St George's Cricket Club

The St George's Cricket Club (SGCC) was founded in Manhattan, New York. As recalled in 1894{{cite book |last=Wister |first=William Rotch |date=1904 |title=Some Reminiscences of Cricket in Philadelphia Before 1861 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000013226510&seq=146 |location=Philadelphia |publisher= Allen, Lane & Scott |pages=140–141 |via=HathiTrust}} by one of the SGCC's early players, Robert Waller, the club's name was not adopted until St George's Day (April 23) 1840, although it had been formed the previous year.{{efn|The New York Herald noted that 1879 was the club's 40th season,{{cite news |author= |date=November 18, 1879 |title=Cricket |newspaper=The New York Herald |issue=15793 |page=8}} having stated previously that it was established in 1839.{{cite news |author= |date=April 4, 1876 |title=Cricket |newspaper=The New York Herald |issue=14470 |page=5}}}} However, according to Henry Chadwick,{{cite book |last=Chadwick |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Chadwick (writer) |date=1873 |title=Chadwick's American Cricket Manual |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn2bcm&seq=91 |location=New York |publisher=Robert M. De Witt |pages=85–87 |via=HathiTrust}} its first match was played (as "New York"{{efn|In 1839, the club was referred to in the press as the "New York Cricket Club",{{cite news |author= |date=21 October 1839 |title=Cricket Match |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/466532282/ |url-access=subscription |newspaper=Morning Herald |volume=5 |issue=136 |location=New York |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}} but this would have been a natural description as there were no other cricket clubs in the city at the time.{{cite book |last=Adelmam |first=Melvin L. |date=1986 |title=A Sporting Time: New York City and the Rise of Modern Athletics, 1820–70 |location=Urbana, IL |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=025201250X |page=319}} The index to The Albion newspaper for 1840 refers to New York Cricket Club, but the article concerned relates only to St George's.{{cite news |author= |date= |title=Index to Vol. 2, New Series |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_albion-a-journal-of-news-politics-and-literature_1840_2_index/mode/1up |newspaper=The Albion |location=New York |via=Internet Archive}}{{cite news |author= |date=September 19, 1840 |title=St. George's Cricket Club New York |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_albion-a-journal-of-news-politics-and-literature_1840-09-19_2_38/page/311/mode/1up |newspaper=The Albion |series=New Series |volume=2 |issue=38 |location=New York |page=311 |via=Internet Archive}}}} against "Long Island") on October 22–23, 1838.{{efn|An earlier account of this match, based on details reportedly preserved by one of the New York team's players, G. Stead, appeared in the New York Clipper in 1858.{{cite news |author= |date=March 13, 1858 |title=Cricket |url=https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=NYC18580313.1.4 |newspaper=New York Clipper |volume=5 |issue=47 |page=372 |via=Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections}}}} In July 1840, an advert was placed in the Spirit of the Times, stating that the SGCC was "open to play a friendly Match between any Club, or any eleven players in the United States, for a sum not less than $100, or over $500" (a "Match" was to consist of one game in New York, and another at any location between Philadelphia and Troy).{{cite news |author= |date=July 25, 1840 |title=Cricket Challenge |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_spirit-of-the-times_1840-07-25_10_21/mode/1up |newspaper=Spirit of the Times |volume=10 |issue=21 |location=New York |page=1 |via=Internet Archive}} On September 24–25, 1844, it hosted the first international cricket match, between Canada and the United States.{{sfnp|Marder|1968|pp=9–12}}{{cite book |last=Kimber |first=Jarrod |author-link=Jarrod Kimber |date=2015 |title=Test Cricket: The Unauthorised Biography |location=Richmond |publisher=Hardic Grant Books |isbn=978-1743790199 |page=15}}

Most of its playing members were British-born and excluded Americans from participating in their "English game".{{efn|In 1843, this led to the formation of the New York Cricket Club, to which Edwin Augustus Stevens granted land for a ground in Hoboken.{{cite news |author= |date=October 28, 1844 |title=New York Cricket Club |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_albion-a-journal-of-news-politics-and-literature_1843-10-28_2_43/page/n11/mode/1up |newspaper=The Albion |series=New Series |volume=2 |issue=43 |location=New York |page=536 |via=Internet Archive}}{{cite news |author= |date=May 25, 1844 |title=On Dits in Sporting Circles |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_spirit-of-the-times_1844-05-25_14_13/page/1/mode/1up |newspaper=Spirit of the Times |volume=14 |issue=13 |location=New York |page=150 |via=Internet Archive}}{{refn|name="Preston-Dec1868"|{{cite news |last=Preston |first=Paul |date=December 12, 1868 |title=Reminiscences of a Man About Town: No. 34 – The New York Cricket Club |url=https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=NYC18681212.2.30 |newspaper=New York Clipper |volume=16 |issue=36 |page=284 |via=Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections}} (Paul Preston was a pseudonym of Thomas Picton).{{cite book |last=Adkins |first=Nelson F. |editor-last=Malone |editor-first=Dumas |editor-link=Dumas Malone |date=1934 |chapter=Thomas, Picton |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.168187/page/n582/mode/1up |title=Dictionary of American Biography |volume=14 |location=London |publisher=Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press |pages=572–573 |via=Internet Archive}}{{cite book |last=Picton |first=Tom |editor-last=Slout |editor-first=William L. |contributor-last=Slout |contributor-first=William L. |date=1996 |contribution=Introduction |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5FAFdIxMGg0C&pg=PA5 |title=Fun and Fancy in Old New York: Reminiscences of a Man About Town |series=Clipper Studies in the Theatre |volume=15 |publisher=Borgo Press |location=San Bernardino, CA |isbn=0809503034 |issn=0748-237X |pages=5–7 |via=Google Books}}}}}} The local resentment of this English social exclusivity amongst New York ball players may have been the impetus for cricket to be designated as an "English" game in the US, though it had been played for over a century at the time. The SGCC club traveled to Canada on several occasions in the 1850s, encouraging a touring tradition for American sports which culminated in George Parr's All-England XI visiting New York, Philadelphia, and Montreal in 1859.{{cite book |author= |date=1859 |title=The International Cricket Match, Played Oct., 1859, in the Elysian Fields, at Hoboken, on the Grounds of the St. George's Cricket Club |url=https://archive.org/details/internationalcri00stge/page/n6/mode/1up |location=New York |publisher=Vinten |via=Internet Archive}}{{cite book |last=Lillywhite |first=Fred |author-link=Fred Lillywhite |date=1860 |title=The English Cricketers' Trip to Canada and the United States |url=https://archive.org/details/englishcrickete00hindgoog/page/n66/mode/1up |location=London |publisher=F. Lillywhite / Kent & Co. |pages=31–32 |via=Internet Archive}} This was the first occasion that a professional team of players in any sport had played in the United States. The All England Team of professionals played a US XXII team that included five SGCC players.

In 1866, it was reported that the SGCC had 200–300 members and was in a "flourishing condition", being able to field "three excellent elevens".{{cite book |last=Peverelly |first=Charles A. |date=1866 |title=The Book of American Pastimes, containing a History of the Principal Base-ball, Cricket, Rowing, and Yachting Clubs of the United States |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082423470&seq=553 |location=New York |publisher=Charles A. Peverelly |pages=529–530 |via=HathiTrust}} It continued its dominant New York cricket organizational role until 1876, when the founding of the New York Metropolitan league and the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club at Walker Park ushered in a new era of league cricket in New York.{{cite book |last=Sentance |first=P. David |date=2006 |title=Cricket in America 1710–2000 |publisher=McFarland}} Its first ground was located in Midtown Manhattan off of Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) between 30th and 31st Street.{{refn|name="Preston-Oct1868"|{{cite news |last=Preston |first=Paul |date=October 17, 1868 |title=Reminiscences of a Man About Town: No. 26 – Among the Cricketers |url=https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=NYC18681017.2.26 |newspaper=New York Clipper |volume=16 |issue=28 |page=220 |via=Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections}} (Paul Preston was a pseudonym of Thomas Picton).}}{{cite magazine |author= |date=August 9, 1884 |title=Cricket in America |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_saturday-review-uk_the-saturday-review-of-p_1884-08-09_58_1502/page/170/mode/1up |magazine=The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art |volume=58 |issue=1502 |location=London |pages=170–171 |via=Internet Archive}} The ground was located behind the Casper Samler farmstead, which was later replaced by the Gilsey Hotel.{{cite book |last=Dayton |first=Abram C. |date=1882 |title=Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York |url=https://archive.org/details/lastdaysofknicke00dayt/page/98/mode/1up |location=New York |publisher=George W. Harlan |pages=98–99 |via=Internet Archive}}{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Stephen |date=1911 |title=The Greatest Street in the World: The Story of Broadway, Old and New, From the Bowling Green to Albany |url=https://archive.org/details/greateststreeti02jenkgoog/page/248/mode/1up |location=New York |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |page=248 |via=Internet Archive}} By November 1845, the SGCC was looking for another venue as this site had been "cut through" by the opening of Fifth Avenue.{{cite news |author= |date=November 3, 1845 |title=Cricket |newspaper=True Sun |issue=818 |location=New York |page=2}} On May 4, 1846, it was reported that the club had purchased a new ground "near the Red House on the Harlem Road", which it was in the process of "levelling and filling".{{cite news |author= |date=May 4, 1846 |title=Sporting Intelligence |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/329267760/ |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The New York Herald |volume=12 |issue=123#4336 |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}} The planned opening on St George's Day had already been postponed due to the "unfit state" of the ground,{{cite news |author= |date=April 13, 1846 |title=St George's Cricket Club |newspaper=True Sun |issue=955 |location=New York |page=2 |quote=The new ground of this club is near the Red House on the Bloomingdale road, and will be ready for play on 23d inst., which will be the opening day.}}{{cite news |author= |date=April 23, 1846 |title=St George's Cricket Club |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/329266508/ |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The New York Herald |volume=12 |issue=112#4325 |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}} but on May 18 it was advertised that a match would take place two days later.{{cite news |author= |date=May 18, 1846 |title=St George's Cricket Club |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/329269284/ |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The New York Herald |volume=12 |issue=137#4350 |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}} Known colloquially and referred to in the press as the "Red House" ground,{{efn|In several adverts, the name "Island House" is used instead.{{cite news |author= |date=June 19, 1846 |title=Cricket Match |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/329273215/ |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The New York Herald |volume=12 |issue=169#4392 |page=3 |quote=A Grand match will be played on Saturday the 20th inst., {{bracket|...}} at the St. George's new and beautiful Ground at the Island House, formerly called the Red House, 3d Avenue. |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |author= |date=July 31, 1846 |title=Cricket Match |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/843803060/ |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The New York Herald |volume=12 |issue=204#4441 |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |author= |date=August 3, 1846 |title=Cricket |newspaper=True Sun |issue=1052 |location=New York |page=2 |quote=There will be a fine day's sport, to-day at the St. George's Cricket Club ground, at the Island (late Red) House.}}}} the club's new home was situated to the east of Third Avenue, where 105th and 106th streets now cross First Avenue (as laid out in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811).{{cite map |last=Jones |first=R. A. |date=1851 |title=Map of that Part of the City and County of New-York North of 50th Street |url=https://earthworks.stanford.edu/catalog/stanford-bw151ck4710 |location=New York |publisher=M. Dripps}} Red House hosted domestic competitions between teams from New York and Philadelphia, as well as international matches with Canadian teams, including a match between the United States and Canada in 1853.{{sfnp|Marder|1968|pp=9–10, 36–42}}

In 1854, the SGCC moved across the Hudson River to New Jersey, where beginning on May 10, they were invited to play their matches on the ground of the New York Cricket Club.{{cite news |author= |date=July 15, 1854 |title=Base Ball Play |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_spirit-of-the-times_1854-07-15_24_22/page/n5/mode/1up |newspaper=The Spirit of the Times |volume=24 |issue=22 |location=New York |page=258 |via=Internet Archive}}{{cite news |author= |date=May 6, 1854 |title=Cricket |url=https://archive.org/details/NYTimes-Apr-Jun-1854/page/n247/mode/1up |newspaper=New-York Daily Times |volume=3 |issue=822 |page=8 |via=Internet Archive}} After the Civil War, St George's was slated to get a ground in Central Park{{cite news |author= |date=September 12, 1879 |title=Cricket |newspaper=The New York Herald |issue=15726 |page=5}} before moving to Hudson City. St George's opponents included the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club, the Philadelphia Cricket Club, and the Toronto Cricket Club. George Wright includes a picture of St George's cricket grounds in his biography.

George Wright's older brother Harry also played for St George's team. The Wrights' father, Samuel, was the professional groundskeeper for the team and is depicted, along with his son Harry, in a famous daguerreotype holding a cricket bat while Harry holds a baseball bat.

The SGCC did not send a representative to the first national cricket convention, held in Philadelphia in 1878, when the Cricketers' Association of the United States was established.{{cite news |author= |date=April 18, 1878 |title=Cricket Convention in Philadelphia |newspaper=The New York Herald |issue=15214 |page=10 |quote=The Chair stated that he had received a letter from the St. George, of New York, regretting that they could not send a delegate, but requesting to be informed of the actions of the Convention, with the objects of which they expressed sympathy.}} However, it did participate the next year, when a club member was elected as one of the organisation's two vice-presidents.{{cite news |author= |date=April 6, 1879 |title=Second Annual Meeting of the Cricketers' Association of the United States |newspaper=The New York Herald |issue=15567 |page=14}}

In May 1881, the SGCC became one of the founding members of the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA), with club treasurer Berkley Mostyn being elected to the committee.{{cite news |author= |date=February 3, 1880 |title=Cricket Club Meetings |newspaper=The New York Herald |issue=15870 |page=4}}{{cite news |author= |date=May 22, 1881 |title=Lawn Tennis Convention |newspaper=The New York Herald |issue=16344 |page=11}} The following year, the ground was expanded to provide a number of extra courts,{{cite news |author= |date=April 15, 1882 |title=Lawn Tennis |newspaper=The New York Herald |issue=16672 |page=5}} and by 1884 there were 20 in total.{{cite magazine |author= |date=January 1884 |title=City Athletics |url=https://archive.org/details/harpersmagazine68decalde/page/304/mode/1up |magazine=Harper's New Monthly Magazine |volume=68 |issue=405 |pages=297–305 |via=Internet Archive}} (See page 304). St George's approached the USLTA with the idea of holding the country's first regional tennis tournament,{{cite book |last=Slocum |first=H. W., Jr |author-link=Henry Slocum (tennis) |date=1890 |title=Lawn Tennis in Our Own Country |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn5qmr&seq=211 |location=New York |publisher=A. G. Spalding & Bros |page=205 |via=HathiTrust}} and duly hosted the inaugural Middle States Tennis Championship on June 10–12, 1885.{{cite news |date=9 June 1885 |title=Experts at Lawn Tennis |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_new-york-times_1885-06-09_34_10535/page/n7/mode/1up |newspaper=The New York Times |volume=34 |issue=10535 |page=8 |via=Internet Archive}}{{cite news |date=12 June 1885 |title=Lawn Tennis Champions |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_new-york-times_1885-06-12_34_10538/page/47/mode/1up |newspaper=The New York Times |volume=34 |issue=10538 |page=3 |via=Internet Archive}} A clay court was amongst several further courts added in 1887.{{cite news |author= |date=April 17, 1887 |title=Cricket Clubs Getting Ready |newspaper=New-York Tribune |volume=47 |issue=14763 |page=11}}

The popularity of tennis increased rapidly during 1880s, and St George's was not the only club to experience a corresponding decline in the importance of cricket to its members.{{cite magazine |last=Slocum |first=H. W., Jr |date=March 1889 |title=Lawn Tennis in the South |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_outing-sport-adventure-travel-fiction_1889-03_13_6_0/page/496/mode/1up |magazine=Outing |volume=13 |issue=6 |location=New York |pages=496–504 [502–503] |via=Internet Archive}} Indeed, by 1888, the SGCC had become "so absorbed" in the new sport that the press considered the playing of a cricket match to be a noteworthy event.{{cite magazine |last=Chadwick |first=Henry |date=December 1888 |title=The Past Cricket Season |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_outing-sport-adventure-travel-fiction_1888-12_13_3_0/page/266/mode/1up |magazine=Outing |volume=13 |issue=3 |location=New York |page=266 |via=Internet Archive}} Whilst a revival of interest in the game was reported that year,{{cite news |author= |date=June 1888 |title=Cricket |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_outing-sport-adventure-travel-fiction_1888-06_12_3_0/page/282/mode/1up |newspaper=Outing |volume=16 |issue=3 |location=New York |pages=282–283 |via=Internet Archive}} a writer in The Cosmopolitan magazine noted in 1891 that it had been had supplanted by tennis, commenting that "unless its membership be frequently recruited by newly arriving Englishmen, the probability is that cricket will survive only in the club’s title".{{cite magazine |last=Starey |first=A. B. |date=June 1889 |title=Some Aspects of American Lawn Tennis |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_cosmopolitan_1889-06_7_2/page/192/mode/1up |magazine=The Cosmopolitan |volume=7 |issue=2 |location=New York |pages=192–201 |via=Internet Archive}} This was a prophetic observation, as despite efforts to prolong its existence, the cricket team disbanded around the beginning of June 1898.{{cite news |author= |date=June 7, 1898 |title=St. George's Cricket Club Disbands |newspaper=New-York Daily Tribune |volume=58 |issue=18832 |page=4}} The club continued to provide tennis facilities, and following an overhaul of the ground in 1902 by Richard Stevens, the New York Times stated that its grass courts were "without question {{bracket|...}} the finest in the country".{{cite news |author= |date=April 27, 1902 |title=Interest in Lawn Tennis |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_new-york-times_1902-04-27_51_16319/page/n7/mode/1up |newspaper=The New York Times |volume=51 |issue=16319 |page=8 |via=Internet Archive}}

{{notelist|30em}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |last=Marder |first=John I. |date=1968 |title=The International Series: The Story of the United States v Canada at Cricket |location=London |publisher=Kaye & Ward |isbn=0718207491}}

• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/videos/c9eegxxpemro "Manhattan's Cricket Mystery: Hunting for New York City's lost cricket ground"] (video) on BBC Sport website.

Category:Club cricket teams in the United States

Category:Cricket teams in New York City

Category:Sports in Manhattan

Category:Hoboken, New Jersey

Category:1838 establishments in New York (state)

Category:Cricket clubs established in 1838