The Final Gentlemen v Players Match — Lord's, September 1962

The distinction between amateur and professional had been fudging for two decades. Several 'gentlemen' captains in the 1950s received regular county payments disguised as expenses. The MCC's belated recognition of this reality ended a system that had become indefensible.

The Gentlemen v Players fixture had been a cornerstone of the English cricket calendar since 1806, played at Lord's and occasionally at The Oval and Scarborough. The match formally embodied the class distinction that had run through English cricket: amateurs (the Gentlemen) were listed in scorecards by initials and surname — 'E.R. Dexter' — while professionals (the Players) were listed by surname alone — 'Trueman'. They used separate dressing rooms, separate entrances at Lord's and separate lunch tables. By the early 1960s this distinction had become an anachronism: several ostensible amateurs were receiving 'expenses' that amounted to salaries, while leading professionals like Trueman and Cowdrey's contemporaries were achieving social status far beyond the old class lines. The MCC committee met in November 1962 and voted to abolish the distinction from the start of the 1963 season. The September 1962 match, therefore, was the last. The Players won, as they had for most of the previous decade. Ted Dexter captained the Gentlemen; Fred Trueman and Tom Graveney were among the Players' leading figures. The match ended quietly — no great ceremonial farewell — but several of the participants recalled feeling that they were playing in the last minutes of a very long chapter.

“There were no speeches, no ceremony. We shook hands, changed, and it was over. It felt like the last day of school.”

From 1963, county scorecards listed all players by initials and surname. The separate dressing rooms and entrances at Lord's were abolished. Several counties appointed professional captains for the first time. The social change in cricket was profound and permanent.