The Times April 13, 2002(posted 8042 days ago)Portrait badge hits cricket for six By Simon de Bruxelles A TINY picture of an 18th-century batsman may hide the true South London origins of the Marylebone Cricket Club, the home of modern cricket. The portrait, by an unknown artist and in the form of a mock badge of honour, was presented to Samuel Welch, president of the Thursday Cricket Society, a precursor of the McC, in 1788. The well preserved watercolour on enamel depicts a gentleman cricketer in black-rimmed hat, white shirt, cravat and plus-fours at the crease, holding an implement which looks more like a hockey stick than a modern cricket bat. The badge, 3.9in in diameter and enclosed by a blue gilt and enamelled border, is inscribed: “By manly exercise we promote health.” The reverse inscription reads: “The Unanimous Gift of the Thursday Cricket Society in Token Esteem for their late President Mr Samuel Welch 1788.” Analysis of the picture has revealed its likely location as Kennington Park in Lambeth, South London, nearer the Oval than the McC’s home at Lord’s, in North London. A distinctive building with three triangular sections to the roof has been identified as the Horns Tavern on Kennington Common by comparison with a contemporary engraving in the Museum of London. Collectors from around the world fought over the relic, put up for sale by a West Country family. It sold for £32,200 at an auction in Dorchester on Thursday to an unnamed bidder. Its design as a spoof royal garter almost certainly alludes to the Star and Garter Tavern in Pall Mall where the Thursday Cricket Society, whose members included Sir Joshua Reynolds, the artist, held weekly social gatherings. The book Club Life of London recorded: “At the Star and Garter in 1774, was formed the first cricket club. Sir Horace Mann, who had promoted cricket in Kent, and the Duke of Dorset and Lord Tankerville, leaders of the Surrey and Hants Eleven, with other gentlemen and noblemen, formed a committee under the presidency of Sir William Draper. ”They met at the Star and Garter and laid down the first rules of cricket, which very rules form the basis of laws of cricket to this day.” Guy Schwinge, from Duke’s auctioneers, said: “It is a unique item from the game and from a time when the sport was in its infancy.” According to the Welch family history, their ancestor Samuel was baptised in May 1760. He married Charlotte Chapman in 1790 at a church in Lambeth. That would fit with the location of the cricket pitch depicted on the badge. There are many wealthy collectors of memorabilia of what is known as God’s game, including the American convert to cricket, Sir Paul Getty. Stephen Green, who is curator of the museum at Lord’s, said that the first written record of cricket dates from the mid-16th century.