Oxford vs Cambridge & Eton vs Harrow - English Cricket's 200 Year Old Tradition Nears End

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Two of English cricket's oldest fixtures, Oxford v Cambridge and Eton v Harrow will no longer be staged annually at Lord's after this year, ending a tradition stretching back 200 years and which once enjoyed the sight of poet Lord Byron strolling to the crease.

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which owns 'the home of cricket', said both matches would take place in late June but added they "will no longer be played as regular annual fixtures at Lord's after 2022".

The club, often portrayed by its critics as elitist, said the decision had been taken in order to "further MCC's goal to broaden the scope of the fixture list" and give "a wider range of players" the chance to play at Lord's.

Oxford and Cambridge, England's two oldest universities, have played annually at Lord's since 1851, with the exception of the years of the two World Wars and the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

They played men's first-class fixtures until 2000 and a men's limited-overs fixture until 2021.

Last year, the Stump Out Sexism campaign was launched by a former Oxford captain, Vanessa Picker, in protest that Lord's had never staged a women's fixture between the universities.

MCC were reluctant to step into what they saw as a decision for the universities.

But replying to a request from the campaign to find an "equitable solution", MCC chief executive, Guy Lavender, wrote in a letter that Lord's would be "very happy to accommodate a men's and women's T20 double header on the same day next year".

This year Oxford and Cambridge will play a T20 double-header on June 27, although the women's match could now be the first and last between the two universities played on the main square at Lord's.

Eton and Harrow, two of England's oldest and most exclusive fee-paying schools, have played each other at Lord's since the early 19th century, with the poet George Byron taking part in the inaugural 1805 edition.

Henry Blofeld, the cricket commentator who has played in both fixtures -- he was a schoolboy at Eton and a student at Cambridge -- told The Times: "I suppose the 'antis' will be cheering and old farts like me will be sad. It is inevitable with the way that society has moved."

Although the universities have produced several former England captains, including Colin Cowdrey and Mike Smith (Oxford) and Mike Brearley and Mike Atherton (Cambridge), they no longer have first-class cricket status.

The Varisty match, as the fixture between Oxford and Cambridge is known, used to be played over three days.

But the Lord's version of the match was reduced to a one-day game in 2001, with a four-day game between the universities alternating between Fenner's in Cambridge and the Parks in Oxford.

Once a highlight of the English summer social season, the match between Eton and Harrow once attracted tens of thousands of supporters but crowds have declined significantly in recent years.