History of English amateur cricket

[1] It is generally believed that cricket was originally a children's game as it is not until the beginning of the 17th century that reports can be found of adult participation.

There is no evidence of professionalism before the English Civil War or during the Commonwealth but legal cases of the period have shown that cricket was played jointly by gentry and workers.

[7] Patrons like Edwin Stead, the Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage captained their teams and it was gentlemen like these, and the friends whom they invited to play, who began cricket's amateur tradition, while some players were paid a fee for taking part and this was the beginning of professionalism.

[10] But in the longer term, the professional became an employee of his club and the beginnings of this trend could be observed in the 1770s when Hambledon paid match fees to its players.

[14] There is a reference to the game at St Paul's School, London about 1665 concerning John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, who studied there.

[14] In 1706, William Goldwin (1682–1747) published his Musae Juveniles, which included a Latin poem called In Certamen Pilae (On a Ball Game).

[19][20] The spread of cricket to the northern counties by 1750 was partly due to "its transmission by interested clergy, schoolmasters and others educated at southern boarding schools".

[19] Birley recorded that the "sharpest rivalry" in the middle to late 18th century was between old boys of Eton and Westminster, as these were the two oldest public schools.

[22] The most important of these "many other schools" was Harrow, which would develop a great cricketing tradition during the 19th century and produce numerous quality players.

[22] James Pycroft in The Cricket Field commented on the betting at the 1825 game but, by 1833, the match had become a social highlight and The Times noted "upwards of thirty carriages containing ladies".

[24] Six Wykehamists played in the inaugural varsity match in 1827 but the main participants in this were Charles Wordsworth of Harrow and Herbert Jenner of Eton.

[24] Dr Thomas Arnold at Rugby is often considered the "founder" of this movement but in terms of cricket it was at Winchester that the best effect was achieved, especially in their athletic approach to fielding.

[24] Although this was hyped as something new, there are plenty of references to outstanding athletic fielders in the 18th century such as Thomas Waymark, John Small, Tom Taylor and William Yalden.

The Gentlemen team was actually quite good as it also included Beauclerk, John Willes, Edward Bligh, George Leycester and Arthur Upton.

Birley states that this was a Coronation Match to celebrate the accession of the much-maligned King George IV and that "it was a suitably murky affair!

Budd scored 69 out of 138 in the first innings; Beauclerk and Ward built an unbeaten partnership in the second to secure the six wicket win; and really the Players were rather let down by their batting.

[40] In London, the council of King's College voted £10 a year in 1862 to encourage cricket, but the lack of facilities meant this was unsuccessful;[41] their first recorded matches were in 1881, including one against the MCC at Tufnell Park.

[42] University College also attempted unsuccessfully to encourage sports in the 1860s, not firmly establishing a cricket team (which played on Regents Park) until the late 1880s.

[46] CUCC initially played at the University Ground, Barnwell, and in a large public area called Parker's Piece until they became tenants at Fenner's in 1846.

Francis Fenner had been a bowler with the Cambridge Town Club (CTC) and had acquired his land in 1846, perhaps for the express purpose of leasing it to CUCC.

Altham admits that many CUCC and OUCC players were selected for the Gentlemen but points out that this owed "less to the strength of the universities than to the weakness of amateur cricket as a whole".

Robert Grimston; Villiers Smith; Charles Coleridge; Reginald Hankey; Charlton Lane; the twins Arthur and Alfred Payne; Walter Fellows; Richard Mitchell, an outstanding batsman at Oxford who went on to greater things as coach at Eton in the 1870s; Alfred Lowth; George B. Lee; Henry Moberly; Charles Willis; Gerald Yonge; C. D. B.

[47] In the middle of the 19th century, William Clarke's All-England Eleven (AEE) was a highly successful all-professional venture which did much to popularise the game.