Controversies in 1811

3 incidents documented

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

⭐Mild

Hampshire v Surrey for 500 Guineas — The First Women's County Cricket Match, 1811

Hampshire (women) vs Surrey (women)

1811-10-03

On 3 October 1811 — at the height of the Napoleonic War, when senior men's cricket had nearly dried up — Hampshire and Surrey women's elevens played a three-day match at Balls Pond on Newington Green for a stake of 500 guineas a side. It was the first recorded county-level women's cricket match in the world. Hampshire won by fifteen notches.

#women-s-cricket#hampshire#surrey

⭐Moderate

Origins of the Wide Ball Law — From Daddy White to MCC, 1809-1811

n/a

1811-05-13

Until 1811 there was no formal law against bowling wide. The MCC's revisions to the Laws of Cricket in 1809 began the move toward outlawing the wide ball, and the formal rule arrived in 1811 — partly in response to the practice (going back to 1771's Daddy White) of batsmen using disproportionately wide bats, partly in response to bowlers like William Lambert who had openly bowled wides to defeat opponents in single-wicket challenges.

#wide-ball#law-change#mcc