On 24-25 August 1815, in a Middlesex v Epsom match at the new Lord's, the Surrey amateurs Felix Ladbroke and Frederick Woodbridge scored 116 and 107 respectively — the first centuries made on the third Lord's ground at St John's Wood. The match was an unremarkable end-of-season fixture, but the dual hundreds, on a pitch barely sixteen months old, showed that the new ground could yield big scores in a way that the old grounds had never reliably done.
The new Lord's had hosted its inaugural match in June 1814. Through the rest of that season and the early part of 1815 the pitch produced low-scoring matches characteristic of the period. By August 1815 the surface had matured.
Middlesex v Epsom was scheduled as one of six senior matches of the post-Waterloo recovery summer. Both sides were captained by gentleman amateurs of moderate prominence. The fixture was advertised in the Morning Post for one shilling entry.
Centuries in 1815 were rare. In all the cricket of the underarm era a hundred was an event, and centuries on Lord's grounds had been counted in single figures for decades. The new pitch at St John's Wood, however, had been laid down with care over the winter of 1813-14, and by August 1815 it had bedded down. Middlesex v Epsom was a low-key fixture between county-strength sides organised largely around the Surrey gentleman amateurs of the south London cricket clubs. Felix Ladbroke (1788-1869), a Surrey banker and member of MCC, and Frederick Woodbridge, a less prominent Epsom amateur, opened together for Epsom on 24 August. They put on a substantial partnership, with Ladbroke reaching 116 and Woodbridge 107. Both centuries were achieved in the same innings — only the second instance in cricket history of two batsmen from the same side scoring hundreds in the same innings, after a similar feat at Lord's old ground in the 1790s. Epsom won the match. The specific scoresheets are preserved in MCC records and were the subject of a Wisden retrospective in the 1880s.
24 Aug 1815: Match begins; Epsom bat first
Ladbroke and Woodbridge open for Epsom
Substantial opening partnership
Ladbroke reaches 116 — first century at the new Lord's
Woodbridge reaches 107 — second century in the same innings
25 Aug 1815: Match concludes; Epsom win
Both centuries recorded in MCC archives
Jun 1814
New Lord's opens
Summer 1815
Pitch beds down through the post-Waterloo recovery
24-25 Aug 1815
Ladbroke 116 and Woodbridge 107 for Epsom v Middlesex
1817
Lambert 107* and 157 for Sussex v Epsom — first twin centuries
Lambert's twin centuries for Sussex v Epsom in July 1817 — the first two centuries by a single batsman in a match — followed only two years later, on the same ground. The Lord's pitch had become the standard against which big scores were measured.
A modest match in itself, but the technical proof that the new Lord's pitch was capable of producing batting on a scale that earlier underarm grounds rarely allowed. The first centuries on a ground that has now seen ten thousand or more.
The 1815 Middlesex v Epsom match is the founding moment of high-scoring batsmanship at the modern Lord's. Every subsequent century on the ground — from W.G. Grace's 1896 hundred to the modern Test match scoreboards — descends from the technical possibility opened up by Ladbroke and Woodbridge.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.