to watch county matches in the great towns; but this must no doubt be in part attributed to the movement of population from the country districts; and some compensation is to be found in league cricket (see below), and in the numerous clubs for the employees of business firms and large shops, and for the members of social institutes of all kinds, which play matches in the suburbs of London and other cities. At an earlier period two great professional organizations, "The All England," formed in 1846, and "The United All England," toured the country, mainly for profit, playing local sides in which "given men," generally good professional players, figured. They did much good work in popularizing the game, and an annual match between the two at Lord's on Whit-Monday was once a great feature of the season; but the increase of county cricket led eventually to their disbandment.
At this period, and much later, the first-class matches of "M.C.C. and ground" (i.e. ground-staff, or professionals attached to the club) occupied a far greater amount of importance than is at present the case. In recent years over 150 minor matches of the utmost value in propagating the best interests of cricket are annually played by the leading club. League cricket has of late become exceedingly popular, especially in the North of England, a number of clubs—about twelve to sixteen—combining to form a "League" and playing home-and-home matches, each one with each of the others in turn; points are scored according as each club wins, loses, or draws matches, the championship of the "League" being thus decided.
English County Cricket.—The first English inter-county match which is recorded was played on Richmond Green in 1730 between Surrey and Middlesex; but for very many years, though counties played counties, there was no systematic organization, matches often being played at odds or with "given" players, who had no county connexion with the side they represented. This was the natural outcome of the custom of playing for stakes. It was not till 1872 that any real effort was made to organize county cricket. In that year the M.C.C. took the initiative by offering a cup for competition between the counties, six of which were to be selected by the M.C.C., the matches to be played at Lord's, but the scheme fell through owing to the coolness of the counties themselves. It was only in 1890 that the counties were formally and officially classified, Notts (the county club dating from 1859), Lancashire (1864), Surrey (1845), Kent (1842), Middlesex (1864), Gloucestershire (1869), Yorkshire (1862), and Sussex (1839), being regarded as "first-class," as indeed had been the case from the time of their existence; and by degrees other counties were promoted to this class; Somerset in 1893; Derbyshire, Essex, Leicestershire, Warwickshire in 1894; Hampshire in 1895; Worcestershire in 1899; Northamptonshire in 1905.
In 1887 the County Cricket Council had been formed, working with and not against the Marylebone Club, for the management of county cricket, but the council dissolved itself in 1890, and it was then arranged that the county secretaries and delegates should meet and discuss such matters, and request the M.C.C. to consider the result of their deliberations, and practically to act as patron and arbitrator. In 1905 an Advisory Cricket Committee was formed "with the co-operation of the counties, with a view to improve the procedure in dealing with important matters arising out of the development of cricket, the effect of which will be" (the quotation is from the annual report of M.C.C. in 1905) "to bring the counties into closer touch with the M.C.C." Various methods have been tried as to the assignment of points or marks, the following being the list of champion counties up to 1909:—
| 1864 | Surrey | 1873 | Surrey | ||
| 1865 | Notts | 1874 | Gloucestershire | ||
| 1866 | Middlesex | 1875 | Notts | ||
| 1867 | Yorkshire | 1876 | Gloucestershire | ||
| 1868 | Yorkshire | 1877 | Gloucestershire | ||
| 1869 | Notts | 1878 | Notts | ||
| 1870 | Yorkshire | 1879 | Lancashire | equal | |
| 1871 | Notts | Notts | |||
| 1872 | Surrey | equal | 1880 | Notts | |
| Gloucestershire | 1881 | Lancashire | |||
| 1882 | Lancashire | equal | 1895 | Surrey | |
| Notts | 1896 | Yorkshire | |||
| 1883 | Yorkshire | 1897 | Lancashire | ||
| 1884 | Notts | 1898 | Yorkshire | ||
| 1885 | Notts | 1899 | Surrey | ||
| 1886 | Notts | 1900 | Yorkshire | ||
| 1887 | Surrey | 1901 | Yorkshire | ||
| 1888 | Surrey | equal | 1902 | Yorkshire | |
| Notts | 1903 | Middlesex | |||
| 1889 | Lancashire | equal | 1904 | Lancashire | |
| Surrey | 1905 | Yorkshire | |||
| 1890 | Surrey | 1906 | Kent | ||
| 1891 | Surrey | 1907 | Notts | ||
| 1892 | Surrey | 1908 | Yorkshire | ||
| 1893 | Yorkshire | 1909 | Kent | ||
| 1894 | Surrey | ||||
English county cricket is now the most firmly established cricketing institution in the world, but in its earlier stages it owed much in different counties to enthusiastic individuals and famous cricketing families whose energies were devoted to its
The Graces and Glou-
cestershire.
encouragement and support. To Gloucestershire belongs the honour of the greatest name in the history of the game.
Dr W. G. Grace (q.v.) was not only the most brilliant all-round cricketer in the world, but he remained supreme after reaching an age when most cricketers have long abandoned the game. He and his two famous brothers, E. M. Grace (b. 1841) and G. F. Grace (1850–1880), rendered invaluable service to their county for many years; and not to their county alone, for the great part they played for a generation in first-class cricket did much to increase the growing popularity of the county fixtures. A separate article is devoted to Dr W. G. Grace, whose name as the champion of the game will always be associated with its history. And of Dr E. M. Grace it may be mentioned that, besides being the most daring field at "point" ever seen, he altogether took 11,092 wickets and scored 75,625 runs. In more recent years some excellent cricketers have been associated with Gloucestershire, such as F. Townsend, and the professional Board; but foremost stands G. L. Jessop, a somewhat "unorthodox" batsman famous for his powers of hitting.
What W. G. Grace did for Gloucestershire, Lord Harris (b. 1851) did for Kent, and his services are not to be estimated by his performances in the field alone, great as they were. His influence was always exerted to impart a spirit of sportsmanship Kent. and honourable distinction to the national game. Kent had been a home of cricket since the first half of the 18th century, but it was Lord Harris more than any other individual who made it a first-class county, celebrated for the number of distinguished amateurs who have taken part in its matches. The Hon. Ivo Bligh, afterwards Lord Darnley (b. 1859), and F. Marchant (b. 1864), both Etonians like Lord Harris himself; the two Harrovians, W. H. Patterson (b. 1859) and M. C. Kemp (b. 1862), and the Wykehamist J. R. Mason (b. 1874) are names that show the place taken by public school men in the annals of Kent cricket, while the family of Hearnes supplied the county with some famous professionals. Amateur batsmen like W. Rashleigh, C. J. Burnup, E. W. Dillon and A. P. Day have been prominent in the Kent eleven; and in Fielder and Blythe they have had two first-class professional bowlers. The "Kent nursery" at Tonbridge has proved a valuable institution for training young professional players, and contributed not a little to the rising reputation of Kent, which justified itself when the county won the championship in 1906, largely owing to the admirable batting of the amateur K. L. Hutchings.
Middlesex and Lancashire, not less than Kent, have been indebted to the great public schools, and especially to Harrow, which provided both counties with famous captains who directed their fortunes for an uninterrupted period of over twenty years.Middlesex and Lancashire. I. D. Walker, the most celebrated of seven cricketing brothers, all Harrovians, who founded the Middlesex County Club, handed on the captaincy, after a personal record of astonishing brilliancy, to a younger Harrow and Oxford cricketer, A. J. Webbe, who was one of the finest leg-hitters and one of the safest out-fielders of his day, and a captain of consummate judgment and knowledge of the game. A. N. Hornby, a contemporary at Harrow of I. D. Walker, was for many years the soul of Lancashire cricket, and was succeeded in the captaincy of the county by the still more famous Harrovian, A. C. MacLaren, one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket, whose record for England in test matches against Australia was almost unrivalled. In 1895, when he headed the batting averages, MacLaren made the highest individual score in a first-class match, viz. 424 against Somersetshire. Middlesex has also the distinction of having produced the two greatest amateur wicket-keepers in the history of English cricket, namely, the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton (b. 1857) and Gregor MacGregor, both of whom, after playing for Cambridge University, gave their services to the Metropolitan county; while Lancashire can boast of the greatest professional wicket-keeper in Richard Pilling (1855–1891), whose reputation has not been eclipsed by that of the most proficient of more recent years. Another famous Cambridge University cricketer, a contemporary of Lyttelton, who was invaluable to Lancashire for
