Editing First-class cricket (section)

==Initial usage under MCC ruling, May 1894==
Before 1894 "first-class" was a common adjective applied to cricket matches in England, used loosely to suggest that a match had a high standard; adjectives like "great", "important" and "major" were also loosely applied to such matches, but there tended to be differences of opinion. In the inaugural issue of ''[[Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game]]'' on 10 May 1882, the term is used twice on page 2 in reference to the recently completed [[English cricket team in Australia and New Zealand in 1881–82|tour of Australia and New Zealand]] by [[Alfred Shaw|Alfred Shaw's XI]]. The report says it is "taking" the first-class matches to be one against [[New South Wales cricket team|Sydney]] (''sic''), two each against [[Victoria cricket team|Victoria]], the Combined team and the Australian Eleven, and another against [[South Australia cricket team|South Australia]].<ref name="C11">[https://archive.acscricket.com/cricket/1882/10 "English & Australian Cricket"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921211016/https://archive.acscricket.com/cricket/1882/10/ |date=21 September 2022 }} ''Cricket'', issue 1, 10 May 1882, p. 2.</ref> In the fourth issue on 1 June 1882, [[James Lillywhite]] refers to first-class matches on the tour but gives a different list.<ref name="C446">[https://archive.acscricket.com/cricket/1882/10 "The Cricket Scandal"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921211016/https://archive.acscricket.com/cricket/1882/10/ |date=21 September 2022 }} ''Cricket'', issue 4, 1 June 1882, p. 46.</ref>

The earliest known [[cricket scorecard|match scorecard]]s date from 1744 but few have been found before 1772.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/152818.html |last=Bowen |first=Rowland |author-link=Rowland Bowen |title=Cricket in the 17th and 18th centuries |work=Wisden Cricketers' Almanack |year=1965 |publisher=John Wisden & Co. Ltd |location=London |access-date=12 March 2021 |archive-date=22 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201122064232/https://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/152818.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Bowen|1970|pp=263–264}} The cards for three 1772 matches have survived and scorecards became increasingly common thereafter.{{sfn|ACS|1981|pp=21–24, 31}} At the beginning of the 1860s, there were only four formally constituted county clubs. [[Sussex County Cricket Club|Sussex]] was the oldest, formed in 1839, and it had been followed by [[Kent County Cricket Club|Kent]], [[Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club|Nottinghamshire]] and [[Surrey County Cricket Club|Surrey]]. In the early 1860s, several more county clubs were founded, and questions began to be raised in the sporting press about which should be categorised as first-class, but there was considerable disagreement in the answers. In 1880, the [[Cricket Reporting Agency]] was founded. It acquired influence through the decade especially by association with ''[[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack]]'' (''Wisden'') and the press came to generally rely on its information and opinions.{{sfn|ACS|1982|pp=4}}

The term acquired official status, though limited to matches in Great Britain, following a meeting at [[Lord's]] in May 1894 between the [[Marylebone Cricket Club]] (MCC) committee and the secretaries of the clubs involved in the official [[County Championship]], which had begun in 1890. As a result, those clubs became first-class from 1895 along with MCC, [[Cambridge University Cricket Club|Cambridge University]], [[Oxford University Cricket Club|Oxford University]], senior cricket touring teams (i.e., [[Australia national cricket team|Australia]] and [[South Africa national cricket team|South Africa]] at that time) and other teams designated as such by MCC (e.g., [[North v South]], [[Gentlemen v Players]] and occasional "elevens" which consisted of recognised first-class players).{{sfn|ACS|1982|pp=4–5}} Officially, therefore, the inaugural first-class match was the opening game of the 1895 season between MCC and [[Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club|Nottinghamshire]] at Lord's on 1 and 2 May, MCC winning by 37 runs.<ref name="CA4287">{{cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/4/4287.html |title=Marylebone Cricket Club v Nottinghamshire, 1–2 May 1895 |work=CricketArchive |access-date=16 September 2022 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=17 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220917175418/https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/4/4287.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

"[[Test cricket|Test match]]" was another loosely applied term at the time but the first list of matches considered to be "Tests" was conceived and published by South Australian journalist Clarence P. Moody in his 1894 book, ''Australian Cricket and Cricketers, 1856 to 1893–94''. His proposal was widely accepted after a list of 39 matches was reproduced in the 28 December 1894 issue of ''Cricket'' magazine. The list began with the [[Melbourne Cricket Ground]] match played 15–17 March 1877 and ended with a recent match at the [[Sydney Cricket Ground|Association Ground, Sydney]] played 14–20 December 1894.<ref name="C379463">[https://archive.acscricket.com/cricket/1894/487/ "The First Test Match"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220908225143/https://archive.acscricket.com/cricket/1894/487/ |date=8 September 2022 }} ''Cricket'', issue 379, 28 December 1894, pp. 463–464.</ref> All of Moody's matches, plus four additional ones, were retrospectively recognised as Test matches and also, thereby, as first-class matches.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Records/England/Test/Team/List_of_Matches.html |title=List of Test Matches |work=CricketArchive |access-date=9 September 2022 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=9 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220909044131/https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Records/England/Test/Team/List_of_Matches.html |url-status=live }}</ref>