Historic Cricket Pictures

Just a thought. Who do you think is England's best allrounder of the last fifty years ... so taking ones none of us could have seen like Hammond and Grace out of the equation

Five years ago today spectators returned to professional cricket after the Covid lockdown. Exactly 1000 Middlesex and Surrey members were allowed into The Oval as a socially distanced experiment for the first day of a two-day friendly

Cricket on the Gunfleet Sands off the Essex coast in 1931. The game was organised by the Walton and Frinton Yacht Club and took place in September when tidal conditions exposed the sandbank

Old Trafford as it was in 1926. A full house for a county match with the signatures of the Lancashire side. What is interesting is how undeveloped the surrounding area is

On July 25th 1857 Roger Fenton, who had founded the Royal Photographic Society in 1853, took several pictures of a cricket match in progress between Hunsdonbury Club and Royal Artillery at Hunsdonbury. These are believed to be the earliest pictures of a cricket game in progress

On July 24th 1994 South Africa routed England in the 1st Test at Lord's, bowling them out for 99 in 46 overs to win by 356 runs. I was lucky enough to be in the pavilion on a blisteringly hot day and took this of the South Africans celebrating on their balcony

The @bbctms team in action at Lord's in 2007, CMJ on comms with Bill Frindall alongside and long-time producer Peter Baxter behind them. Not quite the golden years but still fondly remembered (MCC)

New Zealand opener Robert Anderson departs, Mike Brearley and Ian Botham celebrate, England v NZ, 1st Test, July 29th 1978. Botham dismissed Anderson three times in the series which was Anderson's last. in the three Tests he scored 42 runs at 7.00

Geoff Boycott batting for Yorkshire on the day his return to England colours was announced, June 24th 1977, ending over three years and 30 Tests of self-imposed international exile.

I love this picture of travelling to an away game as it used to be ... players and spectators from Lyndhurst in Hampshire on the nine-mile trip to Lymington in the first decade of the last century

Lance Gibbs relaxes in the changing room at the SCG after taking match figures of 11 for 110 as West Indies beat Australia by 222 runs in the 3rd Test, January 18th 1961

Bill Edrich departs, b Tiger O'Reilly 12, 4th Ashes Test, Leeds, July 22nd 1938. Few top order batsmen have endured such wretched form and retained their place. In four completed Tests he scored 67 runs at 11.16. He made 12 out of England's 903 for 7 at The Oval

Leslie Gay is one of sport's forgotten double internationals. He played for England three times at football, and once for cricket (as a keeper) after touring Australia in 1894-95 after only four games for Somerset. That was largely on the strength of his Cambridge performances

I took this as I left the pavilion about 20 minutes after the close of the remarkable first day of the 1st Test at Lord's on July 21st 2005. Shane Warne relaxes with a cigarette on the Australian balcony