The home of
English cricket
The spiritual home of cricket is at Halfpenny Down north
east of the village
of Hambledon in
Hampshire. This is where Hambledon
Cricket Club, founded in 1760, gradually developed the laws of the modern
game. A granite monument in a corner of
the cricket ground marks the hallowed site.
The old ‘Bat and Ball Inn,’ once used as the clubhouse, stands nearby.
Halfpenny Down |
Lord’s
Lord’s cricket
ground is now recognised as the
headquarters of cricket. Thomas Lord
was born in Kirkgate in the tiny North Yorkshire
town of Thirsk
in 1755, the son of a labourer. When the
family moved to Norfolk ,
young Thomas became a useful cricketer and subsequently found work at the White
Conduit Cricket Club in Islington. Lord
was soon given the task of finding a better ground for the club and he
eventually obtained the lease of some land which became known as ‘Lord’s’, and
the club changed its name to The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), This land was subsequently sold for
development and after a move to Regents Park, Lord eventually established the
club at its present home in St John’s Wood in 1814.
Lord died in 1832.
A commemorative plaque marks the cottage where he was born and now
houses Thirsk Museum .
Members of MCC and the two counties watch from the Pavilion. The ground's famous slope shows clearly.
I am grateful to John Sutton for the use of his Geograph photograph and text.
Lord's birthplace in Thirsk
Out for a duck
The first cricket match to be played in the village took
place on 18th
July 1857 , when the home team beat the neaby Cherry Burton team by two
wickets. At that time the pitch was in
the grounds of the High Hall, which is now an Agricultural College . At one time the team fielded ten Ducks!
A local family of joiners and wheelwrights were called ‘Duck’ and they produced many useful cricketers who played for the village team.
The village schoolmaster was called ‘Swann’. Other villagers were called Bird, Cockerill, Sparrow and Drake, and the
head gardener at High Hall was called Green.
Tottenham
Hotspur
Many of our football teams are called such and such City or United etc. A few have curious names such as Borton Wanderer's, a name they adopted in the early days when they didn't have a permanent home ground. Accrington Stanley was named after the local pub - The Stanley Arms, whilst Sheffield Wednesday started life as a cricket club which played their games on Wednesday and later formed a football club.
Tottenham Hotspur derives its name from the eldest son of the 1st
Earl of Northumberland, Sir Henry Percy, who was nicknamed ‘Hotspur’ due to the
speed of his attack on Scottish raiders. The seat of the Percy’s was in
Northumberland Park in the Tottenham marshes of north London.
In 1892 the
local football club was founded and became The Hotspur Football Club,
later Tottenham Hotspur.
Aerial view Tottenham Hotspur Football Club
Photograph taken from helicopter encircling the ground.
Picture shows the rear of the East Stand. Taken facing west with Bruce Castle
Park in the far background
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