On 25 August 1806 Edward Hayward Budd — eighteen years old and four years into his major-match career — scored 110 for the MCC against Middlesex at Lord's. It was his first major century, and the start of a thirty-year career as the most powerful straight hitter of the underarm era. Budd would, in the 1820s, regularly hit balls clear out of the Lord's ground.
Centuries in major cricket were rare in 1806; fewer than half a dozen are recorded for the season.
Budd had passed 50 four times in 1806 without converting. The MCC committee considered him overdue.
Budd had made his major-match debut in 1802 at the age of fourteen and had progressed steadily for four seasons. The August 1806 MCC v Middlesex match gave him his first century: 110 in three hours, scored chiefly through the off side and over the bowler's head. The Middlesex bowling included John Wells and Lord Frederick Beauclerk's lobs; Budd dismissed both with straight drives. The crowd was thin — late August was the back end of the London season — but the score was widely reported in the cricket press.
25 Aug 1806: Budd in at no. 4 with MCC 32 for 2
Reaches 50 in just over an hour
Drives Beauclerk straight for 4 to reach 100
Bowled by Wells for 110 attempting another straight drive
MCC win the match by an innings
1788
Budd born in London
1802
Major-match debut aged fourteen
25-26 Aug 1806
First major century — 110 for MCC v Middlesex
1820s
Renowned as the leading straight hitter at Lord's
1831
Final major match
Budd scored regular centuries through the next twenty years. By the early 1820s he was the most-feared straight hitter at Lord's.
The first century of one of the great Regency batting careers.
Budd is one of the central figures of the late underarm era. His 1806 century is the first of perhaps thirty in major cricket and the conventional starting line of his elite career.
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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.