, by the striker's bat, person, or items of his clothing or equipment separated from his person as described above, or by a fielder with the hand holding the ball or with the arm of the hand holding the ball; the dismissal of a batsman is known as the taking of a wicket. The batsman is said to have lost his wicket, the batting side is said to have lost a wicket, the fielding side to have taken a wicket, the bowler is said to have taken his wicket, if the dismissal is one of the types for which the bowler receives credit.
This language is used if the dismissal did not involve the stumps and bails in any way, for example, a catch. Though note that the other four of the five most common methods of dismissal do involve the stumps and bails being put down, or prevented from being put down by the batsman; the word wicket has this meaning in the following contexts: A team's score is described in terms of the total number of runs scored and the total number of wickets lost. The number of wickets taken is a primary measure of a individual bowler's ability, a key part of a bowling analysis; the sequence of time over which two particular batsmen bat together, a partnership, is referred to as a numbered wicket when discriminating it from other partnerships in the innings. The first wicket partnership is from the start of the innings until the team loses its first wicket, i.e. one of the first two batsmen is dismissed. The second wicket partnership is from when the third batsman starts batting until the team loses its second wicket, i.e. a second batsman is dismissed.
Etc... The tenth wicket or last wicket partnership is from when the eleventh batsman starts batting until the team loses its tenth wicket, i.e. a tenth batsman is dismissed. A team can win a match by a certain number of wickets; this means that they were batting last, reached the winning target with a certain number of batsmen still not dismissed. For example, if the side scored the required number of runs to win with only three batsmen dismissed, they are said to have won by seven wickets; the word wicket is sometimes used to refer to the cricket pitch itself. According to the Laws of Cricket, this usage is incorrect, but it is in common usage and understood by cricket followers; the term sticky wicket refers to a situation in which the pitch has become damp due to rain or high humidity. This makes the path of the ball more unpredictable thus making the
Wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and be ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. The wicket-keeper is the only member of the fielding side permitted to wear gloves and external leg guards; the role of the keeper is governed by Law 27 of the Laws of Cricket. During the bowling of the ball the wicket-keeper crouches in a full squatting position but stands up as the ball is received. Australian wicket-keeper Sammy Carter was the first to squat on his haunches rather than bend over from the waist; the keeper's major function is to stop deliveries that pass the batsman, but he can attempt to dismiss the batsman in various ways: The most common dismissal effected by the keeper is for him to catch a ball that has nicked the batsman's bat, called an edge, before it bounces. Sometimes the keeper is in the best position to catch a ball, hit high in the air.
More catches are taken by wicket-keepers than by any other fielding position. The keeper can stump the batsman by using the ball to remove the bails from the stumps, if the batsman is out of his crease after a delivery has passed the stumps into the keeper's hands; the keeper must dislodge the bail and the batsman is out if he is still outside the crease. When the ball is hit into the outfield, the keeper moves close to the stumps to catch the return throw from a fielder and, if possible, to run out a batsman. A keeper's position depends on the bowler: for fast bowling he will squat some distance from the stumps, in order to have time to react to edges from the batsman, while for slower bowling, he will come much nearer to the stumps, to pressure the batsman into remaining within the crease or risk being stumped; the more skilled the keeper, the faster the bowling to which he is able to "stand up", for instance Godfrey Evans stood up to Alec Bedser. Like the other players on a cricket team, keepers will bat during the team’s batting innings.
At elite levels, wicket-keepers are expected to be proficient batters, averaging more than specialist bowlers. See Wicket-keeper-batsman. Law 27.2, which deals with the specifications for wicketkeepers' gloves, states that: If... the wicket-keeper wears gloves, they shall have no webbing between the fingers except joining index finger and thumb, where webbing may be inserted as a means of support. If used, the webbing shall be a single piece of non-stretch material which, although it may have facing material attached, shall have no reinforcements or tucks; the top edge of the webbing shall not protrude beyond the straight line joining the top of the index finger to the top of the thumb and shall be taut when a hand wearing the glove has the thumb extended. Substitutes were not allowed to keep wicket, but this restriction was lifted in the 2017 edition of the Laws of Cricket; this rule was sometimes suspended, by agreement with the captain of the batting side. For example, during the England–New Zealand Test Match at Lord's in 1986, England's specialist keeper, Bruce French was injured during England's first innings.
England used 4 keepers in New Zealand's first innings: Bill Athey kept for the first two overs. Arthur Jones was the first substitute to keep wicket in a Test match, when he did so against Australia at The Oval in 1905. There is no rule stating. On 5 June 2015 during a T20 Blast game between the Worcestershire Rapids and the Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Worcestershire chose not to play a wicket-keeper in the 16th over of the match, their keeper, Ben Cox, became an extra fielder at fly slip. The umpires consulted with each other and agreed that there was nothing in the rules to prevent it from happening; the following are the top 10 wicket-keepers by total dismissals in Test cricket. The following are the top 10 wicket-keepers by total dismissals in one day cricket; the following are the top 10 wicket-keepers by total dismissals in Twenty20 International cricket. Catcher Glossary of cricket terms Wicket-keeper's gloves Surya Prakash Chaturvedi, Bharat ke Wicket Keepers, National Book Trust, 2011
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's cricket ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, England. The club was the governing body of cricket in England and Wales and, as the sport's legislator, held considerable global influence. In 1788, the MCC took responsibility for the Laws of Cricket. Although changes to the Laws are now determined by the International Cricket Council, the copyright is still owned by MCC. For much of the 20th century, commencing with the 1903–04 tour of Australia and ending with the 1976–77 tour of India, MCC organised international tours in which the England cricket team played Test matches. On these tours, the England team was called MCC in non-international matches. In 1993, its administrative and governance functions were transferred to the ICC and the Test and County Cricket Board; the club's own teams are ad hoc because they have never taken part in any formal competition. MCC teams have always held first-class status depending on the quality of the opposition.
To mark the beginning of each English season, MCC plays the reigning County Champions. The origin of MCC was as a gentlemen's club that had flourished through most of the 18th century, including, at least in part, an existence as the original London Cricket Club, which had played at the Artillery Ground through the middle years of the century. Many of its members became involved with the Hambledon Club through the 1770s and in the early 1780s, had returned to the London area where the White Conduit Club had begun in Islington, it is not known for certain when the White Conduit was founded but it seems to have been after 1780 and by 1785. According to Pelham Warner, it was formed in 1782 as an offshoot from a West End convivial club called the Je-ne-sais-quoi, some of whose members frequented the White Conduit House in Islington and played matches on the neighbouring White Conduit Fields, a prominent venue for cricket in the 1720s. Arthur Haygarth said in Scores and Biographies that "the Marylebone Club was founded in 1787 from the White Conduit's members" but the date of the formation of the White Conduit "could not be found".
This gentlemen's club, multi-purpose, had a social meeting place at the Star and Garter on Pall Mall. It was the same club, responsible for drafting the Laws of Cricket at various times, most notably in 1744 and 1774, this lawgiving responsibility was soon to be vested in the MCC as the final repose of these cricketing gentlemen; when the White Conduit began, its leading lights were George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea and the Hon. Colonel Charles Lennox, who became the 4th Duke of Richmond. White Conduit was nominally an exclusive club that only "gentlemen" might play for, but the club did employ professionals and one of these was the bowler Thomas Lord, a man, recognised for his business acumen as well as his bowling ability; the new club might have continued except that White Conduit Fields was an open area allowing members of the public, including the rowdier elements, to watch the matches and to voice their opinions on the play and the players. The White Conduit gentlemen were not amused by such interruptions and decided to look for a more private venue of their own.
Winchilsea and Lennox asked Lord to find a new ground and offered him a guarantee against any losses he may suffer in the venture. Lord took a lease from the Portman Estate on some land at Dorset Fields where Dorset Square is now sited, it was called the New Cricket Ground because it was off what was called "the New Road" in Marylebone, when the first known match was played there on 21 May but, by the end of July, it was known as Lord's. As it was in Marylebone, the White Conduit members who relocated to it soon decided to call themselves the "Mary-le-bone Club"; the exact date of MCC's foundation is lost but seems to have been sometime in the late spring or the summer of 1787. On 10 & 11 July 1837, a South v North match was staged at Lord's to commemorate the MCC's Golden Jubilee. Warner described it as "a Grand Match to celebrate the Jubilee of the Club" and reproduced the full scorecard. On Wednesday, 25 April 1787, the London Morning Herald newspaper carried a notice: "The Members of the Cricket Club are desired to meet at the Star and Garter, Pall Mall, on Mon.
April 30. Dinner on table at half past five o'clock. N. B; the favour of an answer is desired". The agenda is unknown but, only three weeks on Saturday, 19 May, the Morning Herald advertised: "A grand match will be played on Monday, 21 May in the New Cricket Ground, the New Road, Mary-le-bone, between eleven Noblemen of the White Conduit Club and eleven Gentlemen of the County of Middlesex with two men given, for 500 guineas a side; the wickets to be pitched at ten o'clock, the match to be played out". No post-match report has been found but, as G. B. Buckley said, it was "apparently the first match to be played on Lord's new ground". A total of eight matches are known to have been played at Lord's in 1787, one of them a single wicket event; the only one which featured the Mary-le-bone Club took place on 30 July. It was advertised in The World on Friday, 27 July 1787: "On Monday, 30 July will be played a match between 11 gentlemen of the Mary-le-bone Club and 11 gentlemen of the Islington Club".
Buckley stated that "this is the earliest notice of the Marylebone Club". As with the inaugural match at Lord's, no post-match report of the inaugural MCC match has been found. There have been three Lord's grounds: the original on the Portman Estate and two on the Eyre Estate
England cricket team
The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board, having been governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end of 1996. England, as a founding nation, is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test, One Day International and Twenty20 International status; until the 1990s, Scottish and Irish players played for England as those countries were not yet ICC members in their own right. England and Australia were the first teams to play a Test match, these two countries together with South Africa formed the Imperial Cricket Conference on 15 June 1909. England and Australia played the first ODI on 5 January 1971. England's first T20I was played on 13 June 2005, once more against Australia; as of 12 March 2019, England has played 1010 Test matches, winning 365 and losing 300. The team has won The Ashes on 32 occasions. England has played 726 ODIs, winning 362, its record in major ODI tournaments includes finishing as runners-up in three Cricket World Cups, in two ICC Champions Trophys.
England has played 108 T20Is, winning 53. They won the ICC World Twenty20 in 2010, were runners-up in 2016; as of 12 March 2019, England are ranked fifth in Tests, first in ODIs and third in T20Is by the ICC. Though the team and coaching staff faced heavy criticism after their Group Stage exit in the 2015 Cricket World Cup, it has since adopted a more aggressive and modern playing style in ODI cricket, under the leadership of captain Eoin Morgan and head coach Trevor Bayliss; the first recorded incidence of a team with a claim to represent England comes from 9 July 1739 when an "All-England" team, which consisted of 11 gentlemen from any part of England exclusive of Kent, played against "the Unconquerable County" of Kent and lost by a margin of "very few notches". Such matches were repeated on numerous occasions for the best part of a century. In 1846 William Clarke formed the All-England Eleven; this team competed against a United All-England Eleven with annual matches occurring between 1847 and 1856.
These matches were arguably the most important contest of the English season if judged by the quality of the players. The first overseas tour occurred in September 1859 with England touring North America; this team had six players from the All-England Eleven, six from the United All-England Eleven and was captained by George Parr. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, attention turned elsewhere. English tourists visited Australia in 1861–62 with this first tour organised as a commercial venture by Messrs Spiers and Pond, restaurateurs of Melbourne. Most matches played during tours prior to 1877 were "against odds", with the opposing team fielding more than 11 players to make for a more contest; this first Australian tour were against odds of at least 18/11. The tour was so successful that George Parr led a second tour in 1863–64. James Lillywhite led a subsequent England team which sailed on the P&O steamship Poonah on 21 September 1876, they played a combined Australian XI, for once on terms of 11 a side.
The match, starting on 15 March 1877 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground came to be regarded as the inaugural Test match. The combined Australian XI won this Test match by 45 runs with Charles Bannerman of Australia scoring the first Test century. At the time, the match was promoted as James Lillywhite's XI v Combined Victoria and New South Wales; the teams played a return match on the same ground at Easter, 1877, when Lillywhite's team avenged their loss with a victory by four wickets. The first Test match on English soil occurred in 1880 with England victorious. G. Grace included in the team. England lost their first home series 1–0 in 1882 with The Sporting Times printing an obituary on English cricket: In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R. I. P. N. B. – The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. As a result of this loss the tour of 1882–83 was dubbed by England captain Ivo Bligh as "the quest to regain the ashes".
England with a mixture of amateurs and professionals won the series 2–1. Bligh was presented with an urn that contained some ashes, which have variously been said to be of a bail, ball or a woman's veil and so The Ashes was born. A fourth match was played which Australia won by 4 wickets but the match was not considered part of the Ashes series. England dominated many of these early contests with England winning the Ashes series 10 times between 1884 and 1898. During this period England played their first Test match against South Africa in 1889 at Port Elizabeth. England won the 1890 Ashes Series 2–0, with the third match of the series being the first Test match to be abandoned. England lost 2 -- 1 in the 1891 -- 92 series. England again won the 1894 -- 95 series. In 1895 -- 96 England played Test South Africa; the 1899 Ashes series was the first tour where the MCC and the counties appointed a selection committee. There were three active players: Lord Hawke, W. G. Grace and Herbert Bainbridge, the captain of Warwickshire.
Prior to this, England teams for home Tests had been chosen by the club on whose ground the match was to be played. England lost the 1899 Ashes series 1–0, with WG Grace making his final Test appearance in the first match of the series; the start of the
