In 1900 W.G. Grace, then 51, took up an offer from the Crystal Palace Company to run a first-class cricket club at Sydenham. London County CC played first-class matches from 1900 to 1904 (their friendly status meant they could not enter the County Championship), then declined as Grace aged. The whole venture closed in 1908 — the same year Grace played his last first-class match.
Crystal Palace, the great glass exhibition hall moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham in 1854, was by 1898 a struggling commercial venture. The company sought sporting attractions; cricket and football (Crystal Palace FC was founded in 1905) were seen as crowd-pullers. Grace's name was the great asset.
Grace himself was at a complicated phase. He had captained England in his last home Ashes Test in June 1899 (and was dropped immediately). His Gloucestershire career ended formally in 1899 after a long-simmering dispute with the county committee over expenses and selection. The London County offer came at the right moment.
An announcement in The Times on 11 October 1898 confirmed Grace's move to Sydenham. The 1899 season was spent organising fixtures and recruitment; first-class matches began in April 1900.
By 1899 W.G. Grace, then 50, was no longer Gloucestershire's automatic first choice. A row over his Test selection (he was dropped after the 1899 Trent Bridge Test) and his deteriorating relationship with the Gloucestershire committee combined with an attractive offer from the Crystal Palace Company. Grace was guaranteed £600 a year and a share of the gate — large money for the era — to set up and run a first-class cricket club at the company's Sydenham ground.
London County CC played first-class matches from April 1900 to 1904. Grace assembled a side of past internationals (Billy Murdoch, Walter Read, Stanley Crowther) and promising amateurs, and the club's matches were given first-class status by the MCC despite not being part of the County Championship. The first match was a heavy defeat by Surrey at The Oval; the first home match three weeks later, against the same opposition, was drawn.
The public never warmed to what were effectively friendlies. With no championship status, the matches lacked competitive bite. Grace himself made plenty of runs (his 1903 season for London County included a hundred at age 55) but the club lost first-class status in 1905. It continued in club cricket until 1908, when the Crystal Palace Company ran out of money and the ground was closed. Coincidentally, 1908 was also the year of Grace's last first-class match, for the Gentlemen of England against Surrey at The Oval, in which he scored 15 and 25.
Oct 1898: Grace agrees to run London County CC.
Apr 1900: First first-class match — heavy defeat at The Oval.
Summer 1900: Home matches at Crystal Palace begin.
1903: Grace, age 55, scores a first-class hundred for the club.
1904: Last first-class season.
1905: First-class status lost.
Apr 1908: Grace's last first-class match (for Gentlemen of England, not London County).
1908: Crystal Palace Company collapses; ground closed.
11 Oct 1898
Grace's appointment announced in The Times.
Apr 1900
London County CC plays first first-class match.
1900-04
First-class matches at Crystal Palace and as away fixtures.
1903
Grace, age 55, scores a hundred for the club.
1905
First-class status withdrawn by MCC.
Apr 1908
Grace's last first-class match (for Gentlemen of England).
1908
Crystal Palace Company collapses; ground closed.
23 Oct 1915
Grace dies, aged 67.
“He has agreed to devote his whole time and attention to the new club.”
Grace continued to play club cricket at Eltham CC after the Crystal Palace closure. His last innings of any kind was for Eltham against Grove Park on 25 July 1914, when, aged 66, he scored 69 not out. He died in October 1915.
The London County experiment did not produce a successor. The county system survived intact through the 20th century; only with the rise of T20 franchise cricket in the 21st century did serious non-county professional clubs return to English first-class cricket.
A noble idea undone by economics and geography. The London County experiment was the only attempt in English first-class history to create a major cricket club outside the county system; it failed because the county system itself was too entrenched. Grace's involvement gave it cachet but could not give it a competitive purpose.
London County CC is sometimes treated as a curiosity in cricket histories; in fact it was a serious commercial proposition that came close to working. Its failure underlines the structural strength of the county system in Edwardian English cricket and the difficulty of building a market club from scratch.
Grace's role in the venture was important to his late-career finances and public visibility. Without London County he might not have remained in first-class cricket past his 50th birthday.
Zimbabwe vs England
1996-12-22
The first Test between Zimbabwe and England at Bulawayo in December 1996 ended in a draw with the scores level — the first ever in Test history. Coach David 'Bumble' Lloyd, frustrated by Zimbabwe's defensive tactics, told a press conference 'we flippin' murdered em'. He was reprimanded by the ECB.
England vs Australia
4 August 1975
On 4 August 1975, during the second Ashes Test at Lord's, a 24-year-old merchant seaman from Liverpool named Michael Angelow leapt the boundary fence wearing only socks and trainers, hurdled both sets of stumps to the amusement of the players, and was wrestled to the ground by police. He had taken a £20 bet from his shipmates. He was fined £20 in court the next morning, and the BBC commentary by John Arlott — "we have got a freaker, not very shapely, and it is masculine — and I would think it has seen the last of its cricket for the day" — became one of the most replayed pieces of cricket commentary of the decade.
Australia
1981-12-12
Australian captain Greg Chappell, the most prolific batsman in the country, made four ducks in a row across Tests and ODIs during the 1981-82 home summer — and seven ducks across the season — earning the temporary nickname 'Chappello'.