1.
Bramall Lane
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Bramall Lane is a football stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Sheffield United and it was also used by Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield F. C. for major matches. This is because Sheffield Wednesday are a club and used to own this ground. It has been the home of Sheffield United since the establishment in 1889. It is the oldest major stadium in the still to be hosting professional association football matches. The stadium was built on a Sheffield road named after the Bramall family, the Bramalls owned The Old White House on the corner of Bramall Lane and Cherry Street, and subsequently built the Sheaf House, now a public house that still stands at the top of Bramall Lane. The stadium was opened as a cricket ground. It was also used for games in the 19th century by Sheffield F. C. and Sheffield Wednesday. Bramall Lane is one of two grounds which has hosted England football internationals, an England cricket test match and an FA Cup Final. It also regularly hosted FA Cup Semi Finals and replays between 1889 and 1938, the ground has also hosted rugby league games for the Sheffield Eagles, a Billy Graham Evangelist meeting in 1985 and a pair of rock concerts by Bruce Springsteen in 1988. The record attendance for the ground is 68,287, set at an FA Cup 5th Round tie between Sheffield United and Leeds United on 15 February 1936. Bramall Lane opened as a ground in 1855, having been leased by Michael Ellison from the Duke of Norfolk at an annual rent of £70. The site was then away from the industrial area. It was built to host the matches of cricket clubs and originally had six clubs playing there, one of whom was the Wednesday Cricket Club. Bramall Lane opened on 30 April 1855 as a ground with a match between The Eleven and The Twenty Two, The Eleven, despite being the senior team. A team representing Yorkshire played the first county match at the ground on 27 August 1855, against Sussex, although the first county game had been played eight years earlier, the official Yorkshire County Cricket Club was not formed until 1863. The idea came from Ellison, who was using his own finances to support the club and it was the clubs headquarters until 1893, when they moved to Headingley in Leeds. In 1897, Jack Brown and John Tunnicliffe recorded a first wicket score of 378 against Sussex—a ground record that has never been beaten, browns score of 311 and Yorkshires innings of 681 for 5 declared were also records when the cricket ground closed
2.
George Ulyett
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George Ulyett was an English all-round cricketer, noted particularly for his very-aggressive batsmanship. A well-liked man, Ulyett was popularly known as Happy Jack, once musing memorably that Yorkshire played him only for his good behaviour, a fine all round sportsman, Ulyett played football in the 1882–83 and 1883–84 seasons as goalkeeper for Sheffield Wednesday. Born in Pitsmoor, Sheffield, Ulyett joined the local Pitsmoor club at the age of sixteen and, from 1871 to 1873, played as a professional in Bradford. In 1873, he made his Yorkshire debut, at Bramall Lane against Sussex, in his best batting year of 1883 Ulyett achieved the remarkable feat of scoring 1,562 runs – eleven runs from being the leading run scorer – without a single century. He took his career-best figures of seven for thirty against Surrey in 1878 and, in 1887, Ulyett was a member of James Lillywhite Juniors tour of Australia in 1876/77. If Ulyett, Emmett, and Hill are specimens of the best fast bowling in England, all we can say is, either they have not shown their proper form, or British bowling has sadly deteriorated. Not long after, however in an eleven-a-side first-class match against New South Wales, Ulyett also played in the first-ever Test match, staged at the MCG, during that tour. His first real action in Test cricket came when he held onto a catch off the bowling of James Southerton to dismiss Billy Midwinter for five. In bowling, Ulyett took three for 39 in the innings, his first wicket being that of Charles Bannerman. A short delay revealed the fact that Bannerman could no longer grip his bat properly, the Australian opener walked off, wincing from the pain in his bloodied right hand. George Ulyett, although never regarded as a bowler, could nevertheless do real damage on occasion. Bannerman was unable to field, and, in the second innings, in the second game, also at Melbourne, Ulyett showed his worth as a batsman, making 52 and 63 to secure an England win by four wickets. On Day 2 George joined A Greenwood when England were 72 for 4, George partnered Greenwood and Tom Emmett. His 52 was part of a total of 86, 2nd highest by a Test Player at that time. Thereafter, he was a pick for the England Test side. Ulyett played 25 Tests in total—it was by far the longest career of any England cricketer to play in that inaugural Test—and several times changed the course of a match. At Lords in 1884, in the innings, he returned an analysis of 39. 1–23–36–7 to reduce the Australians from 60/1 to 145 all out. Included in that haul was one of the most famous caughts-and-bowled ever taken, Ulyett sent down a straight half-volley to Bonnor, who drove at it with all his considerable might and got it right out of the middle of the bat
3.
George Pinder (cricketer)
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George Pinder was an English first-class cricketer. His birth name was George Pinder Hattersley and he was born in Ecclesfield, Sheffield, Yorkshire, a wicket-keeper, he played for Yorkshire from 1867 to 1880, and for the All-England Eleven from 1867 to 1871. He also umpired in some matches between 1873 and 1880 and he was recognised as a fine wicket-keeper, his work to the fast bowlers - at a time when keepers stood up to fast bowling - being particularly impressive. He had plenty of practice, since Tom Emmett was in the same Yorkshire side and he had to deal with Emmetts famous sostenuter, a ball pitching on the leg stump and then breaking sharply towards the off bail. He was renowned for the slickness of his stumpings of batsmen, when Tom Hearne was stumped off a leg-shooter he exclaimed, I dont call that stumping, I call it shovelling of em in. He is believed to have been the first keeper to dispense with a long-stop, the idea came from his captain A. N. Hornby. Pinder was at first reluctant, but the experiment was a success, on another occasion, at The Oval, Ephraim Lockwood who was fielding long-stop said, Nay, George, Ive been behind thee for twenty-three overs and had nowt to stop. Im off where theres summat to do, Pinder died in January 1903 in Hickleton, Yorkshire, aged 61
4.
Cricket
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Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket at each end. One team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a number of overs have been completed, the innings ends. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, at the start of each game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play. The striker takes guard on a crease drawn on the four feet in front of the wicket. His role is to prevent the ball hitting the stumps by use of his bat. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the end of the pitch near the bowler. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces him, the bowlers objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. An over is a set of six deliveries bowled by the same bowler, the next over is bowled from the other end of the pitch by a different bowler. If a fielder retrieves the ball enough to put down the wicket with a batsman not having reached the crease at that end of the pitch. Adjudication is performed on the field by two umpires, the laws of cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council and the Marylebone Cricket Club. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball. Although crickets origins are uncertain, it is first recorded in south-east England in the 16th century and it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the mid-19th century. ICC, the governing body, has over 100 members. The sport is followed primarily in Australasia, Britain, the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa, womens cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. A number of words have been suggested as sources for the term cricket, in the earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598 it is called creckett. One possible source for the name is the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, in Samuel Johnsons Dictionary, he derived cricket from cryce, Saxon, a stick
5.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club
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Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, England. The team competes in the Championship, the tier of the English football league system. Formed as an offshoot of The Wednesday Cricket Club in 1867, in 1868 they won the Cromwell Cup, only the second tournament of its kind, and in 1877 they won the inaugural Sheffield Challenge Cup, the oldest county cup in England. They were founding members and inaugural champions of the Football Alliance in 1889, in 1992 they became founder members of the Premier League. The club has spent most of its history in English footballs top flight. The Owls, as they are nicknamed, have won four league titles, Wednesday have also competed in UEFA cup competitions on four occasions, reaching the quarter-finals of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1963. Since 1899 the club has played its matches at Hillsborough stadium. Although no contemporary evidence has found to support the claim. Nevertheless, an 1842 article in Bells Life magazine states the club was founded as far back as 1816, the club was so named because it was on Wednesdays that the founding members had their day off work. They were initially based at the New Ground in Darnall, and often went by the name of Darnall Wednesday, in 1855 they were one of six clubs that helped build Bramall Lane, and held a wicket there for many years. The proposal proved very popular, with over 60 members signing up for the new team on the first night and they played their first match against The Mechanics on 19 October the same year, winning by three goals and four rouges to nil. On 1 February 1868, Wednesday played their first competitive match as they entered the Cromwell Cup. A week after their semi-final, they went on to win the cup, beating the Garrick club in the final after extra time, a key figure during the formative years of the football club was Charles Clegg, who joined the Wednesday in 1867. His relationship with the club lasted for the rest of his life and he also became president and chairman of the Football Association, and was known as the Napoleon of Football. In 1876 Wednesday acquired Scot James Lang, although he was not employed by the club, he was given a job by a member of the Sheffield Wednesday board that had no formal duties. He is now acknowledged as the first professional player in England. With Lang in their team the club became one of the strongest in the region. In 1880 the club entered the FA Cup for the first time, but although they had had Lang on their books a decade earlier, the club officially remained staunchly amateur, and this stance almost cost the club its very existence
6.
Sheffield Cricket Club
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The Sheffield Cricket Club was founded in the 18th century and soon became important to the development of cricket in northern England. It was the forerunner of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and some of the teams fielded by Sheffield were styled Yorkshire. Sheffield generally held important match status, depending on the quality of their opponents, the earliest known references to cricket in Yorkshire are in 1751. These relate to local matches in Sheffield and to a game on or soon after Monday,5 August at Stanwick, near Richmond, between the Duke of Cleveland’s XI and Earl of Northumberland’s XI. It is believed that Sheffield Cricket Club was founded soon after that date and it began to play matches against teams from northern towns. Sheffield quickly became the centre for cricket in Yorkshire. In September 1757, a match took place between Wirksworth and Sheffield at Brampton Moor, near Chesterfield and this is the earliest reference to cricket in Derbyshire. Mr White does not give the source from which he himself derived the information. On Tuesday,7 July 1761, the Leeds Intelligencer announced a game to be played at Chapeltown the following Thursday, on Thursday,5 September 1765, the London Chronicle reported a great match on Monday,26 August, Leeds v Sheffield at Chapeltown Moor, near Leeds. As this game was highly rated and was reported by a London newspaper, in August 1771, the first of many matches between Sheffield and Nottingham was held. This one took place on the Forest Racecourse at Nottingham and is the earliest known reference to cricket in Nottinghamshire and this match may tentatively be regarded as the beginning of county-level cricket in the north of England. The Sheffield club was representative of its county in a fashion to Nottingham. In 1772, the Daily Messenger carried reports of a match in Sheffield on Monday,1 June, the Sheffield club continued to play occasional important matches, mainly against other northern clubs. In September 1833 occurred the first use of Yorkshire as the name instead of Sheffield. This was in the Yorkshire v Norfolk match at Hyde Park, the great Fuller Pilch was still playing for Norfolk. Yorkshire was by now finding star players of its own, especially the fast bowling all-rounder Tom Marsden. Although the Sheffield and Manchester clubs had met previously, there was a significant development on 23,24 &25 July 1849 when the match was called Yorkshire versus Lancashire at Hyde Park. This was the first match to involve a Lancashire county team and also, therefore, in the winter of 1854, the club agreed to build a new ground on land near to Bramall Lane which they were to lease from the Duke of Norfolk for ninety-nine years
