#william lambert

7 incidents tagged

George Osbaldeston Banned from MCC — A Squire's Twenty-Year Exile, 1818 onwards

MCC

1820-05-01

After being beaten at single-wicket by Sussex's George Brown in 1818, the all-round sportsman Squire George Osbaldeston resigned his MCC membership in a fury. When he later sought to be reinstated, his application was blocked personally by Lord Frederick Beauclerk; despite intercession by E.H. Budd and others, Osbaldeston was barred from MCC for the rest of his cricket career, an exile that effectively confined him to second-tier matches throughout the 1820s.

#george-osbaldeston#squire-osbaldeston#mcc

🚨Explosive

William Lambert's Shadow — The First Fixing Ban Hangs Over the 1820s

n/a

1820-05-01

William Lambert of Surrey, the leading professional batsman of the 1810s and Squire Osbaldeston's regular single-wicket partner, was banned from Lord's for life in 1817 for allegedly throwing the England v Nottingham match — making him the first cricketer banned for match-fixing in history. His exile cast a long shadow over the 1820s, contributing to Osbaldeston's own resignation and to MCC's hostility to professional self-organisation.

#william-lambert#match-fixing#1817

⭐Mild

William Lambert — First to Score Two Centuries in a Match, Sussex v Epsom, July 1817

Sussex vs Epsom

1817-07-04

Between 2 and 5 July 1817 at the new Lord's, the Surrey-born professional William Lambert scored 107 not out and 157 for Sussex against Epsom — the first batsman known to have made two centuries in the same match. Sussex won by 427 runs. Three weeks later Lambert was banned from Lord's for match-fixing and never played a senior match again. The Sussex v Epsom innings, made on a low-scoring underarm pitch by a man at the height of his powers, stood as the only instance of two centuries in a match for almost seventy years.

#william-lambert#two-centuries-in-match#sussex

🚨Explosive

William Lambert Banned From Lord's — Match-Fixing in England v Nottingham, 1817

MCC committee vs William Lambert

1817-07-26

Three weeks after scoring the first two centuries in a single match, William Lambert was banned from Lord's by the MCC committee on a charge of having deliberately underperformed in an earlier England v Nottingham match in which both sides had been suspected of arranging the result. The evidence was gathered by Lord Frederick Beauclerk, his old enemy from the 1810 single-wicket affair. Lambert never played senior cricket again. He was, in effect, the first cricketer banned for match-fixing.

#william-lambert#match-fixing#lord-frederick-beauclerk

🏏Moderate

MCC Codifies the Wide-Ball Penalty — A Law Born From a Single-Wicket Trick, 1811

n/a

1811-05-01

Stung by William Lambert's 1810 single-wicket trick of bowling deliberate wides at Lord Frederick Beauclerk to make him lose his temper, the MCC committee in 1811 added a penalty for wide deliveries. From that season on the wide added a run to the batting side, transforming the wide from a tactical nuisance into a punishable error and laying the legal foundation for one of cricket's longest-running rules.

#mcc#wide-ball#law-change

🥊Moderate

William Lambert Beats Lord Frederick Beauclerk by Bowling Wides — Single-Wicket, 1810

Lord Frederick Beauclerk / Thomas Howard vs George Osbaldeston / William Lambert

1810-07-01

A two-a-side single-wicket challenge match for fifty guineas a side became one of the most discussed cricket incidents of the early 1810s when Squire Osbaldeston fell ill on the morning of play. His partner William Lambert, the Surrey professional, pleaded for a postponement; Lord Frederick Beauclerk replied with the gambler's formula 'Play or Pay'. Lambert went out alone to face Beauclerk and Thomas Howard, deliberately bowled a string of wide deliveries to fluster Beauclerk, broke the cleric's temper and his concentration, and won the match by fifteen runs. The incident produced the rivalry that would shape Lambert's downfall seven years later.

#william-lambert#lord-frederick-beauclerk#george-osbaldeston

⭐Mild

William Lambert's Senior Debut — Surrey v England at Lord's, July 1801

Surrey vs England

1801-07-20

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.

#william-lambert#surrey#lord-s-old-ground