Lord's will continue to host a historic match for the next five years. Photo: Shutterstock/Javier Gracia
This was the game they were trying to ban. However, after more than a year of wrangling, the annual Eton and Harrow event has been allowed to remain at Lord's in 2023 and beyond.
So, on a stuffy, windy day, prolonged by rain, the longest match at this training ground extended their relationship here for another year.
The Harrow boys in the stands chanted «No noise from the strawberry boys»; The guys from Eton said: «Twenty prime ministers.» How pleased the MCC was with this spectacle was not entirely clear. The impression was that the MCC was trying to hide the Eton-Harrow match this year, as if it were a drunken uncle at a wedding.
If last year's match was played on June 28, at the height of summer, this one was postponed six weeks ahead; a sign that, even if it remains reproduced here, it will not continue to be given the same status.
Lord's also hardly bothered to advertise the match. In February 2022, the MCC announced that it would stop hosting Eton-Harrow after the end of the previous summer; concerted opposition from members meant that the deadlines were first extended by an additional year and then at least until 2027, when a vote by other members would be held.
But the fixture—even in this slightly reduced form—is expected to remain after this. «We spent a year restoring it,» said Guy Patterson, a member of the MCC Historic Fixture Group, which successfully campaigned to keep the fixture.
“If all you want to do is watch the test in London, you will join the Oval and it will take about two years. Why do people join MCC? Because it's steeped in history. Let's do away with history and it will be just a piece of real estate in St. John's Wood.»
The Eton-Harrow match is older than the Lord himself. Lord's current seat was established in 1814; Eton first played at Harrow — the previous ground founded by Thomas Lord — in 1805, four months before the Battle of Trafalgar.
With the advent of Test cricket, two World Wars which briefly stopped the use of the ground for matches, the Hundred and the new Millennium, Eton Harrow has continued to play ever since.
This is the longest running annual event at Lord's. The match went through many iterations in the process, ranging from a two-inning multi-day match to a single-inning side-by-side match, and since 1999, a limited-overs match. Nevertheless, when Harrow reached 275, the continuity was more striking than the change.
The players are still in white; the ball is still red. The boys from the two schools in the stands still take their places at a safe distance from each other. And a 55 over match — longer than any limited over format played in a professional game — also seems a bit odd, although it was cut to 30 due to rain. Eton's target was revised to 202 and they fell short. , losing four rounds.
The match continues to have significant financial value for MCC. Photo: Getty Images/Glyn Kirk
Eton vs. Harrow is a fixture designed to be immune to the sport's quicksands, providing continuity in a world of cricket reorienting at breakneck speed. Such sentiments reinforced the backlash against this game when it was seen that MCC violated due process by stopping the game being played at Lord's.
«The tradition of cricket really means something,» said Simon Broughton, a full member of the MCC, who voted to keep the match at Lords. «I think it's wrong to discriminate against people who are considered privileged.»
Echoing these comments, Rahul Kadeen, the parent of a boy from Harrow who he hopes can play in this match when he grows up, said: «Cancellation is an easy option, but I don't think it is best correct.
«I understand the argument that this is a bit elitist, but there may be other ways to solve this problem other than just canceling the match.» The MCC claims that while Eton Harrow is still played on the ground, it can be adapted to a varied and balanced schedule.
Next year, new T20 national competitions for boys and girls will be launched as part of the Road to God concept. They will offer all schools a path to play on the final day here, as part of broader hopes to develop a more diverse game.
For Vanessa Picker, founder of the Equality with God campaign, the competition is a microcosm of cricket's broader fight against diversity. “This fixture sends a devastating message to novice cricketers that access to the main court is based on their class and gender, and not on the fundamental right to equality and non-discrimination,” she said.
Lord's Eton Harrow was never just a cricket match; it is a social event closely associated with the English class, elitism and nostalgia at the same time. And while its existence has never come under more scrutiny than it did last year, its status looks safe… for now.
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