A visit to Lord’s Old Ground and the first home of MCC and English cricket

A plaque in Dorset Square recalls the beginnings of Marylebone Cricket Club in 1787 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

I indulged in a little cricket nostalgia or history in Dublin and London last month, with a return visit to Leinster Cricket Club in Rathmines just before Christmas, which I recalled HERE yesterday, and a visit earlier in December to the original site of the Lord’s cricket ground in Dorset Square in Marylebone.

Marylebone Cricket Club was founded in 1787, taking as its home a cricket ground set up by the ambitious entrepreneur Thomas Lord (1755-1832).

Lord acquired seven acres (28,000 m2) off Dorset Square in May 1787, with the support of George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, and Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, two of the leading members of the White Conduit Club.

White Conduit Club relocated there and soon afterwards formed, or merged into, the new Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

The first match known to have been played at Lord’s Old Ground was White Conduit Club v Middlesex on Monday 21 May 1787. Other accounts say the first match there was on 31 May, between Middlesex and Essex.

The following year, MCC laid down a Code of Laws requiring the wickets to be pitched 22 yards apart and detailing how players could be given out. The laws were adopted throughout the game – and to this day MCC remains the custodian and arbiter of laws relating to cricket around the world.

So, I suppose it could be said that Dorset Square in Marylebone is the home of cricket.

The world's oldest continually-played fixture that continues to this day – the annual Eton v Harrow match – was first played on the grounds in 1805, when Lord Byron was on the losing Harrow side. The inaugural Gentlemen v Players match took place at the Old Ground in July 1806.

Lord’s Old Ground was used by MCC for major matches until 1810, after which a dispute about rent caused Lord to relocate. The final fixture was played on 17 August 1810.

Dorset Square was built on the site of Lord’s Old Ground (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Lord relocated in 1811 to Lord’s Middle Ground, a site near Regent’s Park. However, Lord lost that venue too when the land was requisitioned for the Regent’s Canal, which was cut through the site. In 1814, Lord opened the present Lord’s Cricket Ground, formerly a duckpond in St John’s Wood.

During those moves, the club moved everything, including the turf. Lord’s has since become world-renowned and remains the MCC home to this day.

Dorset Square as it is now was the central feature of an urban layout planned by the Portman Estate (1815-1820) after it was bought from Lord. Since then, the square has changed little architecturally.

Although the site is built over, commemorative plaques on a hut in the square's garden recall the first home of cricket in Marylebone.

The nearest Tube station is 200 metres away at Baker Street, and the nearest train station Marylebone, also about 200 metres away.

Remembering the early days of cricket in Dorset Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Daily prayers during the 12 Days of Christmas: 9, 2 January 2024

‘On the Ninth Day of Christmas … ladies dancing’ … street art in Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Ninth Day of Christmas (2 January 2024). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today celebrates the lives of Saint Basil the Great (379) and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (389), bishops and teachers of the faith, Saint Seraphim of Sarov (1833), monk and spiritual guide, and Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah (1945), bishop in South India and Evangelist.

Before today begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer.

My reflections each morning during the ‘12 Days of Christmas’ are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on a verse from the popular Christmas song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

‘On the Ninth Day of Christmas … ladies dancing’ … a floor show in Nevşehir in Cappadocia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today is the Ninth Day of Christmas (2 January). But, in liturgical terms, Christmas is a 40-day season that continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. They were defenders of the doctrine of the incarnation in the fourth century, and so it is appropriate to remember them during the 12 days of Christmas.

The Orthodox calendar celebrated Saint Basil yesterday, and in the Orthodox tradition 2 January instead marks the beginning of the Forefeast of the Theophany, which reaches its climax on 5 January.

The ninth verse of the traditional song, ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, is:

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me …
nine ladies dancing,
eight maids-a-milking,
seven swans-a-swimming,
six geese-a-laying,
five golden rings,
four colly birds,
three French hens,
two turtle doves
and a partridge in a pear tree.

The Christian interpretation of this song often sees the nine ladies dancing as figurative representations of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit:

● Love,
● Joy,
● Peace,
● Patience,
● Kindness,
● Goodness,
● Faithfulness,
● Gentleness, and
● Self-control

(see Galatians 5: 19-23).

‘Nine ladies dancing’ … a floor show in Kuşadası on the Aegean coast of Turkey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 1: 19-28 (NRSVA):

19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ 20 He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ 21 And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ 22 Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ 23 He said
‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord”’,
as the prophet Isaiah said.

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ 26 John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ 28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

The bell above the Church of Aghios Vassilios (Saint Basil) in Koutouloufári, in the mountains above Iraklion in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 2 January 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Looking to 2024 – Freedom in Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Duncan Dormor, USPG General Secretary.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (2 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

As we start a new year, we pray that we look to this year with hope for the future – free of fear, faithful in Christ.

The Collect:

Lord God, whose servants Basil and Gregory
proclaimed the mystery of your Word made flesh,
to build up your Church in wisdom and strength:
grant that we may rejoice in his presence among us,
and so be brought with them to know the power
of your unending love;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Basil and Gregory to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Basil among Seven Fathers of the Church above the south porch of Lichfield Cathedral (from left): Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory, John Chrysostom, Athanasius and Basil (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org