On 19-20 June 1816 the MCC played Hampshire at the new Lord's ground — the first fixture between the two sides since Hampshire's collapse as a major county in 1809. The match was raised by William Ward as a deliberate attempt to revive Hampshire cricket. MCC won by an innings, but the fixture marked the start of Hampshire's slow recovery as a recognised county side.
Hampshire had been the strongest county in English cricket through the Hambledon era (1772-1791). The 1809 collapse had ended the county's first great phase.
Hampshire had ceased to field a competitive major-county XI in 1809 with the close of the Hambledon era. By 1816 a new generation of Hampshire players — including James Aylward Junior and the young Lord Charles Russell — had emerged. William Ward, by then on the MCC committee, pushed for a revived Hampshire fixture. The June 1816 match was the result. MCC fielded full strength — Beauclerk, Lambert, Budd — and won by an innings. But Hampshire's score of 167 across two innings was respectable, and the fixture became annual.
1809
Hampshire ceases to field a competitive major XI
19-20 Jun 1816
First MCC v Hampshire fixture at new Lord's
1820s
Hampshire's slow revival continues
1863
Modern Hampshire CCC founded
Hampshire's slow revival continued through the 1820s. The modern Hampshire CCC was founded in 1863.
The starting point of Hampshire's nineteenth-century revival as a major cricket county.
The 1816 fixture is the conventional starting point of Hampshire's modern cricket history.
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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.