As elsewhere in south east England, cricket became established in Middlesex during the 17th century and the earliest village matches took place before the English Civil War.
[1] The earliest known match in Middlesex took place at Lamb's Conduit Field in Holborn on 3 July 1707 involving teams from London and Croydon.
[3][4] The earliest reference to a team called Middlesex is on 5 August 1729 in a match against London Cricket Club "in the fields behind the Woolpack, in Islington, near Sadlers Wells, for £50 a side".
[10][11] Gambling was rife in eighteenth century cricket and, a large crowd in attendance, a lot of money was riding on a Middlesex win.
[15][16] Although Arthur Haygarth makes no comment about the members of these two teams, it is evident that several players are common to both as James Rice (5 appearances), William Barton (4), James Beeston (4), John Goldham (4), Thomas Lord (4), Sylvester (4), Charles Warren (4), Harry Bridger (3) and Wheeler (2) all played for both the Thursday and Middlesex teams.
[15][16] Details are sketchy but it seems the Marylebone Thursday Club was originally a Thursday Club in the literal sense that was started by amateur cricketers of Middlesex who acquired the services of certain Middlesex professionals, such as Ray and Sylvester who were both employed at Lord's as MCC ground staff players.
Samuel Britcher, who was the MCC scorer calls the team "Thursday Club" in the first three matches of 1795 (as does Haygarth) but then refers to "the County of Middlesex" in both the fourth and fifth games on 25 May and 26 June.
[17] The present Middlesex County Cricket Club was informally founded on 15 December 1863 at a meeting in the London Tavern with formal constitution taking place on 2 February 1864.