Liverpool Cricket Club

The early history of the club was heavily influenced by the slave owner and railway director Hardman Earle.

Noel Chavasse, a member, died in service during World War I, he was one of only three men to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice.

Banastre Tarleton, the Member of Parliament for Liverpool and slave trader is credited with introducing cricket to the city in the late 18th century.

[1] The first recorded game played in Liverpool was in the year 1800 on a ground known as Mosslake Field which was at Mount Pleasant.

The players wore white trousers, linen shirts and a tall black hat known as a Billycock.

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway line opened in 1830, with a station at the club's new ground, most likely placed there by Hardman Earle.

[7] In 1845, the club moved to their third ground, a plot of land leased from Hardman Earle on his Spekefield Estate.

[8] The early matches at this ground were between Liverpool and Manchester, or other clubs the members deemed to have a high social standing.

Zingari visited again in 1861, after this match the satirical magazine Porcupine wrote that the Liverpool team had selected players based upon their social standing rather than their cricketing ability.

This arrangement lasted until 1904 when the owners sold the ground to Liverpool Cricket Club and sent the company into liquidation.

The Hornby family had been members since the club's outset and the death was more keenly felt because the country was on the brink of World War I.

[22] The most famous member of Liverpool Cricket Club to die in service was Noel Chavasse, who was one of only three men to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice.

The German Luftwaffe attacked Liverpool between 1940 and 1942 and on one occasion they hit the road bridge between the upper and lower grounds.