Overview of English cricket (1816–63)

This article presents an overview of English cricket from 1816 to 1863. For more detailed coverage of the period, see the series of season reviews in Category:English cricket seasons from 1816 to 1863.

Although the article mentions some events in other countries, these are connected with the introduction of cricket from England and into those countries. For additional information about the development of the game in the main cricket-playing countries outside England during the period, see:

The Napoleonic Wars had deprived cricket of investment and manpower, particularly after 1810 as the conflict in the Peninsular War reached its height and the invasion of France followed. A recovery began in 1815, the year of the Battle of Waterloo, and a more widespread return to normality can be observed from 1816, although it was not until 1825 that inter-county matches were resurrected when Kent played Sussex.

MCC and its problems

By 1816, the present Lord's had become the sport's feature venue and was the home of the premier club, MCC. MCC, since it was founded in 1787, had gradually increased its influence and its control, especially in its role as the guardian of the Laws of Cricket. During the 19th century, it made efforts to suppress the gambling that had underwritten and sometimes blighted cricket in the past.

But MCC was by no means in total control of events. It was the subject of bitter controversy in the post-war period, largely because of the activities of Lord Frederick Beauclerk, one of the sport's more dubious personalities who effectively "ran" the MCC Committee for many years.

In 1825, the club almost foundered in the face of a dual crisis. First, on the night of Thursday 28 July following a schools match at Lord's between Harrow and Winchester, the pavilion burned down with the consequent loss of valuable scorecards, records and trophies. Thomas Lord claimed he lost £2600 in paid subscriptions, none of which were ever recovered.

Then William Ward, who was a rich banker as well as a good batsman, had to step in and purchase the lease of Lord's ground to save it for cricket. Thomas Lord had been proposing to build houses on the land which brought cries of outrage from the gentlemen players.

Even so, it was many years before the famous ground's future was secured. The lease was transferred to James Dark in 1835 and he retained proprietary till 1864. Then, in 1860, the freehold was sold by the Eyre Estate to a property speculator for £7,000 and MCC did not bid! In 1864, MCC finally did purchase the freehold but paid £18,333 6s 8d for it with money advanced by William Nicholson. The lease expired same year and so, at last, Lord's was owned in its entirety by MCC.

Roundarm to overarm

During the post-war years, there was a discernible shift towards the adoption of roundarm bowling and questions about legalisation of roundarm dominated the sport for thirty years.

At the end of the period, bowling reached the final stage of its evolution as overarm began with the same sort of controversy that had accompanied the introduction of roundarm. But this time the controversy was short-lived and overarm was rapidly adopted and legalised between 1862 and 1864.

Schools, universities and the amateur gentleman

The importance of cricket in the public schools and universities cannot be overstated, especially the influence of public school cricket and its Victorian ethics upon the growth of the British Empire and the spread of industrialisation. The period saw an increasing number of good amateur players come through the education system and make their mark in first-class cricket.

For more information, see : History of English amateur cricket

Equipment and fashion

Changes in fashion affected the sport and a reaction to the virility cult espoused by Beauclerk and his ilk brought about the introduction of safer equipment such as padded leg-guards and padded gloves. Wicketkeeping gloves were first mentioned about 1820 and were in general use by 1850. Batting pads had been proposed much earlier, particularly by Robert Robinson, but it was not until the horrific leg injury suffered by Alfred Mynn in 1836 from a ball by Sam Redgate that pads were seen as an essential item of equipment.

Curiously, whereas Sam Redgate was viewed with trepidation in terms of his pace, he was very much a reactionary in fashion terms. Among professionals in the 1830s, he was said to be the last to discard breeches in favour of trousers. Trousers have existed since ancient times but never became fashionable until the sans-culottes of the French Revolution. In England, they began to replace breeches during the Napoleonic War and were widely in use by 1815. Redgate was not alone in his preference for breeches: the Eton and Harrow teams still wore them in 1830.

With trousers came the belts with metal clasps that remained popular until well into the 20th century. Many professionals preferred braces.

Wigs went out with the 18th century and men followed the lead of Napoleon Bonaparte by having their long hair cut short. The Hambledon players had worn hats when playing and this fashion persisted except that the style of hat changed dramatically. By 1830, the tall "beaver" hats familiar in pictures of William Lillywhite and Fuller Pilch had become common. These would be either black or white. Many players preferred a straw hat based on the rural style but these were replaced by white bowler hats, first worn by I Zingari in 1845, which were usually adorned with a ribbon in club colours.

The tall hats were replaced before 1850 by the flannel cap which tended to be either white or chequered. Then the familiar cricket cap began to appear. The schools adopted these first: Eton (light blue) and Winchester (blue) in 1851; Harrow (striped) in 1852. The blue caps worn by Cambridge and Oxford date from about 1861 and 1863 respectively. The county clubs gradually introduced their own caps thereafter though the amateurs still tended to wear their school caps.

Coloured shirts were worn in the middle years of the century as team uniforms, though all were a pattern on a white background (e.g., the All-England Eleven wore white shirts with pink spots). The frilled shirts of Georgian times were replaced by plain cloth. Some players wore high collars and many used a rather large bow tie.

Footwear was almost universally confined to the black "Oxford" shoe.

A kind of short white flannel jackets had originally been mentioned as early as 1812 and this was probably an early form of blazer.

County clubs and the spread of cricket

After the foundation of Sussex County Cricket Club in 1839, several more county clubs were created to replace the loose organisations that had managed county teams formerly.

The formation of William Clarke's All-England Eleven and its successors gave cricket a new direction and helped to develop the geographical spread of the game throughout England. This process was facilitated by the "railway boom", the growth of the railway network permitting matches between widely separated opponents.

Cricket achieved even a greater geographical spread through the first overseas tours from England to North America in 1859 and Australia in 1861-62. The first international match had taken place in North America in 1844, between Canada and United States. First-class cricket began in Australia in 1850-51 and the beginning of first-class cricket in each of India, New Zealand and the West Indies was imminent.

Chronology of important events: 1816-1863

1816
1817
1819
1820
1821
1822
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1832
1833
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1841
1842
1844
1845
1846
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1854
1855
1857
1858
1859
The first English touring team pictured on board ship at Liverpool: standing at left Robert Carpenter, William Caffyn, Tom Lockyer; middle row John Wisden, HH Stephenson, George Parr, Jem Grundy, Julius Caesar, Thomas Hayward, John Jackson; front row Alfred Diver, John Lillywhite.
1860
1861
1862
1863

References

    External sources

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