On 7-9 July 1806 a 'Grand Match' between the Gentlemen and the Players was played at Thomas Lord's first ground at Dorset Square — the inaugural fixture of what would become the longest-running representative match in cricket. The Gentlemen, captained by Lord Frederick Beauclerk and aided by two professional 'given men', William Lambert and Billy Beldham, beat the Players by an innings and 14 runs. The series ran continuously until January 1963 — 156 years.
Cricket in the early nineteenth century was a hierarchical game. The Gentlemen were amateur aristocrats and gentry — Beauclerk, E.H. Budd, the Earl of Winchilsea — while the Players were professional cricketers, drawn mainly from Hampshire, Kent and Surrey villages. The two groups played for the same teams routinely, and a match between them was a natural showcase of the social order. Derek Birley credits Beauclerk himself with the idea, though Thomas Lord and the Earl of Strathavon were also involved.
The match was promoted partly to advertise the Lord's Old Ground, partly as a high-stakes 1,000-guineas wager. The Gentlemen knew they could not field eleven amateurs strong enough to compete, hence the request for given men.
The match was advertised in The Morning Post on Monday 7 July 1806 as a 'Grand Match' between 'Nine Gentlemen with Wells and Lambert, against Eleven of England, for 1000 Guineas a side'. The teams that took the field differed slightly from the announcement: John Wells did not appear and Billy Beldham was given to the Gentlemen in his place. Lord Frederick Beauclerk captained the Gentlemen; Lambert (then 27) and Beldham (40) were the strongest professional cricketers of their day, drafted in to balance the sides. The Gentlemen scored 195 in their only innings, with Beauclerk top-scorer; the Players were dismissed for 69 and 112, losing by an innings and 14 runs. Beldham scored 16, took three catches and bowled William Fennex. A second match was played on 21 and 25 July (with an unscheduled break in the middle), this time with Beldham in the Players' team but Lambert retained for the Gentlemen; the Gentlemen won that one too. Because the Gentlemen had been given the two best professionals in the country, the victory was seen as something of a hollow triumph and the fixture lapsed for thirteen years before being revived in 1819. From 1822 it was played annually, sometimes more than once a season, until the formal abolition of amateur status in English cricket on 26 November 1962. The last match was played in September 1962 and the fixture was formally abolished by MCC in January 1963.
7 Jul 1806: Match begins at Lord's Old Ground for 1,000 guineas a side
Wells withdraws; Beldham given to Gentlemen as replacement
Lambert, the second professional given man, opens the bowling
Gentlemen 195 all out, Beauclerk top-scorer
Players 69 and 112 — innings defeat
9 Jul 1806: Gentlemen win by an innings and 14 runs
21 Jul 1806: Second match begins (with unscheduled break)
Gentlemen win the second match too
7 Jul 1806
First Gentlemen v Players match begins at Lord's
9 Jul 1806
Gentlemen win by innings and 14 runs
21 Jul 1806
Second match begins with Beldham now playing for Players
1819
Fixture revived after 13-year hiatus
1822
Fixture becomes annual
Sep 1962
Last Gentlemen v Players match played
Jan 1963
Fixture formally abolished by MCC
“A grand match between Nine Gentlemen with Wells and Lambert, against Eleven of England, for 1000 Guineas a side.”
Because the Gentlemen had needed two professionals to win, the fixture was discontinued. It was revived in 1819 with the format that became standard — straight Gentlemen v Players with no given men — and from 1822 became an annual or twice-annual fixture. By the late Victorian era it was the showpiece of the English domestic season.
A staged contest, hollowed by the use of given men, that nonetheless founded the most enduring representative fixture in English cricket.
The Gentlemen v Players fixture ran for 156 years and 274 first-class matches, finally abolished in January 1963 when the MCC ended the formal amateur-professional distinction. It produced some of the great innings and bowling performances of the W.G. Grace, Hobbs, Hammond and May eras. The 1806 match is the disputed but recognised starting line of the whole series.
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.