Controversies in 1817

3 incidents documented

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

⭐Mild

William 'Silver Billy' Beldham — The Aging Master of Hambledon, 1810s

Hampshire, Surrey, MCC and various private elevens

1817-06-01

By the 1810s William 'Silver Billy' Beldham — born in 1766, the great Hambledon-era batsman whom John Nyren had called 'one of the most beautiful batsmen ever seen' — was the senior figure in English cricket. Already in his fifties, he was still good enough to be picked for senior matches at Lord's and to hold his own against professionals half his age. His final senior match came in 1821 at the age of 55. He lived another forty-one years, dying at Tilford in 1862, and gave to historians the most detailed verbal record of Hambledon cricket through his late conversations with the Reverend James Pycroft.

#william-beldham#silver-billy#hambledon