Lillywhite's Ground was a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

ground in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

. The ground is named after Frederick William Lillywhite, one of the greatest bowlers of all time, who was the proprietor of the ground at a time when he lived in Brighton and ran the Royal Sovereign Inn in Preston Street. The first recorded match on the ground came in 1838, when the Gentlemen of Sussex played the Players of Sussex in a non first-class match. The first first-class match held at the ground came in 1839 when the Gentlemen of Sussex played the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influe ...

. The second and final first-class match held on the ground came in 1842 when

played

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, with Sussex winning by 6 runs. While in Brighton and trying to cash in on his fame, Lillywhite lost a large amount of money, a fact he blamed on his landlord. His landlord was a patron to Sussex, with Lillywhite vowing never to play for Sussex again while his landlord had an interest in the ground. In 1844 he left Brighton for

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, after which cricket at the ground declined and ceased to be played. The ground was located roughly where

Montpelier Crescent Montpelier Crescent is a mid 19th-century Crescent (architecture), crescent of 38 houses in the Montpelier, Brighton, Montpelier suburb of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built in five parts as a set-piece reside ...

is today.

References

External links

Lillywhite's Ground
on CricketArchive

on

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

{{Sussex CCC Defunct cricket grounds in England Sports venues in Brighton and Hove Cricket grounds in East Sussex Defunct sports venues in East Sussex Sports venues completed in 1831