First Gentlemen vs Players Match Won by the Players — 1836

Gentlemen vs Players had been the showpiece since 1806. Through the 1820s the Players had usually been handicapped (fewer batsmen, or providing the Gentlemen with a 'given man' bowler). By the mid-1830s the strength of the professional ranks made the handicap absurd, and the match was reformed.

Gentlemen vs Players, the showcase fixture of the English summer since 1806, had originally been arranged with handicapping rules that gave the amateurs a chance: the Players might field only nine men, or the Gentlemen might be allowed to use a paid bowler ('a given man') as their professional. Through the 1820s the Gentlemen had won the match more often than not under these conditions. By the mid-1830s the leading professionals — Lillywhite, Pilch, Mynn, William Cobbett, Tom Marsden, Tom Box behind the stumps — were so much stronger than the amateurs that the handicapping became indefensible. From 1836 the match was played eleven-a-side with no given men, both sides at full strength. The Players, fielding the strongest professional eleven the country could put together, won at Lord's on 4-5 July 1836 by a substantial margin. Lillywhite's bowling and Pilch's batting were the leading contributions. The result inaugurated a long period of professional dominance: the Players would win Gentlemen vs Players matches more often than they lost for the next thirty years, and the fixture would only be evened up by the rise of W.G. Grace in the late 1860s.

The Players won 27 of the 41 Gentlemen vs Players matches played between 1836 and 1865. Only the rise of W.G. Grace, who in 1869 made centuries in both Gentlemen vs Players matches of the season, levelled the contest again.