On 20-21 July 1801 a 22-year-old village professional named William Lambert appeared for Surrey against England at Thomas Lord's first ground in Dorset Square. Listed tenth in the order, he scored 0 and 5 in a low-scoring defeat. Within a decade he would be ranked alongside Beauclerk and Beldham as the finest all-rounder in England, and in 1817 he would become the first man to score two centuries in the same major match.
Surrey in 1801 was not yet the formal county club it would become; teams were raised by individual patrons. The match against England was the most important fixture available to a young Surrey professional and was watched by a crowd of MCC members and gambling backers.
Lambert had played for Surrey clubs through 1799 and 1800 and impressed the local committee enough to be picked for Lord's. His selection was in part a wager: the patrons backed him against more experienced names because his all-round skill was already noticed in the village game.
Lambert was born in 1779 at Burstow on the Surrey-Sussex border and learned his cricket on village pitches in the closing years of the eighteenth century. By 1801 he had attracted the attention of the patrons who ran Surrey cricket and was given his chance in the season's most important fixture, Surrey v England at Lord's Old Ground. Surrey were dismissed for 109 in their first innings and 169 in their second; England, captained by the Duke of Hamilton's nominee, won comfortably. Lambert went in at number ten and contributed 0 and 5, the kind of unobtrusive debut that gave no warning of what was to come. The bat he used was the curved blade of the underarm era, no more than four inches at its widest. The pitch was a rough strip on the Dorset Fields ground that Thomas Lord had opened in 1787; bowlers were given enormous help and a score of 169 in the second innings was respectable. Lambert returned to club cricket and played intermittently in major matches for the next four seasons before establishing himself as a regular by 1806, the year he was drafted as a given man for the Gentlemen in the inaugural Gentlemen vs Players match.
20 Jul 1801: Match begins at Lord's Old Ground, Dorset Square
Lambert listed tenth in Surrey's batting order
First innings: dismissed for 0
Second innings: scores 5
Surrey dismissed for 109 and 169
England win the match
Lambert returns to Surrey club cricket
1779
William Lambert born at Burstow, Surrey
20 Jul 1801
Senior debut for Surrey v England, Lord's Old Ground
1806
Selected as a given man for the Gentlemen v Players
1817
First man to score two centuries in the same major match
1818
Banned from Lord's after match-fixing accusations
“One of the most successful cricketers that has ever yet appeared, excelling as he did in batting, bowling, fielding, keeping wicket, and also single wicket playing.”
Lambert played sparingly in major matches between 1802 and 1805, but his reputation grew with every season. By 1806 he was good enough to be selected as a 'given man' for the Gentlemen against the Players in the very first match of that fixture. By 1810 he was one of the half-dozen most-feared cricketers in England.
An anonymous debut that would, within a decade, look like the entry of one of the greatest cricketers of the underarm era.
Lambert's debut is the entry point of one of the great pre-Victorian careers. He would score two centuries in the same match (Sussex v Epsom, 1817), be praised by John Nyren as a complete cricketer, and ultimately be banned from Lord's after the match-fixing scandal of 1817-18. His 20 July 1801 debut date is the conventional starting line for that arc.
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.