by Abhishek Mukherjee

For a long time, the Players dominated their matches against the Gentlemen. To counter this, the Gentlemen often played with handicaps (for example, they fielded 14 men in 1824, 16 in 1825 and 1833, 17 in 1827, 12 in 1829 and 1830, and 18 in 1836). On the other hand, the Players fielded only nine men in 1831 but still won by 5 wickets.

In 1832 they tried something different. The Players batted in front of the usual 27" x 8" wickets, which was reduced to 22" x 6" for the Gentlemen. The Players still won by an innings.

Now, in 1837, William Ward proposed to take things to another level. The Gentlemen would defend three stumps (the usual 27" x 8"), while the Players would defend four (an enormous 36" x 12").

It had no impact. Bowled out for 54 and 35, the Gentlemen lost by an innings and 10 runs. To be fair, it worked for a while. The first eight Players wickets included six ducks. Fuller Pilch got out when his famous top hat fell on that humongous wicket.

The Barn Door Match, they call it, because of the size of the wicket. They also call it Ward's Folly.

The match got over on 4 July 1837