Cricket may not have reached the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland until well into the 18th century. A notice in the Leicester Journal dated 17 August 1776 is the earliest known mention of cricket in the area. The historic counties of England are ancient subdivisions of England. ... Leicestershire (abbreviated Leics) is a landlocked county in central England. ... Oakham Castle Rutland is traditionally Englands smallest county and is bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire, and southeast by Northamptonshire. ...

The original Leicestershire club

But it was only a few years after that before a Leicestershire & Rutland Cricket Club was taking part in important matches, some of which are now recognised as first-class by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Note that in some contemporary reports the club is called simply Leicester but the personnel involved are the same whichever title is used. The role of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) is to promote and encourage research into the statistical and historical aspects of cricket throughout the world (at all levels) and to publish the findings. ...

The Leicester Journal on 4 August 1781 reported Leicester v Melton Mowbray at Barrowcliffe Meadow near Leicester. Melton Mowbray won by 16 runs.

Later the same season, the first reports have been found of a match between Leicester and Nottingham Cricket Club. These two old clubs forged quite a fierce rivalry. They met at Loughborough on 17 & 18 Sept 1781 and the game was incomplete due to a dispute (see FL18 for the details as reported in the Leicester Journal). Nottingham scored 50 & 73; Leicester had scored 73 & 9-2 when the game ended prematurely because of a dispute about wide deliveries. The repercussions dragged on and the dispute remained unresolved for some years.

In 1787, Leicester played matches against Coventry and Melton Mowbray. The Coventry game is extensively recorded in FL18. Leicester lost by an innings to Melton Mowbray but defeated Coventry by 45 runs. In September 1788, they defeated Coventry by 28 runs in another match which FL18 records.

In 1789, Leicester played Nottingham again in two matches at Loughborough. They won one each and full scorecards have survived. It is evident that by this time these teams were representative of their counties and, in 1791, they were both deemed good enough to play against MCC, but they were both well beaten. This was hardly surprising as northern cricket was still developing while the southern teams had considerable match experience. Lords 2005 The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), founded in 1787, is a private members club and was the original governing body of cricket in England and across the world. ...

Leicester's game against MCC was played at Burley-on-the-Hill in Rutland, which was the Earl of Winchilsea’s country retreat, used as his base for foxhunting parties. It is not far from the Great North Road so communication with London was relatively easy at the time. One of the most significant figures in the history of cricket was George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea (1752 – 1826). ...

In 1792, Burley-on-the-Hill staged "Leicestershire & Rutland v Nottingham", the home side winning by 4 wickets and providing a historical example of the fact that Leicestershire cricket encompasses Rutland.

In a further game at Leicester in 1800, Nottingham won by an innings and the old Leicestershire & Rutland club seemed to fade away after that, apart from a couple of mentions in the early 19th century.

19th century

Little more is heard of Leicestershire cricket until the formation of the present club on 25 March 1879.

Leicestershire CCC played its inaugural first-class match on 14, 15 & 16 May 1894 versus Essex CCC at Leyton. It was the initial first-class match played by either club. In 1895, both of these clubs and Warwickshire CCC joined the County Championship.-1... Warwickshire County Cricket Club is a cricket club (team) based at the County Ground, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England (Birmingham historically being part of Warwickshire). ... The County Championship is the domestic first class cricket competition in the United Kingdom, mainly in England. ...

For the history of Leicestershire cricket since the foundation of the county club, see : Leicestershire County Cricket Club Leicestershire County Cricket Club is an English county cricket club based at Grace Road, Leicester. ...

References

• Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians - various publications
• Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 by Arthur Haygarth (SBnnn)
• Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket by G B Buckley (FL18)
• Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket by G B Buckley (FLPV)
• The Dawn of Cricket by H T Waghorn (WDC)

• A Social History of English Cricket by Derek Birley
• Cricket: History of its Growth and Development by Rowland Bowen
• From the Weald to the World by Peter Wynne-Thomas (PWT)