After a thirteen-year gap forced by the Napoleonic War, the Gentlemen v Players match was revived at Lord's on 7-9 July 1819. The amateurs played the professionals on equal terms — eleven a side, no odds — and the Players won by six wickets. Lord Strathavon, a sponsor of the Players, captained them in person, apparently because he had placed a bet on his side and wanted to be sure of his money. The 1819 revival began the unbroken run of the fixture that would last until 1962.
Gentlemen v Players had been Lord Frederick Beauclerk's idea in 1806, partly as a way of testing whether the gentleman amateurs could compete on equal terms with the professionals. The thirteen-year gap had been caused entirely by the war: with so few senior matches at all, no one had wanted to commit the resources to a top-of-the-card fixture.
Strathavon's involvement was unusual but explained: he had placed substantial bets on the Players and wanted to be on the field to influence the outcome. The other Players were drawn from the strongest available professionals; Lambert's inclusion despite his MCC ban was permitted because the match's status as a sponsor's challenge fell outside the formal MCC fixture programme.
The Gentlemen v Players match had been inaugurated at Lord's old ground in 1806 with two fixtures, both won by the Gentlemen with the help of given men. The Napoleonic War had then suspended the series for thirteen years. The post-Waterloo recovery, the establishment of the new Lord's and the gradual return of senior fixtures from 1815 onwards made revival possible by 1819. The 6 July notice in the Morning Post advertised the match as 'Eleven Gentlemen of England against Lord Strathavon with Ten Players of England'. The Gentlemen included Lord Frederick Beauclerk (captain), E.H. Budd, William Ward and Benjamin Aislabie. The Players' side was led by Strathavon — a Scottish nobleman with a heavy financial interest in the outcome — alongside William Lambert (banned from MCC the previous year but allowed to play here under the unusual format), Lord Frederick Bentinck, John Bennett, Tom Beagley, Tom Howard and several Surrey and Hampshire professionals. The match began on 7 July. The Gentlemen batted first and scored 254. The Players replied with 217. In the second innings the Gentlemen made 173, leaving the Players 211 to win. They got there with six wickets in hand, anchored by Beagley. Strathavon's bet was won. The fixture was reinstated as an annual one and from 1820 became an automatic feature of the season.
6 July 1819: Match advertised in the Morning Post
7 July 1819: Match begins at Lord's
Gentlemen 254 in their first innings (Beauclerk anchoring)
Players 217 in reply
Gentlemen 173 in their second innings
Players reach the target of 211 for four wickets
9 July 1819: Players win by six wickets
1820 onwards: Fixture becomes a permanent annual at Lord's
Jul 1806
First two Gentlemen v Players matches at old Lord's
1807-1818
Fixture suspended by Napoleonic War and post-war recovery
6 Jul 1819
Match advertised in the Morning Post
7-9 Jul 1819
Players win revival match by six wickets
1820
Fixture becomes annual
1962
Final match; amateur status abolished
The Gentlemen v Players match continued without significant interruption until 1962, when the abolition of amateur status in English cricket ended the contest. Through 274 matches over 135 years it was, in H.S. Altham's phrase, 'the high-water mark of English cricket' for much of the nineteenth century. Beauclerk, Ward, Pilch, Mynn, the Graces, Hayward, Hobbs and Bradman all played in it.
The bridge match between the pre-war and post-war eras of senior cricket. The Players' victory restored the contest to a balance — the Gentlemen had won both 1806 matches with given professionals — and confirmed the fixture as cricket's most important domestic occasion.
The 1819 revival is treated as the founding match of the modern series. Strathavon's gambling arrangement, while embarrassing in retrospect, was characteristic of the betting world in which Regency cricket operated. The fixture defined the social structure of English cricket for almost a century and a half.
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.