The United All-England Eleven (UEE) was an English

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 ...

team formed in 1852 by players breaking away from William Clarke's All-England Eleven (AEE). Key UEE players included

John Wisden John Wisden (5 September 1826 – 5 April 1884) was an English cricketer who played 187 first-class cricket matches for three English county cricket teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex. His father, William, was a builder. He attended Brighton's ...

and

Jemmy Dean James "Jemmy" Dean (4 January 1816 – 25 December 1881) was an English first-class cricketer with professional status. Mainly associated with Sussex, he is recorded in 305 matches from 1835 to 1861 which are generally designated first-class, ...

, who became joint secretaries of the team. The team was part of a movement in cricket that used Clarke's idea of professional teams touring the country on the newly created railways. The introduction of railways meant that, for the first time, cricket teams found that touring was feasible. Together with Clarke's team, the UEE players monopolised the best cricket talent until the rise of

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

in the 1860s.Tony Collins, ''Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports'', Routledge, 2005, . Clarke would have nothing to do with the UEE, but he died in 1856, and from 1857 to 1866 the matches between the AEE and the UEE were perhaps the most important contests of the English season - certainly judged by the quality of the players. Between 1850 and 1880, 19 such teams were formed including the United North of England Eleven and the United South of England Eleven. The teams functioned by charging game organisers for their services and the organisers recouped their costs through a paying audience. By 1859, the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' could say that the first English team to tour overseas was composed of players from "the two leading professional elevens of England""The International Cricket Match", ''New York Times'', 3 October 1859. when a team composed of six players from both the AEE and UEE visited Canada and the USA that September.

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