In English cricket since the first half of the 18th century, various ad hoc teams have been formed for short-term purposes which have been called England (or sometimes "All-England"; i.e., in the sense of "the rest of England") to play against, say, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) or an individual county team . The key factor is that they were non-international and there is a significant difference between them and the official England cricket team which takes part in international fixtures. Conceptually, there is evidence of this sort of team being formed, or at least mooted, since the 1730s. They have always been "occasional elevens" but, nevertheless, have invariably been strong sides. A typical example would be a selection consisting of leading players drawn from several county teams.
28-731: The earliest known mention of the concept occurs in a report by the London Evening Post of 7 to 9 September 1734 which states that the London Cricket Club , being "desirous of playing one more match before the season is expired, do challenge to play with any eleven men in England". The challenge excluded members of Croydon Cricket Club , with whom London were in dispute. It is possible that challenges of this sort had been issued previously but no records of them have been found. There had been matches involving, for example,
56-627: A fives ball on the court behind the Bell Inn in Nottingham. Clarke was originally a bricklayer by trade, but from his earnings as a bowler and an advantageous marriage he was able in 1837 to take up the traditional cricketer's trade of publican . He married Mary Chapman, the landlady of the Trent Bridge Inn , and they arranged for the land behind the inn to be made available. He opened the enclosed Trent Bridge cricket ground behind
84-496: A huge success and very profitable, especially for Clarke himself who was careful to pay his players more than Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) did (from £4 to £6 per week) and so keep them interested. He kept the surplus for himself. The AEE continued for several years to showcase the best players of the day. Subsequent additions to the squad included John Wisden of Sussex, William Dorrinton of Kent, Tom Sewell senior and his son Tom Sewell junior of Surrey. Because of its strength
112-545: A judge and speaker of the assembly in New Jersey , and as mayor of Perth Amboy , before dying in 1764). John Meres (1698–1761, grandson of Sir Thomas Meres ) took over management of the paper in 1737, first as a partner with Nutt, also printing the Daily Post . Meres was jailed for 10 weeks in 1740, for printing remarks about a parliament act regarding trade. Richard Nutt was found guilty of libel after publishing
140-473: A letter about the government in 1754, and was sentenced to the pillory in addition to being fined. Meres was also once fined, for mentioning a nobleman in the newspaper. After Meres died in 1761, his son (also John) took over the business. The younger Meres was called before the House of Lords in 1764 to explain a "vague and slightly anti-Scottish remark" regarding Lord Hertford . After Richard Nutt died in 1780,
168-415: A team representing one county against a team bearing a patron's name and it is possible that teams of the latter type included players from a wide geographical area. In the 1730s, "any eleven men in England" would in practice have come from the southeastern counties only: e.g., Berkshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex. The majority of such teams were simply labelled "England" and sometimes
196-448: Is believed to be the only player ever to take a first-class hat-trick that included the same batsman twice (i.e., John Fagge, the hat-trick spanning both Kent innings). Besides his bowling, Clarke's greatest attribute was his captaincy and leadership. He was an astute tactician and perhaps the sport's first truly tactical captain who could "think out" the opposition by means of planned field positions and rotation of his bowlers. Taking
224-405: Is currently understood to be the England national team when playing non-international matches on tour. CA's list of England XI matches begins five years before Test cricket started and most of the early matches are between a university team and what is loosely termed an England XI. The name "All-England" took on a specific meaning in 1846 when William Clarke's All-England Eleven , commonly known as
252-737: The United All-England Eleven (UEE) as a rival to the AEE. Clarke would have nothing to do with the UEE but he died in 1856 and, from 1857 to 1866, matches were played between these two teams which were perhaps the most important contests of the English season – certainly judged by the quality of the players. The AEE/UEE concept expanded with the formation of other itinerant elevens, notably the United North of England Eleven (UNEE) and
280-605: The United South of England Eleven (USEE), the latter showcasing W. G. Grace . The travelling elevens ran their course over a period of some thirty seasons but interest in them waned as county cricket grew and provided matches with a more competitive edge. With the advent of international cricket in the 1870s, especially following the hugely successful inaugural Australian tour in 1878, the travelling elevens faded away. Teams styled England and commonly referred to as all-England continued to play non-international matches into
308-501: The 1880s but thereafter they tended to be given names such as The Rest because the England national team was by then well-established and understood to represent the country for the purpose of international cricket. The earliest match involving a team styled "The Rest of England" took place at Bradford Park Avenue in June 1883 when the opposition was a composite Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire XI. The combined counties won by 6 wickets. In
SECTION 10
#1732771863751336-461: The 20th century, Test trial matches were occasionally staged (the last in 1976) and these were called England v The Rest, but it is generally understood that the England of these games was the national side while The Rest formed the "all-England" element. London Evening Post The London Evening Post was a pro- Jacobite Tory English language daily newspaper published in London , then
364-430: The AEE generally played "odds" matches against sides composed of twenty-two men, though these odds were reduced when opposed to such sides as Sheffield Cricket Club , Manchester Cricket Club and some county teams. The AEE lasted until 1880. In all matches George Parr with 10,404 runs (av 16.78) was the leading batsman for the side and William Clarke himself took the most wickets (2,385). In 1852, several players set up
392-733: The AEE, was founded as a touring team of leading players, its purpose being to take advantage of the new railway network and play matches at city venues, mainly in the North of England. Clarke 's team was indeed a top-class side worthy of its title as, in 1846, it consisted of himself, Joe Guy (cricketer) , George Parr (all of Nottinghamshire ), William Lillywhite , Jemmy Dean (both Sussex ), William Denison , Will Martingell (both Surrey ), Fuller Pilch , Alfred Mynn , Nicholas Wanostrocht ( aka "Felix") and William Hillyer (all Kent ). Their matches in Sheffield , Manchester and Leeds were
420-547: The capital city of the Kingdom of Great Britain , from 1727 until 1797. The paper was first published on 17 December 1727 by Richard Nutt (1694–1780) on a tri-weekly schedule matching the primary post nights (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday). It appears to have been immediately successful. Samuel Nevill took over the enterprise in 1730, and started to cover politics more than his predecessor (who mainly avoided it). (Nevill later emigrated to colonial America , where he served as
448-492: The inn and, from July 1840, it became the main venue for Nottinghamshire matches instead of the Forest racecourse, which was not enclosed. A stand at Trent Bridge has been named after Clarke. Clarke was a great spin bowler . He began his first-class career as roundarm bowling was being introduced but he decided to persist with the slow right-arm underarm leg-spin he had learned as a boy. In his career, he took 795 wickets at
476-423: The outstanding average of 10.06 in 143 known first-class matches with a best analysis of 9/29. He took five wickets in an innings 82 times and ten wickets in a match 26 times. He was a moderate batsman, scoring first-class 2133 runs at an average of 10.35 with a highest score of 75. He took 55 catches. Clarke played in the inaugural North v. South fixture at Lord's , this being his first appearance there. He
504-472: The paper also reportedly folded, though archives exist of the paper in the same name dated later than 1780. John Miller (c. 1744–1807), who was printer of the Post in the 1770s, was charged with libel five times and at times jailed for it; he later moved to South Carolina in 1783 and started newspapers there. William Clarke (cricketer, born 1798) William Clarke (24 December 1798 – 25 August 1856)
532-461: The quality and/or status of their opponents. Sometimes, the all-England teams were given names like "The Rest", which more accurately describes them vis-à-vis their opponents. CricketArchive (CA) lists 29 matches involving teams called England or The Rest between 1739 and 1778. These are all important matches but only one, England v Kent in 1744, has a scorecard. The earliest important match that has been designated "first-class" by CA (i.e., coded F1)
560-526: The reins from Joseph Dennis , Clarke captained the old Nottingham town club from 1830 and automatically succeeded to the captaincy of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club when it was formed out of the town club in various stages between 1835 and 1840. In 1845, Clarke had become a ground bowler at Lord's as an MCC employee. Another ground bowler then was William Lillywhite . Clarke had a great season in 1845 and few batsmen could play him well. Although most MCC ground staff were satisfied with their pay, Clarke
588-502: The scale of victory, which for some years past has been generally on the Kentish side". Given a 1728 reference to the superiority of Kent in the 1720s, it would seem that only a team representing three other counties had the strength to compete against them. After 1739, "England" (or "all-England") became a generic term used to denote numerous teams over the next two hundred years. They invariably have important match status , depending on
SECTION 20
#1732771863751616-550: The term "all-England" was used loosely in a generic sense but, strictly speaking, the teams represented "the Rest of England". The "all England" term per se was first used in reports of two Kent v England matches in 1739. The first was at Bromley Common on Monday, 9 July, and billed as "eleven gentlemen of that county (i.e., Kent) and eleven gentlemen from any part of England, exclusive of Kent". Kent, described as "the unconquerable county", won by "a very few notches". The second match
644-541: Was an English cricketer and team manager who played first-class cricket from 1826 to 1855. He founded, managed and captained the All-England Eleven . He has been described as "one of certain figures who, in the history of cricket , stand like milestones along the way". Clarke was born at Nottingham and died at Wandsworth in Surrey . In the late 1820s, he lost sight in one eye after being struck there by
672-622: Was at the Artillery Ground in Bunhill Fields, Finsbury on Monday, 23 July. This game was drawn and a report includes the phrase "eleven picked out of all ( sic ) England". Top-level cricket at that time, however, was limited to the southeastern counties. Before these matches, there were instances of teams representing a number of counties. On Thursday, 28 August 1729, a match between Edwin Stead 's XI and Sir William Gage 's XI
700-546: Was between a Hampshire county team and one called England on Broadhalfpenny Down at Hambledon in Hampshire on 24 June 1772. CA lists all matches involving teams called England without differentiating between international and non-international, so it seems they assume the "England" team of 1772 to be a direct predecessor of the modern England Test team. Not helpfully, CA also uses the term "England XI" and has another list, starting in 1872, of matches played by this team which
728-522: Was held at Penshurst Park , near Tunbridge Wells in Kent . The match had the alternative title of Kent (Stead) v Surrey, Sussex & Hampshire (Gage). It was 11-a-side and played for 100 guineas with some thousands watching. It seems to have been the first known innings victory as Gage "got (within three) in one hand, as the former did in two hands, so the Kentish men (i.e., Stead's team) threw it up". A contemporary report states that "( Thomas Waymark ) turned
756-520: Was indeed a top-class side worthy of its title and the matches in Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds were a huge success. Clarke's touring team continued for several years to showcase the best players of the day and the venture became very profitable, especially for the entrepreneurial Clarke, who was careful to pay his players more than MCC did to keep them interested. He kept the surplus for himself and became very wealthy. John Arlott wrote of him: "He
784-455: Was not and in 1846 he decided to take matters into his own hands. In August 1846, when the MCC season finished, he formed the All-England Eleven (AEE) as a touring team of leading players to play matches at big city venues, mainly in the "unfashionable but prosperous" North of England. The team played three matches in 1846 against 22 of Sheffield, 18 of Manchester and 18 of Yorkshire. Clarke's team
#750249