On 22 August 1845, around a hundred Surrey cricketers met at the Horns Tavern in Kennington and resolved to constitute themselves as the Surrey County Cricket Club. The meeting confirmed the lease of a market garden at Kennington — what would become the Oval — and laid the foundations for one of the strongest first-class counties of the next two centuries.
The Montpelier Cricket Club had been the strongest Surrey side of the 1830s. When their Walworth ground was lost to housing in 1844, leading members began to look for a new venue capable of hosting major cricket. The Duchy of Cornwall's Kennington market garden — flat, well-drained, accessible by the new railways — was identified as ideal.
Through the spring and summer of 1845 the ground was turfed and a small pavilion built. Cricket was already being played on it before the formal foundation meeting in August.
The Montpelier Cricket Club, then Surrey's strongest, had lost its ground at Walworth in 1844 to housing development. William Baker, a member of Montpelier and the Surrey Club, identified a market garden owned by the Duchy of Cornwall at Kennington and persuaded the proprietor of the Horns Tavern, William Houghton, to take the head lease. Houghton agreed terms with the Duchy in March 1845 and a 31-year lease was signed at a rent of £120 a year. The ground was turfed in the spring and summer of 1845 and the first match was played on it in May. The meeting of 22 August at the Horns Tavern, attended by around a hundred Surrey gentlemen and professionals, formally constituted the Surrey County Cricket Club, elected officers and confirmed the financial arrangement with Houghton. Within ten years Surrey would be playing the leading counties at the Oval and the venue would be hosting the championship match between North and South. By 1859 the Oval would be staging Test-class cricket; by 1880 it would host England's first home Test.
1844: Montpelier CC lose their Walworth ground
Mar 1845: Houghton signs 31-year lease with the Duchy of Cornwall
Spring 1845: Kennington market garden turfed and prepared
May 1845: First cricket played on the new ground
22 Aug 1845: Foundation meeting at the Horns Tavern; Surrey CCC formally constituted
1844
Montpelier CC lose Walworth ground
Mar 1845
Lease signed with Duchy of Cornwall
May 1845
First match on the Oval
22 Aug 1845
Surrey CCC formally constituted at the Horns Tavern
Surrey CCC grew quickly. By 1851 the club had over 800 members. The Oval was leased directly to the club from 1854. The ground's status as one of the great cricket venues was confirmed by the staging of the first home Test in 1880 and the Ashes Test of 1882 from which the urn took its name.
The foundation meeting that created the strongest of the early professional counties and the ground that became the spiritual home of English cricket south of the Thames.
Surrey CCC has won the County Championship more than 20 times and produced an unbroken line of England players from Caffyn and Stephenson to Hobbs, May, Surridge, Stewart and Pope. The Oval, the legacy of that 1845 lease, is now a Test ground of 25,500 capacity and the customary venue for the final Test of every English summer.
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.