Sport in Marylebone

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was founded in 1787, and that year founder Thomas Lord stage his first match on Dorset Fields in Marylebone – Middlesex vs Essex!

A year later, in 1788, the MCC formed the Laws of Cricket, detailing how the game had to work and the essential rules like requiring the wickets to be pitched 22 yards – today if the rules need to be changed it’s decided by the International Cricket Council but copyright is still owned by MCC.

A few decades later, in 1814, MCC moved to a new ground in St John’s Wood, now Lord’s Cricket Ground – where it still remains today! Another ten years later, Thomas Lord sold the ground in Marylebone (the home of MCC for 38 years!) to William Ward.

Towards the latter end of the 19th Century, when the popularity of county cricket began to increase, MCC decided to invite Middlesex to adopt Lord’s as its county grounds.