AN ANNUAL cricket fixture that dates back to the early 1900s will make a welcome return this summer.

Rydal Penrhos School hosts Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in Colwyn Bay in what is a prominent date on the school's sporting calendar on Monday, July 5.

The match was cancelled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic and while there has been no cricket played in recent months, Rydal Penrhos has invested a significant amount in re-invigorating its wicket and playing surface over the winter. School staff have worked with St Asaph firm 360 Groundcare to make some notable improvements.

Penrhos Ryda School batsman smashes the red ball back at the bowler. Picture: Tony

Penrhos Ryda School batsman smashes the red ball back at the bowler. Picture: Tony

A number of other school fixtures are also in the process of being scheduled in accordance with current guidelines.

MCC was founded in 1787, taking as its home a cricket ground set up by the ambitious entrepreneur Thomas Lord staged his first match – between Middlesex and Essex – playing at a ground on Dorset Fields in Marylebone.

The following year, MCC laid down a Code of Laws, requiring the wickets to be pitched 22 yards apart and detailing how players could be given out. Its Laws were adopted throughout the game – and the club remains the custodian and arbiter of Laws relating to cricket around the world.

In 1814 MCC moved up the road to a new rural ground in St John's Wood - which remains their home to this day.

A decade later, when Lord was 70 years old, he sold the ground to a Bank of England director, William Ward, for £5,400. Having provided the MCC with a ground for 38 years, Lord retired before passing away seven years later.

In the 1870s, MCC decided it wanted to get involved in county cricket, which was growing in popularity.

In 1877, it invited Middlesex to adopt Lord's as its county ground - an arrangement which continues over 140 years later.