On 15 June 1807 Christ Church played Magdalen College at Bullingdon Green outside Oxford — the earliest documented inter-college cricket match in the history of Oxford University. The fixture is the foundation entry of Oxford cricket and the earliest documented use of Bullingdon Green, the common ground that served as Oxford's principal cricket venue for the first half of the nineteenth century.
Oxford had informal cricket from at least the 1730s. The 1807 Christ Church v Magdalen match is the earliest with documentary evidence of formal organisation.
Cricket at Oxford, like Cambridge, had been played informally through the eighteenth century. The June 1807 fixture is the earliest with surviving documentation, recorded in the journal of a Magdalen undergraduate named Henry Cotton. He notes that Christ Church won by 22 runs and that the match was played on Bullingdon Green, a common to the south-east of the city. The Bullingdon Club — later notorious as a dining society — took its name from the same ground.
15 Jun 1807
Christ Church v Magdalen at Bullingdon Green
1827
First University Match: Oxford v Cambridge
1881
University Parks ground formally established
Inter-college cricket at Oxford grew steadily. The first University Match against Cambridge came in 1827.
The earliest documented cricket at Oxford and the founding entry of Bullingdon Green's history.
Oxford University cricket descends from these earliest college matches. Bullingdon Green served as the principal venue until the University Parks were laid out in the 1860s.
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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.