Cricket Gallery

Unruly Oval cricket crowd

Impatient cricket spectators gather near the square at the Oval during an interruption in play in the match between Surrey and Yorkshire. The illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News described the crowd as unruly and reported an unsavoury incident..."When the umpires walked out...to inspect the pitch, during the Yorkshire and Surrey match, which was interrupted by rain, one of the more impatient members of the crowd kicked (Frank) Chester and struck at (Denis) Hendren. This cowardly on the two most innocent people involved in the matter is rendered more discreditable to the Oval crowd since Chester could not defend himself properly, having lost an arm in the war." Date: August 1931

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

White Conduit House

White Conduit House circa 1820. It first appeared in the late 17th century as a tea garden where city dwellers could escape for the grassy fields and relatively clean air of Islington. According to Oliver Goldsmith it was a site where he inhabitants of London often assemble to celebrate a feast of hot rolls and butter. For over a century from the 1750s to the 1850s the curved front of White Conduit House and its pleasure gardens hosted not just cricket matches played on White Conduit Fields to the north-west, but a wide range of entertainments of all kinds

© Mary Evans / Peter & Dawn Cope Collection Mary Evans / Peter & Dawn Cope Collection

The Jam Sahib of Nawanagar (Prince Rantjitsinhji)..., First World War, January 1915, (c1920)

The Jam Sahib of Nawanagar (Prince Rantjitsinhji) in his Uniform on Active Service, First World War, January 1915, (c1920). Portrait of Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji Jadeja (1872-1933), also known as Ranji, ruler of the Indian princely state of Nawanagar as Maharaja Jam Saheb. He was a noted Test cricketer who played for the English cricket team. At the start of the war he was made an honorary major in the British Army, but as serving Indian princes were not allowed near the fighting by the British because of the risk involved, he did not see active service. From "The Great World War: A History", Volume V, edited by Frank A Mumby. [The Gresham Publishing Company Ltd, London, c1920]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images