Eton and Harrow returned to Lord's in 1919 and remained there until the Second World War twenty years later. It was a period in which Eton dominated and they began with a crushing win, their side including eight future first class cricketers, the best known and most influential of which was George 'Gubby' Allen. Wisden describes how 'Lord's was thronged with people, the King was present before luncheon, and every thing seemed just as it was in the old days'. Except of course that many old boys had lost their lives in the trenches. Rain delayed the start on the second day but set 244 to win Harrow were bowled out for 41 with Wilfrid Hill-Wood, later to play for Derbyshire, taking 7 for 29.
This photograph shows the future Edward VIII arriving at Lord's for the 1921 match which ended in another comfortable win for Eton by seven wickets.
Moving forward to 1939 and the match that took priority over the county championship at Lord's and a game of cricket that reversed the fortunes of the previous thirty years with Harrow recording their first victory since 1908. Harrow's hero was Edward Crutchley who made 115 in their first innings and was at the non-striker's end when AOL Lithgow hit three successive fours to win the match by seven wickets. The crowd, at least those who supported Harrow, went wild, the school song was sung and top hats thrown in the air. The crowd at Eton Harrow matches had not always behaved with decorum and warnings had been issued at the 1920 match that should there be a repetition of the fighting that had broken out the previous year it would lead to the games not being played at Lord's. Wisden reports 'the behaviour had been exemplary until this 1939 meeting.' It was 1946 before the teams returned to Lord's although matches between the schools continued throughout the war.
Crutchley merited an obituary in the 1983 Wisden following his death aged 60. He had been wounded during the war but played two matches for Middlesex in 1947. A nice touch is that his father was part of the Harrow XI that won in 1908.
A major change came over the fixtures between the two schools in 1982 when for the first time at Lord's the match became a one day/one innings fixture but not a limited overs game. Titchner-Barrett attributes this 'regrettable' change to 'pressures of the academic timetable and fixture congestion at Lord's'. The match continues to be played at Lord's in this format, in 2019 it was won by Harrow and remains the only schools' fixture to be played at HQ. There were at one time ten Lord's Schools and Wisden devoted considerable space to matches between them.
We need to go back fifty years to find the one peacetime match between the two schools not played at Lord's for in 1970 the annual fixture was played at Harrow School because Lord's had been set aside in case it was needed by Middlesex for a Gillette Cup tie. The schools' match was played on July 9th and 10th, Eton won, but Middlesex had been knocked out of the Gillette on the 8th losing to Surrey at The Oval by just 8 runs. The late Bob Willis was Surrey's hero taking six wickets as Middlesex were reduced from 240 for 3 to 256 for 9 and 272 all out. Influential Old Harrovians and Old Etonians made sure the fixture was restored to its traditional venue in 1971.
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