On 11 July 1836 the first match between the North and South of England was played at Lord's. Conceived as a rival showcase to Gentlemen vs Players and a vehicle for the leading professionals, the fixture became an annual highlight of the English summer for the next forty years and was for much of the mid-Victorian period the most prestigious match in the calendar.
Professional cricket in the 1830s was structured around a small number of major fixtures: Gentlemen vs Players at Lord's, the great single-wicket challenges, and county matches arranged by patrons. The North-South divide existed in the press and in player engagements but had no representative match to anchor it.
The matches between Sussex and Yorkshire of the early 1830s, in which Lillywhite had bowled out the Marsden-led Sheffield batting more than once, had primed the public for a formal North v South contest. The MCC took the matter on at the start of the 1836 season.
By the mid-1830s the leading professionals in England were divided geographically into a Sheffield-led northern group (Marsden, Dearman, Wright, the Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire men) and a Sussex-Kent-led southern group (Lillywhite, Mynn, Pilch when not yet of Kent, the Sussex bowlers). The Gentlemen vs Players match showcased professionals against amateurs, but said nothing about the divide within the professional ranks. In 1836 the MCC and the leading promoters arranged a North v South match at Lord's, with both sides made up exclusively of professionals from their respective regions. The first fixture, played 11-13 July, drew a strong crowd and was won by the South thanks largely to Lillywhite's bowling and Pilch's batting. Mynn played for the South as well. The North fielded Marsden, Dearman, Tom Sewell senior, and the leading Nottinghamshire men. Over the rest of the decade and into the 1840s the match was played twice a year (one at Lord's, one in the north) and became an annual ritual; through the 1850s and 1860s it was, alongside Gentlemen vs Players, the most prestigious match in the English calendar. The fixture would only fade in the 1870s as county cricket and Test cricket took over the calendar.
11 Jul 1836: First North v South match begins at Lord's
South side: Lillywhite, Mynn, Pilch, Wenman, Box and other southern professionals
North side: Marsden, Dearman, Sewell senior, leading Notts and Yorkshire men
13 Jul 1836: South win by a substantial margin
1836-1880s: North v South played annually as a highlight of the season
11 Jul 1836
First North v South match begins at Lord's
13 Jul 1836
South win
1836-80s
Annual North v South fixture continues
“Lillywhite bowled with his usual accuracy, and the South soon got the upper hand.”
The fixture became an annual institution and helped to professionalise the geographical divide that would later become county cricket. It also gave rise to itinerant North and South 'All-England' touring elevens later in the 1840s. Through the mid-Victorian period it was a guaranteed crowd-puller.
The founding of an annual fixture that for forty years was, alongside Gentlemen vs Players, the high point of the professional cricket season.
North vs South is the ancestor of every regional representative match in English cricket — the Roses match (Yorkshire v Lancashire), the modern North v South Twenty20 trials, and even, indirectly, the Gentlemen v Players replacement of 1962. The 1836 inaugural fixture is one of the cornerstone dates of mid-Victorian cricket history.
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.