The 1832 Lord's season was the most disrupted of the early Victorian period. London's first major cholera epidemic — which killed around 6,500 in the city between February and November — caused the cancellation of nearly half the scheduled fixtures. Crowd attendance at the matches that did take place was a fraction of normal. The season is the clearest measure of the impact of public-health crises on early Victorian cricket.
Cholera had reached London in February 1832 from the continent. By midsummer the epidemic was at its peak. The MCC committee voted to suspend non-essential fixtures from late June until early September. Of twenty-two scheduled major matches at Lord's, only twelve were played. Attendance at those that did take place was around a third of normal levels. Several professionals — including the young Fuller Pilch — refused to travel to London during the worst weeks.
Feb 1832
Cholera reaches London from the continent
Late Jun 1832
MCC suspends non-essential fixtures
Sep 1832
Fixtures resume
Nov 1832
Epidemic effectively ends — c. 6,500 dead
The 1833 season was a full one; cholera had largely passed by the spring. The 1849 cholera epidemic produced a similar but less acute disruption.
The clearest measure of a public-health crisis's impact on early Victorian cricket.
n/a
1831-03-09
On 9 March 1831 Thomas 'Old Everlasting' Walker — the most famous defensive batter of the Hambledon school and one of the last surviving regulars of the great 1780s side — died at Churt, Surrey, in his early seventies. With Beldham still alive but long retired, Walker's death effectively closed the personal lineage of Hambledon cricket as a presence in the contemporary game.
n/a
1831-11-05
On 5 November 1831 George Osbaldeston rode 200 miles on Newmarket Heath in 8 hours 42 minutes, using a string of relay horses, for a wager of 1,000 guineas. The ride was the most celebrated single sporting feat of the Regency era — repeating in equestrian form the 1818 pedestrian feat and confirming Osbaldeston as the most flamboyant amateur sportsman of his generation. He had been an MCC committee member since his 1828 reconciliation with Beauclerk.
n/a
1831-06-25
The earliest documented cricket match at Christ's Hospital School — the historic 'Bluecoat' charity school in central London — was a house fixture played in the summer of 1831. Cricket had been informal at Christ's Hospital from the late eighteenth century; the 1831 match is the earliest preserved with a full account in the school's surviving records.