Hoboken Elysian Fields — The First International Cricket Match, October 1859

American cricket, dominated by the St George's Club of New York and the Philadelphia clubs, had been organising international fixtures with Canada since 1844. The arrival of the strongest English side ever to cross the Atlantic was the natural extension of that tradition.

England arrived at Hoboken from Montreal on 1 October. The St George's club fielded an XXII drawn from the leading New York and Philadelphia cricketers. The match was played on three days; the daily crossing from Manhattan to Hoboken by steamer brought the crowds.

The Elysian Fields had been the home ground of the St George's Cricket Club of New York since the 1840s and was already famous in American sporting history as the site of the first organised baseball match in 1846. By 1859 it was the principal cricket venue in the New York area. The 3 October fixture was the high point of Parr's tour for the American press: a strong USA XXII, drawn from the Philadelphia and New York clubs, took on the visiting Englishmen. England batted first and made 156. The American XXII collapsed twice, dismissed for 38 and 54, the Englishmen winning by an innings and 64 runs. Wisden and Jackson did most of the bowling; Caffyn was the leading run-scorer. Crowds of around 7,000 a day were reported, with packed steamers crossing the Hudson from Manhattan. Among the spectators on day one was, by tradition, the future Wall Street figure J.P. Morgan, then 22. The match confirmed that even a strong American side fielding twenty-two could not bat against English roundarm; it also helped to expose the fact that American cricket, hitherto the dominant bat-and-ball game in the United States, was already being overtaken by baseball as the national sporting passion.

“England scoring 156 and dismissing the USA XXII for 38 and 54.”

England moved on to Philadelphia, where they won the next fixture by seven wickets. The American defeat at Hoboken did not damage the reputation of US cricket immediately, but the rise of baseball through the 1860s — accelerated by the Civil War — meant the Hoboken match was effectively the high-water mark of American cricket as a popular spectator sport.