William Ward

William Ward was born in July, 1787, at Islington and educated at Winchester where he first played cricket. He was a fine powerful batsman being a hard driver and generally, he played with a bat weighing 4 lb. but much heavier bats were in use at the time of the underhand bowling. His first recorded match was in 1810 when he appeared for England against Surrey at Lord's. At the beginning of his career he did nothing remarkable, being unable to spare the necessary time. Then, when thirty, he was appointed a Director of the Bank of England and from then on his batting steadily improved for the next ten seasons. His greatest achievement was when at Lord's in July, 1820, he scored 278 against Norfolk, a score that remained unparalleled in first class cricket until W. G. Grace eclipsed it with 344 in 1876. The innings began on Ward's thirty-third birthday and lasted from the first to the third day of the match. After this he made many impressive scores, 120 for Hampshire against England, 109 and 95 for his own eleven against the bowling of Budd, Caldecourt and Powell, 171 not out for the M.C.C. v. Middlesex and 102 for Gentlemen v. Players. Ward was against the new round-arm bowling, mainly because he had difficulty playing it, but his many high scores added much weight to the argument for a bowling reform. He appeared several times for Hampshire, owning property in that county and he made 18 appearances for the Gentlemen against the Players between 1819 and 1838. About 1825, he purchased from Thomas Lord, the lease of Lord's Ground for five thousand pounds, when Lord was considering selling the ground for building. In 1836 J. H. Dark purchased the remainder of the lease from Ward. He continued to participate in the game until two years before his death in 1849.
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