David Harris (English cricketer)
David Harris was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1782 to 1798. He made 79 known first-class appearances and was associated with Hampshire when its teams were organised by the Hambledon Club; as well as playing for Hampshire, Harris appeared for a number of other teams including Berkshire, Surrey, Marylebone Cricket Club and several invitation XIs. Noted for his fast and accurate bowling, Harris was a right arm fast underarm bowler and a left-handed batsman. Born c. 1755, Hampshire, The earliest known mention of David Harris occurs in a minor match at Odiham on 27 May 1782 when he played for Alresford and Odiham against a Hampshire County XI. He played for Odiham again in October 1782 in a match against a Berkshire XI, when another Odiham player in the game was one T. Harris. Harris' first recorded game for Hampshire was against Kent on 3–5 July 1782, a match which featured the known debut of Kent's Joey Ring. Although he was never noted as a batsman, Harris made the top score of 27 in Hampshire's first innings, in which they were dismissed for 87.
Harris played three times for Hampshire in the 1783 season, twice against Kent and once against All-England. He took nine wickets in these matches. Harris is only recorded once in 1784. In 1785, when few first-class matches took place, Harris played for Berkshire against Essex. On 13 July 1776, Harris had his best known performance to date when he took four 1st innings wickets for Hampshire v. Kent at Windmill Down, Hampshire winning the game by 1 wicket; this was the match in which Tom Sueter was given out hit the ball twice, the earliest recorded instance of this form of dismissal. On 8–12 August of the same year, Harris played for the White Conduit Club against Kent at Bourne Paddock and took six wickets in the match, three in each innings, to help White Conduit to a 164 run victory. White Conduit's big win was due to Tom Walker and Tom Taylor becoming the first players known to score a century in the same innings. Walker made 95* and 102, just missing the honour of becoming the first player to score two centuries in a match.
Playing for Sir Horatio Mann's XI against the Earl of Winchilsea's XI at the new Lord's Old Ground on 26–28 May 1788, Harris took 10 wickets in the match with 4 in the 1st innings and 6 in the 2nd. But it was to little avail. By now, Harris' reputation was well established and he played in major matches into the 1790s, he was a frequent taker of wickets and again took ten in a match on 30–31 August 1790 when he guided Hampshire to a 10-wicket win against All-England at Lord's Old Ground. On 15–17 August 1792, Harris had the best known return of his career when he took 11 wickets in the match for Hampshire against Kent at Cobham Park, including eight in the first innings. Hampshire won by 8 wickets, his career was ruined by attacks of gout and Harris played his final match on 13–15 August 1798 for All-England v. Surrey at Lord's Old Ground, he took five wickets in the 1st innings and his last, subject to the batting order, was when he bowled W Wells for 5. He scored 0* in his final innings and his team won the match by an innings and 1 run.
He died 19 May 1803, Crookham Village, Hampshire Harris was rated by his contemporaries John Nyren, who called him "the best bowler. Nyren described Harris' technique in some detail. Harris began from an erect stance "like a soldier at drill" and raised the ball to his forehead before stepping forward. In his delivery stride, he brought the ball from under his arm "by a twist" and nearly as high as his armpit. With this action he would "push it, as it were, from him". Nyren says the speed of the delivery was "extraordinary" and that he could not understand how Harris managed to achieve such speed; some line drawings of Harris and other players of the 1790s have survived. Harris is shown in the characteristic pose described by Nyren as he began his action, standing erect with the ball raised over his head; the ball when delivered was pitched fast and accurately. Harris seems to have got "pace off the pitch" and Nyren has recorded that numerous batsmen received nasty injuries to their unprotected hands from balls that trapped their fingers against the bat handle.
Like Thomas Boxall and the brothers Tom and Harry Walker, Harris used to practice his bowling in a barn during the winter. Harris was born at Elvetham but moved when still a child to Crookham, where he lived for the rest of his life, he never was a potter by trade. Nyren, who knew Harris described him as "a muscular, bony man, standing about five feet 9½ inches". Nyren remarked on Harris' personality and looks by saying he had "a remarkably kind and gentle expression" and an "honest face". Harris, said Nyren, was "a man of so strict a principle" and "such high honour". Harris suffered from gout in his years and the sources have recorded how he would arrive at a game on crutches and sit on a chair between deliveries, he was unable to play after 1798 and "latterly, in fact, was quite a cripple". He was buried at nearby Crondall, though no tombstone was erected. David Harris at ESPNcricinfo G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935 Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 1, Lillywhite, 1862 Ashley Mote, The Glory Days of Cricket, Robson, 1997 John Nyren, The Cricketers of my Time, Robson, 1998 James Pycroft, The Cricket Field, Longman, 1854 David Underdown, Start of Play, Allen Lane, 2000 H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
Hambledon Club
The Hambledon Club was a social club, famous for its organisation of 18th century cricket matches. By the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England; the origin of the club, based near Hambledon in rural Hampshire, is unclear but it had been founded by 1768. Its basis was a local parish cricket team, in existence before 1750 and achieved prominence in 1756 when it played a series of three matches versus Dartford, which had itself been a major club for at least 30 years. At this time, the parish team was sometimes referred to as "Squire Land's Club", after Squire Thomas Land, the main organiser of cricket teams in the village before the foundation of the club proper. Thomas Land seems to have withdrawn from the scene in about 1764, it is believed. Land was interested in hunting and maintained a pack of hounds that earned him recognition as "one of the most celebrated fox-hunters in Great-Britain". Land is mentioned in the Hambledon Club Song written by Reverend Reynell Cotton in about 1771.
Cotton was not too concerned about Land having left the club: Then why should we fear either Sackville or Mann, Or repine at the loss of both Bayton and Land? From the mid-1760s, Hambledon's stature grew till by the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England. In spite of its relative remoteness, it had developed into a private club of noblemen and country gentry, for whom one of cricket's attractions was the opportunity it offered for betting. Although some of these played in matches, professional players were employed; the club produced several famous players including John Small, Thomas Brett, Richard Nyren, David Harris, Tom Taylor, Billy Beldham and Tom Walker. It was the inspiration for the first significant cricket book: The Cricketers of My Time by John Nyren, the son of Richard Nyren; the Hambledon Club was social and, as it was multi-functional, not a cricket club as such. Rather it is seen as an organiser of matches. Arguments have taken place among historians about whether its teams should be termed Hampshire or Hambledon.
A study of the sources indicates that the nomenclature changed and both terms were applicable. The subject is complicated by a reference to the Kent versus Hampshire & Sussex match at Guildford Bason on 26 and 28 August 1772. According to the source, "Hampshire & Sussex" was synonymous with "Hambledon Club". Sussex cricket was not prominent during the Hambledon period and this could have been because Hambledon operated a team representing two counties. There were Sussex connections at Hambledon such as John Bayton, Richard Nyren, William Barber and Noah Mann. In 1782 the club moved from its original ground at Broadhalfpenny Down to Windmill Down, about half a mile away towards the village of Hambledon; the Bat and Ball Inn had been requisitioned as a munitions dump by the military, Windmill Down provided as an alternative. However, after a couple of seasons playing on the steep sloping and exposed new ground the club agitated for a move to a more suitable location and Ridge Meadow was purchased as a permanent replacement.
Ridge Meadow is still the home of Hambledon C. C. today. Hambledon's great days ended in the 1780s with a shift in focus from the rural counties of Kent and Hampshire to metropolitan London where Lord's was established as the home of the new Marylebone Cricket Club in 1787; however for the decade up to 1793, Hambledon remained a meeting place for like-minded Royal Navy Officers such as Captains Erasmus Gower, Robert Calder, Charles Powell Hamilton, Mark Robinson, Sir Hyde Parker and Robert Linzee. In May 1791 Lord Hugh Seymour became president of the Club but soon afterwards these officers all returned to sea. Membership declined during the 1790s. On 29 August 1796, fifteen people attended a meeting and amongst them, according to the official minutes, was "Mr Thos Pain, Authour of the rights of Man"! It was a joke for Thomas Paine was under sentence of death for treason and exiled in revolutionary Paris; the last meeting was held on 21 September 1796 where the minutes read only that "No Gentlemen were present".
The club had a famous round of six toasts: 6. The Queen's mother 5, her Majesty the Queen 4. The Hambledon Club 3. Cricket 2; the Immortal Memory of Madge 1. The President; the enigmatic "Madge" is a "what", not a "who". Indeed, it is believed to be a common, but crude, contemporary reference to the vagina. A description of the revival and, the whole history of the Hambledon Club can be read in The Glory Days of Cricket by Ashley Mote; the original ground is at Broadhalfpenny Down, opposite the Bat and Ball Inn, in Hyden Farm Lane, near Clanfield, where now the Broadhalfpenny Brigands Cricket Club play. The current Hambledon Cricket Club ground is nearer Hambledon village at Ridge Meadow, just off the road to Broadhalfpenny Down, about half a mile from the village. On Saturday 8 September 2007 the clubhouse was burnt to the ground. Mote, Ashley; the Glory Days of Cricket. Robson. Nyren, John. Ashley Mote, ed; the Cricketers of my Time. Robson
Thomas Lord
Thomas Lord was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1787 to 1802. He made a brief comeback, playing in one further match in 1815. Overall, Lord made 90 known appearances in first-class cricket, he was associated with Middlesex and with Marylebone Cricket Club as a ground staff bowler. Lord is best remembered as the founder of Lord's Cricket Ground. Lord was born in Yorkshire, in what is now the town museum, his father was a Roman Catholic yeoman, who had his lands sequestered for supporting the Jacobite rising in 1745 and afterwards he had to work as a labourer. The Lord family moved to Diss, where Thomas Lord was brought up. Once he was out of childhood, Lord moved to London and got a job as a bowler and general attendant at the White Conduit Club in Islington. Lord is known to have begun playing about 1780 but his first recorded game was on his "own ground", now referred to as Lord's Old Ground, at the current site of Dorset Square on 31 May 1787 when he played for Middlesex v. Essex.
Lord has never been given much credit as a player but the match records of the 1790s indicate that he was a good bowler, although it is true that his opposition was not always of the highest standard. In 1786 Lord was approached by George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, who were the leading members of the White Conduit Club, they wanted Lord to find a more private venue for their club and offered him a guarantee against any losses he might suffer. In May 1787, Lord started his first ground. White Conduit relocated there and soon afterwards formed, or merged into, the new Marylebone Cricket Club; the lease on the first ground ended in 1810 and Lord obtained an eighty-year lease on two fields, the Brick and Great Fields at North Bank, St John's Wood. The second venue, now referred to as Lord's Middle Ground, was built by 1809 when the first games were played there by St John's Wood Cricket Club; this was merged into MCC who relocated to the Middle Ground in 1811.
In 1813 Parliament requisitioned the land for the Regent's Canal, cut through the site, thereby necessitating a further move. Lord moved his ground to the present site in St John's Wood taking his turf with him, it opened in 1814. Lord was not, making enough money and therefore obtained permission to develop part of the ground for housing, a move which would have left only 150 square yards of playing area. To counter his plan, Lord was bought out for £5,000 by prominent MCC member William Ward, a noted batsman, a director of the Bank of England. Despite the change of ownership, the ground has continued to bear Lord's name. Lord remained in St John's Wood till 1830 when he retired to West Meon in Hampshire, where he died in 1832, his son Thomas Lord, born in Marylebone on 27 December 1794, was a first-class cricketer. Thomas Lord is buried in the churchyard of St John's Church at West Meon; the village has a public house named after him and is just a few miles from Hambledon, home of the famous Hambledon Cricket Club.
From Lads to Lord's – profile at the Wayback Machine Cricinfo page on Thomas Lord CricketArchive MCC site Harry Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1, George Allen & Unwin, 1926. Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999. Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970. Samuel Britcher, A list of all the principal Matches of Cricket that have been played. G. B. Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935. H. T. Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906. Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 1, Lillywhite, 1862. John Major, More Than a Game: the story of cricket's early years, Harper Collins, 2007. Lord's 1787-1945 by Sir Pelham Warner ISBN 1-85145-112-9
George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea
George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, was an important figure in the history of cricket. His main contributions to the game were patronage and organisation but Winchilsea, an amateur, was a keen player. Finch served with the 87th Foot at the time of the American Revolutionary War from its formation in 1779 to its disbanding in 1783, with the temporary ranks of major and lieutenant-colonel. Finch was the son of William Finch, in turn the second son, by his second marriage, of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, Charlotte Fermor, daughter of Thomas Fermor, 1st Earl of Pomfret, his sister was Sophia Finch. His father died in 1766 and he inherited the Winchilsea title in 1769 from his childless uncle, Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea and 3rd Earl of Nottingham, together with his estate at Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland. In the 1770s Finch was in Florence as appears as one the recognisable people on the right hand side of Johann Zoffany's painting the Tribuna of the Uffizi. A. A. Thomson wrote that Winchilsea "would go anywhere for a game of cricket".
He was prolific and is one of the most recorded players of the 18th century, though he was far from being among the best and was 33 when he was first recorded in a senior match. He is known to have played in more than 130 top-class matches from 1785 to 1804, records of many other matches have been lost, his level of activity is matched by few of his contemporaries. Lord Frederick Beauclerk and George Louch were the only amateurs of the time as prolific as Winchilsea, but they were much better players because Winchilsea on the field was something of a liability, his known career batting average was a lowly single figure, despite using a bat that weighed 4 lb 2 oz. In about 1784, Winchilsea was one of the prime movers in the foundation of the White Conduit Club, so–called because it played on White Conduit Fields; this was ostensibly 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.
It was in 1785. 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 Colonel Charles Lennox commissioned 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 in Marylebone, where Dorset Square is now sited; the first known match began on Monday, 21 May 1787 and was between the White Conduit Club and Middlesex. This was Lord's first ground called the New Ground and, since it was in Marylebone, the WCC on relocating there decided to call themselves Marylebone Cricket Club; the Earl of Winchilsea was one of its early leading lights. Lord Winchilsea never married and died in 1826, his titles passed to his cousin's son George William Finch-Hatton.
His illegitimate son George Finch, to whom he left Burley House, became a politician. Buckley, G. B.: Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Haygarth, Arthur: Scores & Biographies, Volume 1. Mote, Ashley: The Glory Days of Cricket. Mote, Ashley: John Nyren's "The Cricketers of my Time". Thomson, Arthur Alexander: Odd Men In: A Gallery of Cricket Eccentrics. Waghorn, H. T.: The Dawn of Cricket
John Small (cricketer)
John Small was an English professional cricketer who played from about 1756 to 1798, one of the longest careers on record. Born at Empshott, Hampshire, he is regarded as the greatest batsman of the 18th century and acknowledged as having been the first to master the use of the modern straight bat, introduced in the 1760s, he scored the earliest known century in important cricket. He died at Petersfield, where he was in residence for most of his life and where he established businesses. Small was a influential player, involved in the creation of two significant permanent additions to the Laws of Cricket: the maximum width of the bat and the introduction of the middle stump in the wicket. Acclaimed as the greatest player associated with the famous Hambledon Club, Small is the first person known to have been described in literature in terms that attest him to have been a "superstar". In 1997, he was named by The Times as one of its 100 Greatest Cricketers of All Time. Small was a playing member of Hambledon during its years of greatness and it was because of him that Hambledon was such a famous club.
He was playing for Hambledon in 1764 and his name is found in the club's scorecards right up to 1798 when he was over 60. Knowledge of the early years of his career are sketchy due to the lack of detailed records before scorecards became common from 1772, but it is believed he began playing in top-class cricket during the 1750s and may well have taken part in the earliest known Hambledon matches, a tri-series against Dartford in 1756; the earliest definite mention of Small dates from the 1764 season when Hambledon played three matches against Chertsey. In August 1768, Small scored more than 140 runs for Hambledon against Kent at Broadhalfpenny Down; this was a feat unheard of at that time but it is not quite clear from the original source if it was in one innings or his match total. Only a week playing for Hambledon against Sussex at Broadhalfpenny Down, Small scored "about four-score notches... and was not out when the game was finished", Hambledon winning by 7 wickets. On 31 July and 1 August 1769, Hambledon won by 4 wickets.
A contemporary report in the Reading Mercury states that "the utmost activity and skill in the game was displayed by each individual through the whole course of this match, but the batting of Messrs Small and John Bayton on the Hambledon side". Small was involved in one of the most controversial incidents in early cricket history when Hambledon played Chertsey at Laleham Burway on 23 & 24 September 1771. Hambledon won the match by 1 wicket, it was in this game that Chertsey's Thomas White used a bat, as wide as the wicket in an attempt to force an issue about the width of the new straight bats that had replaced the old curved sticks. Whether, White's intention is unclear but his action ensured that a new rule was passed which limited the width to 4.25 inches. This rule supported a written motion presented by Hambledon bowler Thomas Brett, counter-signed by club captain Richard Nyren and senior batsman Small; the original of Brett's memorandum, bearing Small's signature, is maintained by Marylebone Cricket Club in its museum at Lord's.
The production of match scorecards became common from the 1772 season and three 1772 cards have survived. Small played in all three matches and was the season's highest runscorer with 213 in his six innings; the only other player to exceed 100 was William Yalden who made 136 in six innings. In the first match of the season, Small scored 78 for Hampshire against All-England out of a team total of 146. In the second innings, he scored 34 out of 79 and his team won by 53 runs, an illustration of his enormous value to Hampshire, his innings of 78 was the highest individual score recorded to that time. Although higher scores such as Richard Newland's 88 in 1745 and Small's own 140-plus in 1768 have been mentioned in the sources, it is not clear if those were made in one innings or if they were match totals. Small's 78 is therefore the startpoint of the progressive world record for the highest individual innings in senior cricket. Small's 1772 aggregate of 213 runs from six innings would give him an average of 35.50 if all his innings were completed.
This may seem low by modern standards but it has to be remembered that prevailing pitch conditions were such that "the scoring potential of the 18th century batsman was only about 30% of the 20th or 21st century batsman". 18th century pitches were exposed to the elements, underwent rudimentary preparation and were not flat: Lumpy Stevens in particular was a master at selecting one in which there was a distinctive brow or ridge that would enable him to bowl "shooters". Small has been recorded in a number of single wicket matches but he seems to have been less successful in this form of cricket than in the eleven-a-side version, he did have one single wicket innings, of enormous significance in the evolution of the sport because it led directly to the introduction of the third stump to what had always been a two-stump wicket. The match in question took place at the Artillery Ground on 22 & 23 May 1775 between Five of Kent and Five of Hambledon. Kent batted first and made 37 to which Hambledon replied with 92, including 75 by Small, that being his highest known score in a single wicket match.
In their second innings, Kent scored 102. Small needed 14 more to win when he went in, he duly scored the runs and Hambledon won by 1 wicket b
Pelham Warner
Sir Pelham Francis Warner and better known as Plum Warner or "the Grand Old Man" of English cricket, was a Test cricketer and cricket administrator. Warner was born in Port of Trinidad, his mother, Rosa Cadiz, was of his father of an English colonial family. He was educated at Harrison College, sent to England to Rugby School and Oriel College, Oxford; as a right-hand batsman, Warner played first-class cricket for Oxford University and England. He played 15 Test matches, captaining in 10 of them, with a record of won 4, lost 6, he succeeded in regaining The Ashes in 1903–04, winning the series against Australia 3–2. However he was less successful when he captained England on the tour of South Africa in 1905–06, suffering a resounding 1–4 defeat, the first time England had lost to South Africa in a Test match, he was to have captained England on the 1911–12 tour of Australia, but fell ill. He was unable to play in any of the Tests, with Johnny Douglas taking over the captaincy, he is the only batsman to carry his bat through the innings in his first Test match.
He was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1904 and in 1921, making him one of two to have received the honour twice. The second award marked his retirement as a county player after the 1920 season, in which he captained Middlesex to the County Championship title. In the mid-1920s he was Chairman of Selectors, in 1926 during industrial strife served as a Special Constable, he did not, play in another first-class fixture until 1926–27, when he captained a Marylebone Cricket Club side to Argentina, in which the four representative matches against the host nation were accorded first-class status. MCC scraped a win in the series with one match drawn, he played one more first-class match, in 1929 for the MCC against the Royal Navy. After retiring as a player, he became a tour manager, most notably on the infamous "Bodyline" tour of Australia in 1932–33, he was the chairman of the England Test selectors for several years in the 1930s. He became President of the Marylebone Cricket Club, he was knighted for his services to cricket in 1937.
Warner wrote extensively on cricket. He detailed his Ashes Tests and a history of Lord's Cricket Ground, he founded The Cricketer magazine. He was cricket correspondent of the Morning Post from 1921 to 1933, subsequently of the Daily Telegraph, he married Agnes in the summer of 1904 and had two sons and John, a daughter, Elizabeth. He died, aged 89, at West Sussex, his brother Aucher Warner not only captained the first combined West Indies side in the West Indies during the 1896–97 season but the first West Indian touring side to England in 1900. Marina Warner and mythographer, is his granddaughter. Media related to Pelham Warner at Wikimedia Commons Cricinfo page on Plum Warner which includes the obituary from the 1964 edition of Wisden Cricketer's Almanack The Golden Age of Cricket 1890–1914 by David Frith, ISBN 0-907853-50-1 Pelham Warner at CricketArchive Pelham Warner at ESPNcricinfo Lord's 1787–1945 ISBN 1-85145-112-9
Lord's Old Ground
Lord's Old Ground was a cricket venue in London, established by Thomas Lord in 1787. It was used by Marylebone Cricket Club for major matches until 1810, after which a dispute about rent caused Lord to relocate; the first match known to have been played at Lord's Old Ground was White Conduit Club v Middlesex on Monday 21 May 1787. The first regular cricket fixture at Lord's which continues today was the annual Eton v Harrow match, first played on the Old Ground in 1805; the inaugural Gentlemen v Players match took place at the Old Ground in July 1806. Lord's Old Ground was on the site of. Lord relocated in 1811 to Lord's Middle Ground, a site at Lisson Grove in the vicinity of Regent's Park but he lost that venue after only three years because the land was requisitioned for a canal cutting. In 1814, he opened the present Lord's Cricket Ground a duckpond in St John's Wood. A commemorative plaque was unveiled in Dorset Square by Andrew Strauss on 9 May 2006. Lord's CricInfo's page on the original Lord's
