"LORDS" CENTENARY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 77, 7 May 1914, Page 12

"LORDS" CENTENARY.

FAMOUS CRICKET GROUND.

THE SCENE OF MANY BATTLE Si "Times" and "Sydney Sim" Services. - (Received May 7, 8 a.m.) LONDON, "May 6. Lords Cricket Ground celebrates its centenary to-day. THE HOME OF THE GAME. Lords! „What - memories of great cricket matches the name conjures up! The headquarters of the club which is the supreme authority in cricket, no matter where the game is played, "Lords" is a name dear to the heart of every Englishman. It is the holy ground of cricket. A FAMOUS MATCH. And Australians have a warm feeling for grounil—though many of them 4%iive never seen it —for was it not at Lords that the first Australian team to visit England made test cricket by routing the full strength of England in a single day, in the most sensational game which has ever been played between England and Australia"? That was the time—it was May 27, 1878— when D. W. Gregory's team of Cornstalks, strong in bowling, but moderate in batting—the best batting average of : the tour was C. Bannerman's 24.1 runs for 30 completed innings, and the next best J. M. Blackham's 18.2' ?uns for each of 22 innings (eight times not out) —faced an English .team remark : ably' strong in both batting and bowling. / Some of the names of that English team are well-nigh forgotten now, but not so the names of W. G. Grac.e (the most wonderful player the game has >ever known), N A. N. Hornby ■ (brilliant batsman and scorer of many centuries), A. W. Ridley; (a dashing player all round), Alfred Shaw (one of the greattest bowlers of the century; he could break both ways, and the length and precision of his bowling were Remarkable), and Fred. Morley (fast lefthanded bowler with a fair break both ways; he and Shaw were Nottinghamshire's great pair of bowlers). DEMON BOWLERS.

What did Australia have 1 ? As I have said, there were only moderate batsmen that is, when pitted against the strong bowling to be found in English cricket them.' But—there were F. • K. Spofforth (the demon bowler, fairly fast but with wonderful command of ,ball; his length, accuracy and break made his bowling deadly), H. F. Boyle (one of the most "heady" bowlers the game has known), T. W. Garrett (a bowle_r.- Vith a splendidly easy action, and at that time the best of the Australian bowlers on a good wicket; he came very quickly off the pitch,, and could break both ways), and F. E. Allan. And there was John -McCarthy Blackham, prince of wicket-keepers. On a treacherous wicket England.; batted first—and the team was all out for 33, of which Hornby made 19. Spofforth took six wickots for 4 runs! Boyle captured three for 14, and Allan one for 14. The Australians did little better in their innings, making 41, in which W. Midwinter was top scorer i with 10. Shaw got five of the wickets for 10 runs, and Morley five for 31. Disastrous, indeed, for England, was the home team's second innings. Spofforth and Boyle wrought sheer havoc, and the innings closed at 19, Boyle having taken five wickets for 3 runs, and Spofforth five for 16. Twelve runs were needed , for a win. Bannerman, the . team's banner batsman, was bowled by Shaw for one run, but W. Midwinter land; T. Horan (now the best-known writer on cricket in Australia) hit off the 11 runs needed, and Australia won by 10 c wickets—the only instance in which si test match has been won and lost in one day. ORIGIN OF THE GROUND. ''Lords" is a ground which well exemplifies the democracy of cricket, for in its very name is memorialised a fumble worker in cricket. Thomas Lord,- formerly a gentleman's servant, had tasted the charm of cricket, and about the year 1780 he was a kind of half-attendant, half ground bowler at the White Conduit Club's grounds. As other clubs have experienced, thlere was not complete harmony amorngSt the members, and some of them decided to gp islsewhere. But they found it hard to obtain a ground. Lord was asked to search about the neighbourhood of Marylebone, and he was promised good suppbrt, especially from the Earl of Winchester and Colonel Lennox. By 1787Vlie had obtained a ground at Dorset Square, and the Marylebone Club and Lord's ground came into existence. There most of the great sporting matches of the time were played, sometimes for as much as 2000 guineas a side.

Lord, had obtained a lease of the ground for 21 years, from the Duke of Dorset, but at the end of that period he had a dispute with the Duke about an increase of rent, and he had to leave. In 1810 a ground was obtained at North Bank, Regent's Park, but two vcars later the making of Regent's Canal caused the ground to be cut up. For a couple of years the Marylebohe Club had no ground of its own. AT ANCHOR.

Then, in 1814, the site of the present ground in. St. John's Wood Road was secured by Lord, and the Marylebone Club has remained there ever since. A very high opinion of the turf at Dorset Square seems to have been held by the club, for it was taken up and relaid on the North Bank ground, and afterwards transferred to St. John's Wood Road. By this time the power and importance of the Marylebone Club had increased considerably, for some of the members of the ol(t Hambledon Club, which had then broken up, had joined it, and the Homerton Club, the next in importance, had amalgamated with the M.C.C. The first match played on the present Lord's ground was between M.C.C. and Hertfordshire, on .June 22, 1814, when M.C.C. won by an innings and 27 runs. The vicissitudes of the club did not end with the acquisition of the present ground. In July, 3825, the pavilion was destroyed by fire, and valuable records of the game which could not be re- - placed were lost. Thomas Lord himself suffered hfeavily; about £2600 was due to him for subscriptions, but as the books had been burnt it was hard for him to remember who had paid and who had not. A little later he desired to retire and go "on the land," and in the next forty years the lease passed through tlie hands of several gentlemen. At length, in 18(36, the Marylebone Club bought the freehold for £18,150 the money was lent on mortgage by a member of the committee. That amount was paid off in 1878, and to-day the club %! yearly revenue is about twice what it paid for the freehold of the was built at a cost of £20,000. The urea of the whole of the ground is twelve acres, and of the playing portion about six weeks. —HAMBLEDON.