On 19 May 1806 Lord Frederick Beauclerk — Regency cricket's swaggering amateur — posted an open single-wicket challenge at Lord's: he would play any man in England for 50 guineas a side. The challenge was nailed to the pavilion door and ran in the cricket press for three weeks. Beldham accepted, and the resulting match in June became one of the famous fixtures of the season.
Single-wicket challenges had previously been arranged privately. Beauclerk's posted form made them public and competitive.
Beauclerk was twenty-eight, in his cricketing prime, and famously confident. The May 1806 challenge — issued in writing to the MCC committee and posted publicly — invited any single opponent to play him for 50 guineas a side. Beldham, who needed the money, accepted within three days; the match was set for 9 June (the fixture covered in batch 2). The challenge form became Beauclerk's regular method of arranging single-wicket matches for the rest of his career.
19 May 1806
Beauclerk posts open challenge at Lord's
22 May 1806
Beldham accepts
9 Jun 1806
Match played, Beauclerk wins
The institutionalisation of the open single-wicket challenge — Beauclerk's signature method.
The open challenge format spread through Regency cricket. Beauclerk issued similar challenges almost every season until 1820.
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1811-07-04
The 1811 Lord's season was the leanest of the Middle Ground years. With the Napoleonic blockade at its tightest, willow scarce, professionals diverted to militia service and the betting public's purses thin, only fourteen major matches were played at Lord's all summer. The 1811 season is the clearest measure of cricket's wartime contraction.
Officers vs Civilians
1812-12-15
By the close of 1812 cricket was being played regularly in both Madras and Bombay — the earliest documented fixtures in either Presidency. Garrison officers and civilian East India Company servants ran the matches; the Madras Gazette and Bombay Courier preserved the earliest scoresheets. The Calcutta game (documented 1804) had been joined by all three Presidency capitals.
Kent vs MCC
1813-09-09
On 9-10 September 1813 Kent played the MCC at the Vine, Sevenoaks — the first post-war major match at the historic Kent ground and the start of the Vine's revival as a regular major venue. The Vine had hosted little major cricket since 1808; the September 1813 fixture marked its return to the front rank.