#gentlemen vs players

8 incidents tagged

W.G. Grace's 1869 Season — The Emergence of Cricket's First Superstar

Multiple

1869-09-01

In 1869, his fifth full season of first-class cricket and the year he turned 21, W.G. Grace produced batting figures that ended any debate about the leading cricketer in England. He scored 1,320 first-class runs at an average of 57.3 — at a time when totals over 200 were rare and averages over 40 were almost unknown — and turned the Gentlemen vs Players fixture, which the Players had usually dominated, into a one-man Gentlemen victory.

#wg-grace#1869#gentlemen-vs-players

⭐Mild

Gentlemen v Players — The Showcase Fixture of the 1840s

Gentlemen vs Players

1844-07-01

Through the 1840s the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's was the showcase fixture of the English summer — amateurs against professionals, the best of the country against the best of the country, with the professionals winning more often than not. Alfred Mynn straddled the two teams as the great amateur player; Fuller Pilch led the Players' batting; the fixture was the model that all later representative cricket was built on.

#gentlemen-vs-players#lord-s#1844

⭐Mild

First Gentlemen vs Players Match Won by the Players — 1836

Gentlemen of England vs Players of England

1836-07-04

Through the 1820s the Gentlemen of England had usually beaten the Players because the match-rules tilted heavily in the amateurs' favour (often the Gentlemen were given extra batsmen or the Players had to use given men). In 1836, with the rules levelled and the Players fielding their full strength of Lillywhite, Pilch, Mynn and Cobbett, the professionals at last won the match cleanly — the start of decades of professional dominance.

#gentlemen-vs-players#1836#lord-s

😂Mild

The 'Coronation Match' — Gentlemen Concede to Players, Lord's, July 1821

Gentlemen vs Players

1821-07-24

Billed in honour of George IV's accession, the so-called 'Coronation Match' between the Gentlemen and the Players at Lord's in July 1821 ended in farce when the Gentlemen, having been bowled out for 60 and watching the Players cruise to 270 for 6 (Thomas Beagley made 113 not out, the first century in the fixture's history), simply gave up and conceded defeat midway through the second day.

#gentlemen-vs-players#coronation-match#1821

⭐Mild

Billy Beldham's Last Match — The Penultimate Hambledonian Plays for the Players, 1821

Gentlemen vs Players

1821-07-23

On 23-24 July 1821, in the chaotic Coronation Match between the Gentlemen and the Players at Lord's, William 'Silver Billy' Beldham — the last great Hambledon batsman still in important cricket — played his final recorded senior fixture at the age of 55. He scored 23 not out in the Players' innings and walked off the first-class stage that he had occupied since 1782, a career of 39 seasons unmatched in the early game.

#billy-beldham#silver-billy#hambledon

⭐Mild

Gentlemen v Players Revived — The Players Win the First Match Back, 1819

Gentlemen of England vs Players of England

1819-07-08

After a thirteen-year gap forced by the Napoleonic War, the Gentlemen v Players match was revived at Lord's on 7-9 July 1819. The amateurs played the professionals on equal terms — eleven a side, no odds — and the Players won by six wickets. Lord Strathavon, a sponsor of the Players, captained them in person, apparently because he had placed a bet on his side and wanted to be sure of his money. The 1819 revival began the unbroken run of the fixture that would last until 1962.

#gentlemen-vs-players#lord-s#1819

⭐Mild

The First Gentlemen v Players Match — Lord's, July 1806

Gentlemen vs Players

1806-07-07

On 7-9 July 1806 a 'Grand Match' between the Gentlemen and the Players was played at Thomas Lord's first ground at Dorset Square — the inaugural fixture of what would become the longest-running representative match in cricket. The Gentlemen, captained by Lord Frederick Beauclerk and aided by two professional 'given men', William Lambert and Billy Beldham, beat the Players by an innings and 14 runs. The series ran continuously until January 1963 — 156 years.

#gentlemen-vs-players#1806#lord-s-old-ground

⭐Mild

Jack Small Junior — Hambledon's Last Hand at the First Gentlemen v Players, 1806

Gentlemen vs Players

1806-07-21

Jack Small junior, son of the great John Small senior who had scored cricket's first known century in 1775, played for the Players in both inaugural Gentlemen v Players matches in July 1806. He was 40, a sound batsman in his father's mould, and one of the last Hambledon hands still active at major level. His presence in the first Gentlemen v Players is the bridge that links the 1770s Hambledon era to the modern Lord's-centred game.

#jack-small#john-small-junior#gentlemen-vs-players