In the 1872

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

season, the first experiment in pitch covering was carried out.

Prince's Cricket Ground Prince's Cricket Ground in Chelsea, London was a cricket ground, created by the brothers George and James Prince as part of the Prince's Club, on which 37 first-class matches were played between 1872 and 1878. The ground was built on in 1883. Th ...

opened in

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an area in West London, England, due south-west of Kilometre zero#Great Britain, Charing Cross by approximately . It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the SW postcode area, south-western p ...

Playing record (by county)

Leading batsmen (qualification 15 innings)

Leading bowlers (qualification 800 balls)

Events

* An experiment took place at Lord's to study the effects of covering the pitch before the start of a match, the first time this is known to have been tried. Unlike the recently introduced heavy roller which became universally used by 1880 and produced significant changes in the game by eliminating previously ubiquitous shooters, covering was for a long time severely rejected in England: it was the wet summer of

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

before covering as regular practice was even considered and

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

before it was considered "acceptable". * 14 May: MCC lose seven wickets before their first run is scored on a

sticky wicket Sticky wicket (or sticky dog, or glue pot) is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance. It originated as a term for difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket, caused by a damp and soft wicket. In cricket The phrase comes from ...

at Lord's against

James Southerton James Southerton (16 November 1827 – 16 June 1880) was an English professional cricketer whose first-class career spanned 26 seasons from 1854 to 1879. Right-handed as both batsman and bowler, he began his career as a specialist batsman. He ...

and William Marten of Surrey. Their ninth wicket falls at 8 - which would have been the lowest score in an important match for sixty-two years - but the last wicket doubles the score *

hosted its first first-class match being between North and South on 16 May. Before being built on, it was generally praised for its wicketsRae, Simon; ''W. G. Grace: A Life''; p. 106 and the scenery surrounding the ground.

Notes

Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire played a third match at the short-lived

, Chelsea

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, though regarded until 1885 as first-class, played no inter-county matches between 1868 and 1869 or 1871 and 1874

References

Bibliography

* ''John Lillywhite’s Cricketer's Companion'' (Green Lilly), Lillywhite, 1873 * ''James Lillywhite’s Cricketers' Annual'' (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1873 * ''

John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'', 1873 {{English cricket seasons 1872 in English cricket English cricket seasons in the 19th century