The 1850s

Cricket controversies from 1850 to 1859

18 incidents documented

George Parr's 130 — Only First-Class Century, Notts v Surrey, the Oval, July 1859

Nottinghamshire vs Surrey

1859-07-14

On 14 July 1859 the Nottinghamshire captain George Parr — the 'Lion of the North' and Clarke's heir as captain of the All-England Eleven — scored 130 against Surrey at the Oval. It was the only first-class century of his career, and a public confirmation that he was now the leading professional batsman in England, the man widely held to be the best cricketer in the world in his prime.

#george-parr#century#oval

⭐Mild

The Parr Tree at Trent Bridge — The Elm Hit for Six for 28 Summers

Nottinghamshire and All-England Eleven home matches

1859-08-01

An elm tree standing inside the boundary at Trent Bridge on the Bridgford Road side became the most famous tree in cricket because George Parr — the dominant Nottinghamshire batsman from the late 1840s to the late 1860s — habitually hit it for six with his trademark leg-side sweep. Parr's Tree stood for more than a century until it was felled by gales at New Year 1976; a branch had earlier been laid on Parr's coffin in 1891.

#parr-tree#trent-bridge#george-parr

⭐Mild

George Parr's Twelve to North America — The First Overseas Cricket Tour, September-October 1859

George Parr's English XII vs USA and Canadian sides (XXII)

1859-09-07

On 7 September 1859 twelve professional English cricketers, captained by the Nottinghamshire batsman George Parr, sailed from Liverpool on the SS Nova Scotian for the first overseas cricket tour in history. Between 24 September and 14 October they played five matches in Canada and the United States — Montreal, Hoboken, Philadelphia, Hamilton and Rochester — winning every one against odds of 22, and laying the foundation for every overseas tour that followed.

#1859-tour#george-parr#north-america

⭐Mild

Hoboken Elysian Fields — The First International Cricket Match, October 1859

England (Parr's XII) vs XXII of the United States

1859-10-03

On 3-5 October 1859 the second match of George Parr's North American tour was played at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, the home ground of the St George's Cricket Club of New York. England, fielding twelve, beat XXII of the United States by an innings and 64 runs in front of large daily crowds, in what is recognised as the first international cricket match of any kind on US soil.

#hoboken#elysian-fields#first-international

⭐Mild

Tom Lockyer — Surrey's Premier Wicketkeeper and the Greatest of the Roundarm Era

Surrey and All-England elevens

1859-07-01

Tom Lockyer of Croydon kept wicket for Surrey from 1849 to 1866 and was, in the unanimous opinion of his contemporaries, the greatest wicketkeeper of the roundarm era. He took 301 catches and made 123 stumpings in 223 first-class matches, was a member of every important touring side of his time — the 1859 North America tour, the 1861-62 and 1863-64 Australian tours — and bowled useful right-arm medium-fast roundarm in his later seasons.

#tom-lockyer#wicketkeeper#surrey

⭐Mild

Alfred Mynn — The Lion of Kent's Final Season, 1859

Kent and various sides

1859-08-31

The 1859 season was the final first-class summer of Alfred Mynn, the Lion of Kent — a 22-stone right-arm fast-roundarm bowler and powerful hitter who had been a household name since the 1830s. Mynn played his last serious cricket at the age of 52, two years before his death; his career closed at the same moment that Parr's twelve sailed for North America and the post-Mynn generation took the game overseas.

#alfred-mynn#lion-of-kent#1859

⭐Mild

H.H. Stephenson — Surrey Professional Who Would Captain the First Australia Tour

Surrey and All-England elevens

1859-08-01

Heathfield Harman Stephenson, a surgeon's son from Esher, made his Surrey debut in 1853 and through the second half of the 1850s established himself as one of the leading professional all-rounders in the country — a fast-roundarm bowler, occasional wicket-keeper and capable middle-order batsman. He toured North America with Parr in 1859 and would, two years later, captain the first English tour of Australia.

#hh-stephenson#surrey#1850s

⭐Mild

William Caffyn — The Reigate Professional and Surrey's Star All-Rounder of the 1850s

Surrey and United All-England Eleven

1858-08-15

By the late 1850s the Reigate-born William Caffyn had emerged as the leading all-rounder in the strongest county side in England, scoring runs in the middle order for Surrey and bowling effective right-arm medium-fast roundarm. Caffyn was on the 1859 North America tour, both 1860s Australian tours, and after emigrating in 1864 became the foundational professional coach of Australian cricket.

#william-caffyn#surrey#1850s

⭐Mild

All-England Eleven v United All-England Eleven — The First Annual Fixture, Lord's, June 1857

All-England Eleven (AEE) vs United All-England Eleven (UAEE)

1857-06-01

On 1-3 June 1857 the All-England Eleven and the United All-England Eleven met for the first time at Lord's, the boycott of the previous five years lifted by William Clarke's death the previous August. George Parr's AEE beat John Wisden's UAEE; the fixture became the most heavily attended annual match in English cricket and continued every summer until 1869.

#aee#uaee#lord-s

⭐Mild

John 'Foghorn' Jackson — 8 for 20 for North v South, 1857

North vs South

1857-07-13

The Nottinghamshire fast bowler John Jackson, nicknamed 'Foghorn' for the loud nose-blow with which he marked every wicket, took eight for 20 for the North against the South in 1857 and confirmed his reputation as the most prominent fast bowler in England. Jackson would become the dominant pace bowler of the late 1850s and early 1860s and the foremost roundarm 'demon' before overarm was legalised.

#john-jackson#foghorn#north-v-south

⭐Mild

Victoria v New South Wales — The First Inter-Colonial Match at the MCG, March 1856

Victoria vs New South Wales

1856-03-26

On 26-27 March 1856 the Melbourne Cricket Ground hosted its first inter-colonial fixture, between Victoria and New South Wales. NSW won by three wickets in front of a crowd of around 5,000 — among them many gold-rush emigrants. The match opened the Vic-NSW rivalry that would, with the Sheffield Shield from 1892-93, become the spine of Australian first-class cricket.

#intercolonial#victoria#new-south-wales

⭐Moderate

William Clarke's Death — End of the Founder of the All-England Eleven, 25 August 1856

n/a

1856-08-25

William Clarke, the Nottinghamshire slow underarm bowler who founded the All-England Eleven in 1846 and turned professional touring cricket into a paying business, died on 25 August 1856 at Priory Lodge, Wandsworth Road, London, of paraplegia. He was 57. His death ended the four-year boycott of the United All-England Eleven and opened the way for the AEE v UAEE annual match that would shape the next decade of English cricket.

#william-clarke#all-england-eleven#death

⭐Mild

Surrey's 21-Year Oval Lease and Champion County Years — F.P. Miller's Captaincy, 1855

Surrey CCC

1855-04-01

In 1855 Surrey County Cricket Club secured a fresh 21-year lease on the Kennington Oval, the market-garden site they had occupied since 1845. Under their amateur captain F.P. Miller — first elected to lead the side in 1851 — Surrey would be acclaimed Champion County in 1850, 1854, 1856 and 1857 and recognised as the leading side again in 1858, 1859 and 1864, dominating the decade through professional strength and Miller's tactical command.

#surrey#the-oval#fp-miller

⭐Mild

The Melbourne Cricket Ground Hosts Its First Match — 30 September 1854

Local Melbourne Cricket Club fixture

1854-09-30

On 30 September 1854 the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the future cathedral of Australian cricket, hosted its first match. The Melbourne Cricket Club, displaced from its previous home by Australia's first steam railway line, had been granted a fresh ten-acre site in Yarra Park the year before. The ground would within a generation become the most important cricket venue in the southern hemisphere.

#mcg#melbourne-cricket-ground#1854

⭐Mild

Fuller Pilch — The Greatest Batsman Before Grace — Retires from First-Class Cricket, 1854

Kent and various sides

1854-08-31

Fuller Pilch, the Norfolk-born professional batsman who had moved to Town Malling in Kent in 1835 and become the leading run-maker in England for nearly two decades, played his last serious cricket in 1854 at the age of 50. Pilch was widely regarded as the best batsman in the world before W.G. Grace; his patient forward play — the famous 'Pilch poke' — was the bridge between the rough-pitch hitters of the early nineteenth century and the technical batsmen of the Victorian era.

#fuller-pilch#retirement#1854

🥊Moderate

Wisden and Dean Break Away — The Founding of the United All-England Eleven, 1852

United All-England Eleven (UAEE) split from All-England Eleven (AEE)

1852-08-07

In August 1852, John Wisden of Sussex and Jemmy Dean of Surrey, the two leading professional cricketers in the south of England, broke from William Clarke's All-England Eleven over Clarke's autocratic management and the meagre share of takings he allowed his players. With several discontented colleagues they founded the United All-England Eleven, which from 1857 would meet the parent AEE every summer in fixtures that drew the largest crowds in English cricket.

#united-all-england-eleven#uaee#aee

⭐Mild

Van Diemen's Land v Port Phillip — The First First-Class Match in Australia, February 1851

Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) vs Port Phillip (Victoria)

1851-02-11

On 11-12 February 1851, eighteen years before the Federation that would create modern Australia, teams representing the colonies of Van Diemen's Land and Port Phillip met at the Launceston Racecourse for what is now reckoned the first first-class cricket match played on Australian soil. About 2,500 spectators watched William Henty open the bowling underarm to Duncan Cooper; Van Diemen's Land won by three wickets.

#first-first-class-australia#tasmania#victoria

⭐Mild

John Wisden's Ten Wickets All Bowled — North v South, Lord's, 1850

North vs South

1850-07-15

Bowling for the South against the North at Lord's in July 1850, the Sussex fast-roundarm bowler John Wisden — the diminutive 'Little Wonder', barely 5'4" tall — clean-bowled all ten North batsmen in the second innings. It is the only first-class instance in cricket history of all ten wickets in an innings being taken bowled, and the bedrock of the reputation that would, fourteen years later, attach his name to cricket's most famous publication.

#john-wisden#ten-wickets#all-bowled