In April 1824 a group of Bath gentlemen founded the Lansdown Cricket Club, leasing a pitch on Lansdown Hill above the city. Lansdown CC is the oldest surviving cricket club in the south-west of England and one of the most important early West Country institutions. The club was, in due course, a key formative ground for W.G. Grace.
Cricket in Bath had been played informally since the eighteenth century. The April 1824 founding gave the city its first formal club. The Lansdown ground — on the high ground above the Royal Crescent — was leased from a local landowner. The club drew its membership from Bath's professional and merchant class. By the 1850s Lansdown was the leading West Country club; W.G. Grace's father became a member, and the young Grace played there as a boy in the late 1850s.
Apr 1824
Lansdown CC founded
1850s
W.G. Grace plays at Lansdown as a boy
1864
Grace's first-class debut
Present
Lansdown CC remains in continuous operation
Lansdown CC remains in continuous operation. The club's connection to the Grace family makes it one of the most historically significant West Country cricket institutions.
The founding of organised cricket in the West Country — and a thread in the early formation of W.G. Grace.
Modern Somerset and Gloucestershire cricket descends, in part, from these early Lansdown matches. W.G. Grace's earliest formal cricket was at Lansdown.
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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.