Regaled with a good dinner

foot of page Croydon v London | The challenge | Later matches

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Croydon v London

Teams called Croydon and London are first known to have met in 1707, when they played each other twice in three days, first at Duppas Hill in Croydon, and then at Lamb's Conduit Field in Holborn. The results are unknown, and there is no certainty that either team represented a club of any kind. Croydon are then absent from the sources until re-emerging in 1731.

Ready to eat?

It's possible that some teams named Croydon at the time should really have been called Surrey, and vice-versa, but the Georgians didn't give a Clark Gable about nomenclature—they were only in it for the money. Wagers mattered, team names not a jot.

Obviously, though, we have to call each team something. On balance, it does seem that Croydon is the best choice for matches against London, and Surrey for matches against other counties, but who knows and who really cares?

That said, "Croydon" in 1731 played four matches, all against London, and won all four. They also won a match on Walworth Common in May 1732. The teams met twice in September 1733, first at Duppas Hill, and a return on the Artillery Ground. Both matches were drawn, the second one because of rain.

In 1734, Croydon won a match in late July at Duppas Hill. A return took place on the Artillery Ground on 1 August, and was won by London.

As best as I can understand it, the Croydon team were London's dinner guests after the second match. During the meal, arrangements were apparently made for a third match, presumably sometime in August. It is not known when or where this match was to take place, but Croydon did a "no show".

The challenge

Regaled?

In September, London issued a challenge to cricketers everywhere. This stated the club's intention: "to play with any eleven men in England, with this exception only, that they will not admit of one from Croydon (my italics)".

That was London's response to the non-appearance of Croydon for the match that had been arranged while Croydon were being "regaled with a good dinner"! There is no evidence that the challenge match was ever played.

The challenge was to "any eleven men in England" (excluding anyone from Croydon). Therefore, London wanted to play against a team representing the rest of England, although the limitations of both travel and the spread of top-class cricket at the time meant that "the rest of England" was effectively the Home Counties only.

So, if the challenge match did take place, it was possibly the earliest "All England" match. Personally, however, I would tentatively grant that accolade to Sir William Gage's Hampshire, Surrey & Sussex teams in 1729.

Later matches

There seems to have been a reconciliation during the close season, because the opening match of the 1735 season was between Croydon and London at Duppas Hill. It was played on Whit Tuesday (27 May), and The Weekly Register reported on the 31st that "London beat Croydon with very great ease".

The reconciliation may have been temporary, because it was not until July 1742 that the teams are known to have met again. Croydon had apparently faded from the scene, and are found in sources only occasionally after 1736, when they played three matches against Chertsey.

top of page Leviathan | A Wolf on the Fold

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Leviathan

foot of page Krakatoa was something else And so was WG | The Graces and the Pococks | The orchard | A littler bat A competitive streak | The local club | Up in the morning and out to school | The Doctor

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Krakatoa was something else

Krakatoa during its 1883 eruption

As I said at the outset, this blog is about the history of cricket. Generally, it's people who make history, and so the blog is also biographical. Indeed, you can't separate history from biography because you have to know what makes the people who make the history. Biography presents a challenge because of its inevitable focus on a single individual. So far, I've only made a single foray into biography, and that was about Francis Booker, of whom we know very little.

I say it is generally people who make history, but there are exceptions, of course.

These would include anything done by an animal without human direction. A classic example of that, if it were true, would be the story of Lupa, without whom there would have been no Roman Empire. Then there are things done by inanimate objects. What was the most famous apple in history? It has to be the one Isaac Newton saw as it fell near where he was sitting. More often, though, the exceptions arise from natural phenomena like hurricanes and tsunamis.

Perhaps the most historic of all non-human events occurred in Java at 10:02 am (local time) on Monday, 27 August 1883. It was 04:02 in Britain, as we're six hours behind Jakarta, so the greatest cricketer of all time was probably still fast asleep. Later that morning, after his breakfast, he walked onto the field at Clifton College to open the innings for Gloucestershire against Lancashire, and he scored 112 before he was caught and bowled by Frank Taylor.

So, if you've ever wondered what WG was doing when Krakatoa went BANG!!, now you know.

And so was WG

As far as history goes, Krakatoa certainly was something else. And so, in cricket, was William Gilbert Grace.

As I said, biography presents inevitable focus as its particular challenge, and here I'm taking on the big man himself, the most gargantuan character in all of cricket history, the leviathan.

Now, your typical blog edition is really just an article in size terms—perhaps 25kb in all. The best biography of WG is the one by Simon Rae, published in 1998, and simply called W. G. Grace. It runs to 492 pages of narrative, plus the extras like preface, statistical summary, bibliography, and index. That's a bit more than 25kb!

So, if I allow myself around 25kb to write about WG, what can I do? Well, he had a life outside cricket, so let's think about that, and keep first-class cricket in the background. Here goes.

The Graces and the Pococks

For starters, there was WG's family and his early years, which together gave substance to WG's own view that he was not "born a cricketer", but he was born "in the atmosphere of cricket".

Henry and Martha Grace—WG's parents

That happened on Tuesday, 18 July 1848 at his parents' home, Downend House, in the then-rural village of Downend in south Gloucestershire. His parents were Dr Henry Mills Grace (1808–1871) and Martha Grace (née Pocock) (c.1813–1884). Henry and Martha were married in Bristol on Thursday, 3 November 1831, and lived for the rest of their lives in Downend, where Henry was the local GP. Martha's brother was Alfred Pocock (1814–1897). Between them, these three forged the remarkable Grace brotherhood of cricketers. The Graces, quintessentially Victorian in so many ways, were a family of doctors and cricketers. Henry and Martha had nine children, the same number as Victoria and Albert, and WG was the eighth.

He was baptised at the local church on 8 August. In 1850, when he was two, the family removed from Downend House to a nearby property called The Chesnuts which remained the family home until WG's generation were all gone. Downend is near Mangotsfield and was, in 1848, about four miles from the outer fringes of Bristol. WG grew up in open countryside as Downend is another (like Islington) of those many places in England which echo the oft-heard nostalgic lament that "it were all fields round here". And so it was in the 19th century, but not any more—it's a suburb of Bristol. Downend House is still there but The Chesnuts is long gone, and its site is occupied by (splat!) a supermarket.

Fred Grace

WG became a great cricketer and a good doctor. He came to both callings via his family, and we need to examine this large and influential family. It's actually a tale of two families: the Graces and the Pococks.

Although he was always widely known by his initials, it is believed that his mother called him Willie and the rest of the family called him Gilbert. He had three older brothers, including the formidable "EM" (Edward Mills Grace, who was always called Ted in the family; 1841–1911), and four older sisters who were called Annie, Fanny, Alice, and Blanche.

The youngest was the talented but tragic Fred (1850–1880). The combination of EM, WG and Fred made Gloucestershire the best county team in England through most of the 1870s, a status that the club lost in the aftermath of Fred's early death in 1880, and has never since recovered. It was said of Fred in terms of Gloucestershire's decline that "the county was never the same without him". WG's other two brothers, Henry (1833–1895) and Alfred (1840–1916), also played cricket—but not for long, as their medical careers took precedence.

The orchard

The Chesnuts had an orchard, and cricket-loving Henry Grace, aided by his brother-in-law Alfred Pocock, had it cleared to create what became arguably the world's most famous practice pitch. WG's father Henry was a good organiser but, crucially, his uncle Alfred was an adept coach. The role of Martha cannot be understated either, as she provided the driving force and the motivation to the extent that all nine children, and their dogs, played cricket in the former orchard. The girls and the dogs were there only to field, it must be said!

WG claimed that Martha "knew how to play as well as any of them". He says at the start of his ghost-written work Cricket: "Respect for the truth prevents me from saying I played the first year of my existence, but I have little hesitation in declaring that I handled bat and ball before the end of my second".

Cricket may not have been in his blood, but it was always just outside the door at home. He learned how to bat and bowl in the orchard and he developed another skill nearby. Living in the country and to help local farmers, one of his pastimes was throwing stones at crows in the fields, and he always maintained that this was how he became a good thrower of the cricket ball.

A littler bat

Tom Emmett

On the coaching side, Alfred Pocock noted a problem with the older brothers which he resolved for WG and Fred. EM, seven years older than WG, always played with a full-sized bat and, because it was too big for him as a child, he did not learn to "play straight" until he was much older. Throughout his first-class career, EM was always inclined to play a cross-bat shot and hit "across the line". Realising this mistake in EM's technique, Pocock made small bats for WG and Fred so that they would learn to master orthodox defensive strokes by playing straight with the left shoulder well forward (the Grace brothers were all right-handed). They learned their attacking strokes later, having first acquired sound defensive technique.

WG and Fred had the same coaching and were equally talented. The difference between them was that WG was much more competitive with greater powers of concentration, and could play a long innings to amass a large score. Fred was unquestionably a top-class player, but he understandably did not have WG's level of resolve.

Years later, that great Yorkshire character Tom Emmett would ruefully comment that WG ought to be made to play with "a littler bat". I wonder if he actually knew that Uncle Pocock had agreed with him?

A competitive streak

Besides being taught the skills of the game, the Grace brothers were exhorted to be competitive and to achieve excellence. WG definitely achieved top marks in both disciplines for, as well as the excellence of his achievements, he was probably the most competitive player that ever strode onto a cricket field. The importance of this competitive streak that was shared by WG and his brothers cannot be understated. The Graces always played in a noisy, perhaps boisterous, atmosphere with incessant talking and shouting. It was not only encouragement but also something that the Victorians called "chaffing" and this, being "the act of mocking, teasing, or jesting in a good-natured way", was somewhere between banter and the modern blight of so-called "sledging" (i.e., being childish and stupid), but far closer to banter than to the other. Having always played like this among themselves, the Grace brothers carried it forward into first-class cricket and, whenever EM and WG were batting or fielding together, they hardly ever kept quiet (Fred seems to have been less demonstrative by nature). It was all part of what we now call gamesmanship and its purpose was to distract the opposition. Gamesmanship and money-making went hand in hand where EM and WG were concerned.

Wilfred Rhodes in 1900

There was an underlying philosophy, of course, one with which any Yorkshireman would readily agree: there is no point in playing any game unless you play to win. It is one of the paradoxes of WG's career that he chose amateurism over professionalism when the choice was there: the majority of amateurs were of the "I say, old chap, do play up and play the game" public school persona. They weren't all like that: Stanley Jackson, for example, was one of the greatest amateurs (Harrow, Cambridge, MCC president, and what have you) but he was first and foremost a Yorkie. He played to win, and only to win. WG was not a public schoolboy, though many said he was an "overgrown schoolboy", and his idea of being an amateur was to win and to make money, perhaps not necessarily in that order but, then again, probably so.

It is interesting that WG's last Test match was Wilfred Rhodes' first. Except that Wilfred was an honest professional, WG had much more in common with Wilfred than he had with any amateur; not least that they were, with Gary Sobers, two of the three greatest all-rounders of all time. Oh, and received wisdom is that Wilfred always played to win, too!

The question is how far you go in your determination to win if you find that the opposition is a tough nut to crack: do you just try harder; or do you act in a way that pushes the rules and the spirit of the game to breaking point; or do you actually cheat? There were times, especially in matches against Australian teams, when it could be said that WG went Beyond a Boundary, so to speak (that's a brilliant book, by the way), and certainly the Australians thought so. This intense competitiveness and determination to win, perhaps not at ALL costs, was instilled into him and his brothers in the orchard at "The Chesnuts" by a team of three very determined individuals: his father, his mother, and his uncle.

The local club

West Gloucestershire Cricket Club at Knowle Park, Almondsbury in July 1866. Back row (L to R): Rev. H. W. Barber, Dr H. M. Grace, H. Grunning, Alfred Pocock. Middle row (L to R): W. G. Grace, Henry Grace, E. M. Grace, Alfred Grace. Front row (L to R): F. Baker, W. J. Pocock, Fred Grace, R. Brotherhood. Five brothers and their uncle all in the same team. WG was then 18 and already a star player; but no beard yet.

In order to be competitive, you have to be involved in matches, and the brothers played for a local club in which their father and uncle were keenly involved. In 1845, three years before WG was born, Henry Grace founded Mangotsfield Cricket Club which, a year later, was merged into West Gloucestershire Cricket Club. All five Grace brothers joined West Gloucestershire and played for its team. Simon Rae commented that the Graces "ran the West Gloucestershire almost as a private club". Given their flair for organisation and promotion, that is surely fair comment. The outstanding club team in the West Country was Lansdown in Bath, and the Graces challenged Lansdown when possible, but West Gloucestershire came off second best. On the "if you can't beat 'em" principle, Henry Grace and Alfred Pocock decided to join Lansdown, but they continued to run West Gloucestershire as their primary club.

Up in the morning and out to school

Discussing WG's school days, Simon Rae described him as "notoriously unscholarly". Even so, WG did have an education, and he eventually qualified as a physician and medical practitioner. His actual qualifications, gained in 1879 when he was 31, were Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MCRS) and Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians (LCRP).

He first attended school in Downend with a teacher called Miss Trotman, and was then taught in nearby Winterbourne by a Mr Curtis. It's not clear when he was at these two schools but his third was a place called Ridgway House, and he was there until 1863 when he was 14 going on 15. WG was taken seriously ill with pneumonia and his father withdrew him from Ridgway. When he recovered his health, two things happened. One was that he shot up to his full height of 6 ft 2 in, and the other was that his education continued at home.

WG with Agnes, c.1900

Two of WG's teachers became his brothers-in-law: David Barnard from Ridgway married Alice; and the Reverend John Dann, the local curate who taught WG at home, married Blanche. Annie also married, but Fanny remained single and lived at The Chesnuts for the rest of her life. WG's elder brothers all married, but Fred, who was 29 when he died, did not.

WG himself was married on 9 October 1873 to Agnes Nicholls Day (1853–1930), who was his first cousin once removed. Their honeymoon was the 1873–74 tour of Australia, and Agnes was six months pregnant when they returned in May 1874. They had four children, but lost their only daughter Bessie, aged 20, to typhoid in 1899; and their eldest son William Gilbert junior, aged 30, to appendicitis in 1905.

Marriage did not place much distance between the family members as, until WG and Agnes moved to London in 1900, they all stayed in Gloucestershire (the four sisters all in Downend), and Rae compared them with Tom Brown's family in Tom Brown's Schooldays as they were "constantly visiting each other".

The Doctor

Regardless of how good a cricketer he became, WG was destined for a career in medicine, like his father and his elder brothers before him. He received overtures from both the Oxford and Cambridge universities. Oxford tried to win him over when he played a match there in 1866. Cambridge tried a more subtle approach in 1868 when Caius College approached him, carefully chosen because of its medical reputation. The Oxford and Cambridge cricket clubs were very strong in the days of what Derek Birley called the "Amateur Ambuscade". If one of them had managed to sign WG, and then perhaps Fred as well, they could easily have been fielding the best team in England.

Henry Grace, however, would not allow his sons to go to university, and WG began his medical studies in October 1868, when he was 20, by enrolling at Bristol Medical School. He later studied in London at St Bartholomew's Hospital and Westminster Hospital Medical School. He was a late qualifier because so much of his time had been taken up by his cricket career. He seems to have become a good doctor, however. He set up a practice in Easton, one of the poorer areas of Bristol, employing locums during the cricket season, and when he went on a winter tour. Although WG was notorious for his unscrupulous money-making in cricket, he was the opposite in medicine as there are plenty of testimonies from poor families which confirm that "his bills would never arrive".

WG practised at Easton until he and Agnes left Gloucestershire in 1900 to live at Mottingham in south-east London, where he died on 23 October 1915.

top of page A Conduit from Hambledon to Marylebone | Regaled with a good dinner

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A Conduit from Hambledon to Marylebone

foot of page A grand match will be played | It were all fields round here | Je ne sais quoi... | Matches Finale

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A grand match will be played

Déjà Vu! The plaque is in Dorset Square, to commemorate the original Lord's ground.

On Saturday, 19 May 1787, a London newspaper called the Morning Herald carried a now-historic notice to announce:

"A grand match will be played on Monday, 21 May in the New Cricket Ground, the New Road, Mary-le-bone (sic), 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, and the match to be played out".

The match was not reported afterwards, but the notice tells us all we need to know. As G. B. Buckley said, it was "apparently the first match to be played on Thomas Lord's new ground".

It's a little ironic that what was then called the New Cricket Ground is now known as Lord's Old Ground! It was in use from 1787 to 1810 when, because of a rent dispute, Lord upped sticks (and his turf!) to open his Middle Ground at North Bank. He had to quit that one in 1813 because it was on the route of the Regent's Canal. The present Lord's in St John's Wood opened in 1814.

Okay, so that was the future of the ground, but what about the teams in this "grand match"? We may assume the players were all members of the jolly good chap fraternity apart, perhaps, from the two given men. And one of those two could well have been Thomas Lord himself! It's no surprise that one of the teams should be a Middlesex combination, but what was the White Conduit Club?

Well, although short-lived, White Conduit was one of the most significant clubs in cricket history. It bridged the gulf between the rural and rustic Hambledon era, and the new, modern, metropolitan era of Marylebone Cricket Club and Lord's, the two entities that it spawned. In Scores & Biographies, Arthur Haygarth commented: "There are only a few recorded matches of the White Conduit Club. The Marylebone Club was formed in 1787 from its members. The date of the formation of the White Conduit could not be found". We still don't know exactly when it was formed, but probably in 1782.

It were all fields round here

White Conduit House in the early 18th century

Islington nowadays is a built-up area north of the City of London, and very much a part of the metropolis. Until the 19th century, it was a separate place altogether, a rural community well known for their vegetables. Major construction work gathered pace from about 1820, and Islington ended up as yet another inner city district. During the 18th century, White Conduit Fields was a popular sporting venue, known to have been used for cricket as far back as 1718, when a match there resulted in an infamous court case over unpaid gambling debts. The fields lay behind White Conduit House, which was a sort of fresh-air recreation centre or holiday retreat that catered for people wanting a break from the daily grind of life in London. A 1754 advertisement actually mentions that it had a cricket field, in addition to a fishpond, and milk direct from the cow!

The house and fields are long gone, but we know the house was where Barnsbury Road meets Dewey Road in modern Islington. There's a pub there now. The cricket field is believed to have been within the bounds of Barnsbury Road (west), Tolpuddle Street (south), and Liverpool Road (east). A northern boundary is difficult to ascertain. The whole area has been built on, so there aren't any fields round there any more.

Je ne sais quoi...

It literally means "I don't know what", and it's supposed to be complimentary—as when you say that someone like an attractive woman, maybe, has a certain "je ne sais quoi". In 18th century London, there was a convivial club of sorts called the Je-ne-sais-quoi. It was based in the West End, and may have been a precursor of, or at least affiliated to, the Star and Garter. That was the club, at its meeting place on Pall Mall, which drafted the earliest written Laws of Cricket in 1744, and again in 1774.

There's a very good book by Pelham Warner called Lord's 1787–1945 (1945). In this, he cites an earlier work by A. D. Taylor (1903), and says the White Conduit Club was formed in 1782 as an offshoot of the Je-ne-sais-quoi, some of whose members took to frequenting White Conduit House and playing their matches there in the adjoining fields.

Thomas Lord

It was nominally an exclusive club that only "gentlemen" might play for, but it did employ professionals, and one of these was the bowler Thomas Lord. Another was the famous batsman Billy Beldham, who told James Pycroft, author of The Cricket Field (1851) that, in 1785, his farming employer concluded a deal with Winchilsea to allow Beldham time off from his agricultural duties to go to the "new cricket ground" at White Conduit Fields, and play for Hampshire against an England XI. The score of this match has evidently been lost because there is no trace of an England v Hampshire game at White Conduit Fields in or about 1785. Beldham is known to have played for an England XI against White Conduit at Lord's in 1787. Although his match for the club can't be found, it's interesting that Beldham described the ground at White Conduit Fields as "new". It was by no means a new venue, but perhaps a different part of the fields had been designated for use by the club.

It remains an enigma, but there is little doubt that Je-ne-sais-quoi was a reincarnation of the long-standing "noblemen's and gentlemen's club" that had fingered several pies through the 18th century. As well as drafting the Laws of Cricket, the same people were involved in the organisation of prizefighting and horse racing. In the latter context, it was they who formed the Jockey Club in 1752.

These people had been the mainstay of the old London Club which played at the Artillery Ground. When that fell into disrepute, and the Hambledon glory days began, many of the members joined the Hambledon Club, but still hankered for a suitable base in the London area. White Conduit Fields was ideal in many respects except, as we shall see, that it did not afford sufficient privacy for the "honourable gentlemen". The prime movers in this shift back to London, which marked the end of the Hambledon Era, were George Finch, who was the 9th Earl of Winchilsea; and Colonel Charles Lennox, who became the 4th Duke of Richmond.

So, White Conduit led the sport out of Hambledon, and then relocated it in Marylebone.

Matches

George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea

Even if it was founded in 1782, there were no reports naming the club until 1785. There were, however, three events on the fields in 1784 which must have featured the club's team or its players. The first two of these were eleven-a-side matches on 22 and 27 May; the third was a single wicket match on 20 July. The first match went under the title of "A great Cricket Match", with no team names. The result is unknown, and a brief newspaper report says only that the the match was played near White Conduit House "by the Cricket Club of Noblemen & Gentlemen at Willis's". There is a sentence about so-called dignitaries in attendance, and then it concludes with: "Lord Winchilsea the best bat, Col. Tarleton the best bowler".

The game on 27 May was "A grand Cricket Match" (is grand better than great?). Again, it was almost certainly a White Conduit match against unknown opponents. A report names eight players as "the Duke of Dorset, Lord Winchilsea, Lord Talbot, Col. Tarleton, Mr Howe, Mr Damer, the Hon. Mr Lennox and the Rev. Mr Williams". It says nothing of the play but does tell us that a pavilion was erected for refreshments, and that a number of ladies attended!

The single wicket event in July was between Colonel Tarleton and Captain Monson. It was "determined in favour of the latter". Afterwards, a seven-a-side match was played, evidently a time-filling friendly, and it featured a partnership of 116 between Colonel Lennox and Captain Monson.

In 1785, White Conduit was named at last, and played two matches against the Gentlemen of Kent. The first was on 20 June at Sevenoaks Vine and reported as: "A grand match of cricket between 11 gentlemen of the White Conduit Club, London, against 11 gentlemen of Kent, which was won by the latter, by 104 runs". The return was in Islington ten days later, and White Conduit won by 304 runs.

There were two matches in 1786, both against Kent, and these were definitely top-class. The first was in Islington over three days from 22 to 24 June, the return at Bishopsbourne Paddock over five days from 8 to 12 August. The teams in White Conduit's home match were evenly split between amateurs and professionals, five of the former and six of the latter. White Conduit had six given men who were all leading professionals: Lumpy Stevens (Chertsey), John Small, Noah Mann, Tom Taylor, Tom Walker, and Richard Purchase (all Hambledon). The amateurs were all reasonably good players: Winchilsea, Lennox, George Monson, John Dampier, and George Boult. The two legends, Lumpy and Small, were 51 and 49 by this time, but they were still formidable opponents, as Kent would find out. Kent had only one given man: Richard Francis of Hambledon. Their other five pros were all Kent players: James Aylward, William Bullen, Joey Ring, Robert Clifford, and John Boorman. The Kent amateurs, who were arguably a notch or two better than the White Conduit ones, were Edward Hussey, Richard Hosmer, Richard Stanford, Stephen Amherst, and Isaac Hatch.

So, two very good teams assembled on White Conduit Fields, and they produced an evident nail-biter of a contest over the three days of play. We only know the scorecard details, plus Haygarth's wry comment that these were not in batting order because they named the amateurs first. White Conduit batted first and made 103 (Taylor 33). Bullen and Clifford took two bowled wickets each, and the other six were all catches credited to the fielder alone. In reply, Bullen and Hosmer scored 26 apiece, and Kent made 121 for a first innings lead of 18. Lumpy bowled two, and Purchase one; plus six catches and a run out. In the second innings, "star of the first magnitude" Small made the highest score of the match, which was also his age. He scored 49, and was then one of three bowled out by Clifford. Small may have had some support from Monson, who scored 26 before he was caught by Clifford. Boorman took one wicket, and there were six catches.

Map of Islington in 1805. Note the cricket field, centre left, and White Conduit House directly below it.

This left Kent needing 105 to win, and I suppose they would have been expected to get them, but Lumpy thought otherwise. He bowled four of the Kent amateurs, including the two highest scorers Hosmer (25) and Stanford (21). Bullen scored 19 but Kent didn't make it. They were all out for 100, and White Conduit won by five runs.

The match at Bishopsbourne was much less of a contest, and White Conduit won by 164 runs. Even so, there was almost a piece of history there because the dogged and stubborn Tom Walker, known as "Old Everlasting", fought his way to scores of 95* and 102. He was that close to becoming the first batsman ever to score two centuries in a match. In the second innings, he was outscored by his Hambledon colleague Tom Taylor, who made 117. The centuries by Walker and Taylor are the first known instance of two players scoring centuries in the same match, let alone the same innings. Although it cannot be confirmed, it is possible they shared a 200-plus partnership. These were the third and fourth centuries in recorded top-class cricket, following the previous hundreds by John Small and James Aylward, who were both playing in this game.

White Conduit again had six professionals as given men, but with one massive difference in that Richard Purchase stepped aside for the great David Harris. Again, we don't know who was bowling when the catches were held, but Harris bowled three out in the first innings, and three more in the second, so he took at least six wickets in the match. White Conduit, batting first, scored 183 and 296. Kent in reply made 218 and 97.

As we have already seen, White Conduit played against Middlesex at the original Lord's ground in May 1787, the first match known to have been played there. Thomas Lord was possibly involved as one of the given men. He was a professional bowler of some repute, which is why White Conduit employed him, but he was also known for his business acumen. White Conduit may well have continued to play in Islington, but for the fact that the fields were an open area of common land. To the consternation of the jolly good chaps, this meant members of the hoi polloi could venture into the area, including the rowdier elements. Bad show, what!

As must be expected, people watching the matches began to voice their opinions on the play and the players. Given that the club was "gentlemen only", and its team was therefore lacking quality, most of the off-field comments were, well, negative and sometimes abusive. The chappery were were not amused by such home-truths, and decided to look for a more private venue of their own. This was where Lord came into his own.

MCC logo today

Not wishing to soil their own hands in dealing with land agents and the like, Winchilsea and Lennox commissioned Lord to find a new ground and offered him a guarantee against any losses he may suffer in the venture. So Lord took a lease from the Portman Estate on some land at Dorset Fields in Marylebone, where Dorset Square is now sited. Lord ultimately used his business abilities to become a successful wine and provisions merchant, but he is remembered for his cricket grounds.

Since the ground was in Marylebone, the WCC on relocating there decided to call themselves Marylebone Cricket Club, although the exact date is unknown. 1787 is the accepted year given the golden jubilee of the club in 1837. It should really have been the golden jubilee of Lord's only for that was new, although its location had changed twice by 1837. MCC, as noted above, was not a new club at all. It was a long existing club that had relocated to Marylebone, and had then changed its name to match its new location.

The first known match played by this club under its new name took place at Lord's on Monday, 30 July 1787. According to The World dated Friday, 27 July 1787:

"On Monday, 30 July will be played (at Lord's) a match between 11 gentlemen of the Mary-le-bone Club and 11 gentlemen of the Islington Club".

This was the first time that mention was made of "the Mary-le-bone Club". Ironically, given that MCC ensured tighter organisation of the sport from then on, including diligent record-keeping, the scorecards of the two historic inaugural matches (the first-ever at Lord's and the first-ever involving MCC) have not survived.

The White Conduit Club disappeared in the aftermath of MCC's founding, and the fields also disappeared under increasing urbanisation as London grew to swallow Islington whole. For the record, White Conduit is known to have played at least eleven matches between 1785 and 1788. The last, ironically, was on 27 June 1788 against MCC at Lord's Old Ground. The White Conduit team contained several unknown players. MCC won by 83 runs, and White Conduit played no more. Having said that, it's possible that a remnant of the club continued to play at White Conduit Fields for a time.

Finale

The following made the most appearances for White Conduit Club in its seven matches from which the scorecards have survived:

apps	name	teams
7	George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea	MCC
6	Sir Peter Burrell	Kent
	John Dampier	White Conduit only
5	Gilbert East	Berkshire
4	G. Drummond	Surrey
	Richard Newman	MCC, Essex, Kent
	George Talbot	MCC
	J. Wyatt	Essex
3	Colonel Charles Lennox	MCC
	John Peachey	White Conduit only
	Lumpy Stevens	Chertsey, Surrey
	Tom Taylor	Hambledon, Hampshire
	Tom Walker	Hambledon, Hampshire, Surrey

The opening of Lord's and the foundation of (or reorganisation of the club as) MCC in 1787 ended what H. T. Waghorn called "The Dawn of Cricket". Cricket's day had begun. The small but great rural clubs like Dartford, Chertsey, Addington, Slindon, and Hambledon were forced to stand aside as progress swept the game beyond their horizons. 1787 was the first great watershed in the game's history, and White Conduit provided the route along which it flowed from Hambledon to Marylebone.

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