Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

63 on Bergen Hill at a cost of over $35,000, which, with the pavilion to be erected thereon, is expected to be in readiness to play by the middle of next month, and will probably be unexcelled in regard to size, location, and appointments, by any cricket or ball field in the world. Today, no reminders are left of the complex, situated in the densely populated district of Bergenwood about two miles north- west of the Elysian Fields, but the contemporary Grove Church Cemetery still lies opposite what would have been the entrance, on the corner of Bergenwood Avenue and 46th Street. As it happened, the timescale predicted proved to be a trifle optimistic, but nevertheless the first game at the new ground was finally played on 8 July 1868 between St George’s and Philadelphia’s Young America Club. A week later, a combined St George’s and Philadelphia team met the Knickerbocker Club of Montreal and secured a crushing victory by ten wickets. New York was as ready as it could be for its distinguished visitors – whether St George’s could live up to their billing as ‘Dragon Slayers’ remained to be seen. First, however, the tourists needed to acclimatise and be pampered by their hosts. On Monday, 14 September, the St George’s club laid on a coach and four to take the English on the three-mile journey to the new ground. A pleasant afternoon was spent surveying the scene, in the centre of which ‘sixty yards square … is perfectly level and the herbage green … with a little attention a very nice wicket can be got ready.’ After a week of warm sunshine, rain arrived, limiting the twelve’s practice to half an hour, and, since Tuesday, the last day before the game, was reserved for watching a baseball match, that would have to do. After a photo opportunity the next morning, it was off to the Union Base Ball Ground in Brooklyn to watch the Union Club entertaining the Mutual. The ground was notable for being one of the first to be fully enclosed, and on the day the crowd of 5,000 inside was considerably swollen, in the words of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle , by ‘fence-protectors and curb- stone recliners’. The English visitors, after a brief practice with some of the players, were invited into the three-storey pagoda that stood rather incongruously in the centre of the outfield, and with the Union Jack fluttering happily above them, they watched the home team complete a resounding victory. The day of the match, Wednesday, 16 September, dawned cold and windy with a hint of rain in the air, and no doubt the threatening aspect of the weather deterred many from venturing to Hudson Captain of England