History
Six local tradesmen - William Stratford (the first President), John Southren, Tom Lindley, William Woolhouse, George Dawson and George Hardisty, formed The Wednesday Cricket Club, so named because that was their day off, and therefore the only day they could play. One of the club's first grounds was the New Darnall ground (parts of the old one had collapsed during a big game between Sheffield and Nottingham), which was more than capable of hosting a big game, perhaps the biggest of them all coming in 1828 when a combined Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire XI faced a Rest of England XI in front of a sell-out crowd of 8,000.
Sheffield had been the home of cricket in the north of England during the first half of the nineteenth century, and Sheffield Cricket Club had played under the guise of a 'Yorkshire' side for many years prior to the formation of Yorkshire Country Cricket Club in 1863.
Some great local cricketers appeared for the Wednesday club, men like Michael Ellison (who later helped form Yorkshire CCC), William Slinn, Tom Hunt, George Pinder, Tom Armitage, (selected in the England team that took on Australia in the first ever test match in 1877), and possibly the greatest of them all, Tom Marsden. Marsden was for many years the best single wicket cricketer in the north of England, and, not short on confidence, he put up a £50 reward for anyone to beat him. The great Southern cricketer of the time, Fuller Pilch, did just that, in 1828, and when a rematch was organised, over 20,000 crammed into the Old Darnall ground hoping to see their man gain revenge. However Marsden was defeated once more, and it proved to be the beginning of the end for a player who, aged just 21, had hit 227 in a game for Sheffield & Leicester versus Nottingham, at that time only the third double century seen in England. In 1841 he finally lost his northern single wicket crown to Harry Sampson, another Wednesday man who later that year scored 162 against Sheffield on ice!
The town was awash with multi-talented sportsmen around the mid-Nineteenth century, and a few even managed to appear for both the cricket and football sections of the Wednesday club, William Stacey and Lance Morley, among them. However the most famous man to appear for the club in both sports was one of Sheffield's greatest ever characters - George Ulyett. Ulyett made his only competitive appearance for the football club when keeping goal against Notts County in an 1883 FA Cup tie, but the Pitsmoor man was far more renowned as a top class cricketer. After playing in the first ever test match alongside Tom Armitage, his most famous moment came in 1884, when claiming a wicket against the Australians at Lord's. Having bowled to renowned hard hitter George Bonner, the batsman smashed it straight back down the wicket, and to the amazement of the crowd, Ulyett caught it. The great W.G. Grace even labelled him 'foolish' for attempting such a catch, as he believed it would have broken his arm should the bowler have misjudged it.
Read more about this topic: The Wednesday Cricket Club
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