In February 2022, the MCC announced that from 2023 onwards the fixture would no longer be held at the ground.
[1] It would be replaced by the finals of boys’ and girls’ schools competitions, as stated by MCC to be more inclusive.
[2] However, in September, 2022, following opposition from a section of its membership, the club decided that the match would be held at Lord's in 2023 to allow time for further consultation.
Horace Walpole entered Eton in 1726, and later wrote that playing cricket was a common occurrence at the school.
By the early 19th century, cricket was well established in English public and grammar schools.
Eton v Harrow was joined by the University Match and Gentlemen v Players as the three key features in the England cricket season.
The number of spectators necessitated the first introduction of viewing stands and a boundary rope at Lord's in 1866.
The game made national newspaper headlines, and was attended by schoolboys large and small, their elder brothers and fathers, accompanied by their ladies and other members of London society.
[5] The influence of the Eton v Harrow match waned as the dominance of amateurs in cricket was replaced by increasing professionalism, noticeably after the First World War and to an even greater extent after the Second.
Early prominent cricketers who played in the Eton v Harrow match include E. H. Budd, John Kirwan and Herbert Jenner (Eton); and Edward Grimston, Charles Harenc and Charles Wordsworth (Harrow).
Between the 1870s and the 1890s, there were the Studd brothers, Bernard Bosanquet, Ivo Bligh, Martin Bladen (who later became Lord Hawke) and George Harris (who later became Lord Harris) (Eton); and A. N. Hornby, Archie MacLaren and Stanley Jackson (Harrow).
Other players who were later first-class cricketers were not selected for their school, including Charles Lyttelton (later 10th Viscount Cobham), Wykeham Cornwallis (later 2nd Baron Cornwallis), Nigel Haig and Denis Hill-Wood.
The match has included fifteen players from Eton and six from Harrow who later played for the England cricket team, most recently Nick Compton (Harrow) in Tests and Alex Loudon (Eton) in ODIs.
In recent years, few players have gone on to become professionals in first-class cricket, exceptions being Compton, Gary Ballance and Sam Northeast from Harrow, and Jamie Bruce and Loudon from Eton.