White Conduit Club


The White Conduit Club was a cricket club based on the northern fringes of London that existed between about 1782 until 1788. Although short-lived, it had considerable significance in the history of the game, as its members created Lord's Old Ground, the first cricket venue which would go on to become Lord's, and subsequently reorganised themselves as the new Marylebone Cricket Club.
The WCC took its name from White Conduit Fields in Islington where it was based until 1787. It was essentially a gentlemen's club for those with amateur status but it employed professional cricketers who provided coaching for members and sometimes played in the club's matches. One of these was the bowler Thomas Lord, after whom Lord's is named.
The most significant members of the club were Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond and George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea who employed Lord to find a new, private venue for the club after complaints that White Conduit Fields was too open to the public. Famous players who represented WCC include the professionals John Small, Lumpy Stevens, Tom Taylor and Tom Walker. Records of many WCC matches are known to have been lost when the Lord's Pavilion burned down in 1825 and only 13 matches between 1784 and 1788 are known today.

History

The club was one of the most significant in the history of cricket, as it bridged the gulf between the rural and rustic Hambledon era and the modern and metropolitan era of the Marylebone Cricket Club and Lord's, the two entities that it spawned.
It is not known for certain when the WCC was founded but it seems to have been after 1780 and certainly by 1785. According to Pelham Warner, it was formed in 1782 as an offshoot from a West End convivial club called the Je-ne-sais-quoi, some of whose members frequented the White Conduit House in Islington and played matches on the neighbouring White Conduit Fields. The famous batsman Billy Beldham was hired while still a young professional by the WCC in 1785 and he told James Pycroft, author of The Cricket Field that his farming employer concluded a deal with George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea to allow Beldham time away from his agricultural duties to go to the "new cricket ground" at White Conduit Fields and play for Hampshire against All-England. The score of this match has evidently been lost because there is no trace of an All-England v Hampshire game at White Conduit Fields in or about 1785.
The WCC had its origin in much earlier gentlemen's clubs. By the 1720s, cricket was already well-established in southern counties such as Kent, Surrey and Sussex. It was also being played and watched, often by large crowds of spectators, in London, where many of its leading advocates and players were members of the aristocracy. One of the earliest recognised London cricket clubs was the "Je-ne-sais-quoi", later known as the "Star and Garter", which had a meeting place on Pall Mall and actually drew up a set of Laws there in 1774. In the 1730s and 1740s, the Star and Garter Club had Frederick, Prince of Wales as its chairman.
The White Conduit Club disappeared in the aftermath of MCC's founding and White Conduit Fields also disappeared under increasing urbanisation as London expanded and absorbed the village of Islington.

Matches

Appearances

These are the number of known appearances by White Conduit Club players :
player's name and usual club or countyM
Charles Anguish 1
Henry Hervey Aston 1
William Bedster 1
George T. Boult 2
Sir Peter Burrell 6
Butcher 1
Chippendale, Esq. 1
Robert Clifford 1
Charles Cumberland 1
John Dampier 6
Davy 1
G. Drummond 4
Gilbert East 5
Everitt, Esq. 1
David Harris 2
Hawkins, Esq. 1
Edward Hussey 2
Richard Lawrence 1
J. Le Gros, Esq. 1
W. Le Gros, Esq. 1
Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond 3
George Louch 2
Noah Mann 2
J. Martin 1
Charles Monson 1
George Henry Monson 2
Richard Newman 4
Nicoll, Esq. 1
Ogle, Esq. 1
Peachey 3
Price, Esq. 1
Richard Purchase 1
Joey Ring 1
Rutten, Esq. 1
Sellers, Esq. 1
C. Slater 1
John Small 2
Thomas Assheton Smith I 1
Lumpy Stevens 3
Lord Strathavon 1
George Talbot 4
Tom Taylor 3
Tyson, Esq. 2
Harry Walker 1
Tom Walker 3
Weston, Esq. 1
George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea 7
J. Wyatt 4