London Cricket Club - The Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Club

The Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Club

London Cricket Club was founded and organised by members of what is usually termed the Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Club, which had its headquarters at the Star and Garter on Pall Mall in London. This gentlemen's club was multi-functional, though essentially of a social and sporting nature, but its purpose was to encourage and enable gambling. For example, its members also founded the Jockey Club and were usually involved with organising big prizefighting events. Cricket throughout the 18th century was funded by gambling interests and attracted huge stakes.

Gambling has always had its unsavoury side and eventually the Artillery Ground became a place of ill-repute. The club members became uneasy about associating with a place that was widely known for licentious and, occasionally, riotous behaviour, even though it showcased cricket of the highest class. Cricket was severely impacted by the Seven Years War from 1756 to 1763 and the number of matches played greatly reduced. There are signs of the game returning to its rural roots during this period and evidently the aristocrats were happy with that development. Apart from four matches in the 1769 English cricket season, there are few mentions of London as a team in the aftermath of the Seven Years War and many of the references suggest that these teams were in fact occasional "London XIs" rather than representing an organised London club.

The Artillery Ground itself began to be used less and less after 1763. A match on 15 September 1778 is the last important one played there. Hambledon was already by then the predominant centre of English cricket and a lot of games were being played at other outlying venues such as Laleham Burway, Bishopsbourne Paddock and Sevenoaks Vine. London for the time being had been abandoned.

It is reasonable to assume that the London Cricket Club was disbanded during the Seven Years War. With its demise and the war situation, the "honourable gentlemen" retreated to the countryside and founded or at least augmented the Hambledon Club, which was the main centre of cricket from about 1765 for the next twenty years.

In the early 1780s, the gentlemen decided to re-establish themselves in the vicinity of London and founded the White Conduit Club in Islington. But they were not happy about the environment of White Conduit Fields and commissioned Thomas Lord to find a "more private venue". He opened Lord's Old Ground in 1787 in Marylebone. The gentlemen moved their cricketing interests there and reinvented themselves as Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which is thus a direct continuation of the old London Cricket Club.