Great Cricket Match 1844 (New York Herald)

The Canadian cricket team in the United States in 1844 was a tour consisting of the first

international cricket International cricket matches are played between teams representing their nations, normally organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The main forms are Test matches, One-Day matches and Twenty20 matches. Most games are played ...

match. The match took place between 24 and 26 September 1844 at the

St George's Cricket Club The St George's Cricket Club was originally located in Manhattan, New York it later moved to Hoboken, New Jersey. Its name comes from its association with St. George's Episcopal Church at Stuyvesant Square, Manhattan. It hosted the first intern ...

's ground at what is now 30th Street and Broadway (then Bloomingdales) in Manhattan. The game was billed as 'United States of America ''versus'' the British Empire's

Canadian Province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nor ...

’; Canada won by 23 runs. On the first day, there were from 5,000 to 20,000 spectators and an estimated $100,000 to $120,000 worth of bets were placed on the match. The United States team played a match in Canada in 1845.

Background

The origins of the match began four years earlier, when a team from the St George's Club turned up in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, almost destitute after a long journey by stage coach through

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...

and across

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

by steamer. A Mr. Phillpotts had invited St George's to play the

Toronto Cricket Club The Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club is a private sport and social club located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The club offers a variety of sporting and social programs including aquatics, cricket, croquet, curling, figure skating, fitn ...

at home, but when the 18 men arrived on 28 August 1840, the Canadians were not expecting them: the Mr. Philpotts who had arranged the match was not the Toronto club's Secretary, George A. Phillpotts, but an imposter. Despite the hoax invitation, a cricket match was hastily arranged, which was attended by a good number of spectators, a brass band and

Sir George Arthur Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet (21 June 1784 – 19 September 1854) was Lieutenant Governor of British Honduras from 1814 to 1822 and of Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) from 1823 to 1836. The campaign against Aboriginal Tasmania ...

, the governor of

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North Americ ...

. The New Yorker Club won by 10 wickets, and left on such good terms that they invited the Canadians down for what was to be the first cricket match between national teams rather than local club teams.

Match

The US team was drawn from clubs in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morg ...

and Boston, as well as a number in New York. Likewise, the Canadians tried to present a representative national team, rather than simply the Toronto CC team. Whether or not the Canadians managed to actually make it a cross-Canada national team is unclear, but letters written between the clubs indicate the Canadian team may have included players from the Guelph Cricket Club and Upper Canada College Club as well as the Toronto club. Advertisements and posters for the game found in libraries have the game as between the US and Canada, rather than two city teams. The game was scheduled for two days, and after the first day, Canada had been bowled out for 82, with the USA being 61 for 9 in reply. On the second day, bad weather prevented play, so the game was extended to a third day, when the USA were all out for 64, and Canada were bowled out for 63 in their second innings, setting the USA 82 runs to win. Canada bowled the US out for 58 to win the match by 23 runs. US player George Wheatcroft arrived too late on the third day, and was replaced in the field by Alfred Marsh, who did not bat.

Match details

Legacy

In 1845, a return match was arranged at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

, and the fixture, known as the Auty Cup, has been played sporadically ever since. The cricket statistician

Bill Frindall William Howard Frindall, (3 March 1939 – 29 January 2009) was an English cricket scorer and statistician, who was familiar to cricket followers as a member of the Test Match Special commentary team on BBC radio. He was nicknamed the Bearded ...

wrote in 2002, "The USA has fielded many international teams. Their annual match against Canada has been staged since 1844, pre-dating the earliest encounters between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

by 33 years."

References

External links