The White Conduit Club (WCC) was short-lived, existing only in the 1780s, but it had considerable significance in the history of cricket as its members created the first Lord's venue and reorganised themselves as the new Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). 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 the 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 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. The club generally held important match status, depending on the quality of their opponents.
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Club history
The White Conduit Club, although short-lived, was perhaps the most significant club in cricket history for it bridged the gulf between the rural and rustic Hambledon era and the new, modern and metropolitan era of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 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, the club 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 (1851) that his farming employer concluded a deal with George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea to allow Beldham time off his agricultural duties to go to the "new cricket ground" at White Conduit Fields and play for Hampshire (or more accurately, the Hambledon Club) 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. Beldham's first match in Scores & Biographies was for All-England v WCC at Lord's in 1787; but he was previously recorded as playing for Berkshire against Essex in 1785 (this match was recorded by H. T. Waghorn in his Dawn of Cricket).
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. From that club there grew the WCC, so-called because it played on White Conduit Fields. Its leading lights were George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea (1752–1826) and the Hon. Colonel Charles Lennox (1764–1819), who later became the 4th Duke of Richmond. The WCC was nominally an exclusive club that only "gentlemen" might play for, but the club did employ professionals and one of these was the bowler Thomas Lord, a man who was recognised for his business acumen as well as his bowling ability.
It might have continued except that White Conduit Fields was an open area allowing members of the public, including the rowdier elements, to watch the matches and to voice their opinions on the play and the players. The White Conduit gentlemen were not amused by such interruptions and decided to look for a more private venue of their own.
Thomas Lord ultimately used his business abilities to become a successful wine and provisions merchant, but he is remembered for his cricket grounds (there were three in all). Winchilsea and Lennox asked Lord to find a new ground and offered him a guarantee against any losses he may suffer in the venture. So Lord took a lease from the Portman Estate on some land at Dorset Fields where Dorset Square is now sited; and the ground was prepared and opened in 1787. It was named Lord's cricket ground and, since it was in Marylebone, the WCC on relocating there decided to call themselves Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
The White Conduit Club disappeared in the aftermath of MCC's founding and White Conduit Fields also disappeared under increasing urbanisation as London grew and swallowed the village of Islington whole.
The White Conduit Club is known to have played at least eleven matches between 1785 and 1788. The last, ironically, was on 27 June 1788 against MCC at Lord's (Dorset Square). It is recorded in Scores & Biographies on page 83 but its status as an important match is questionable because the WCC team contained ten unknown players. MCC won by 83 runs and WCC played no more.
Appearances
These are the number of known appearances by White Conduit Club players (M = matches played):