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The United South of England Eleven (USEE) was an itinerant cricket team founded in November 1864 by Edgar Willsher, as secretary, and John Lillywhite, as treasurer.〔Birley, p.101.〕 The USEE had no home venue as its prime purpose, like all similarly named teams of the time, was to operate as a travelling show and bring top-class cricket to places in Great Britain and Ireland which rarely received it. Fourteen USEE matches have been recognised by ''CricketArchive'' as first-class, mostly against the rival United North of England Eleven (UNEE). The USEE is estimated to have played 217 "odds" matches as a visiting team against local club sides which generally used 22 players. The USEE was founded at a time of protracted antagonism between northern and southern professionals when the public's demand for exhibition matches was in decline. This was due to an excess of supply, as there had been several predecessors, and the growing interest in county cricket that was developing in the 1860s. But the USEE did succeed in prolonging its existence when it signed contracts with W. G. Grace and his brother Fred in 1870.〔Birley, p.118.〕 For the next ten years, until Fred Grace's early death, the Grace brothers ran the USEE as its match organisers, for which they received payment, but they played for expenses only. Although the Graces were an expensive acquisition, they were cricket's main attraction and were guaranteed to draw large crowds wherever the USEE played. As a result, the USEE continued to prosper while the trend among its rival elevens was to fade from the scene. The USEE was the last of the major travelling elevens to fold, having seen a decline in public interest through its last three or four seasons. The travelling elevens lost out in the cricket market to county cricket which burgeoned during the 1870s, ironically because of the Graces' county Gloucestershire. In addition, the public quickly warmed to international cricket which emerged at the end of the 1870s. The travelling elevens, which played largely meaningless matches against weak and unbalanced opposition, could not compete with the quality of top-class matches played by the county clubs against each other or a touring Australian team. ==Foundation== The USEE was created by Edgar Willsher, as secretary, and John Lillywhite, as treasurer in November 1864. It was part of the fall-out from a north-south schism within professional cricket which centred on bad relations between Nottinghamshire and Surrey. The two counties played each other in July 1864 but then the northern professionals boycotted an England v Surrey match and a North v South match later in the season. The southern professionals played in the North v South and won with embarrassing ease against makeshift opposition. Soon afterwards, they issued a statement that they would not honour the return match and this ended the fixture for some years. It was temporarily replaced by a match involving mostly southern players which was called North of the Thames v South of the Thames. In ''Scores and Biographies'', it was noted that "the United South was formed at first entirely from secessionists from the All England and United All-England Elevens, principally the latter body". W. G. Grace commented that "after 1864 the All-England and United England Elevens were seen very little in the south".〔Rae, p.57.〕 The most significant event in the USEE's history was a match in August 1866 at John Walker's Ground against a Southgate XV formed by V. E. Walker and his family. Southgate won the game by 3 wickets but, for the first time, the USEE team included W. G. Grace, who scored 0 and 2. Also involved was E. M. Grace but he only ever played for the USEE a couple of times whereas W. G. and Fred Grace would in time become the team's mainstays.〔Rae, p.70.〕 After their father died in December 1871, W. G. and Fred Grace increased their involvement with the USEE to finance both their home (they still lived with their mother) and their medical studies. They received payment from USEE funds for organising matches and claimed expenses for travel and accommodation whenever they played. For example, when the team went to Scotland in 1872, the USEE was paid £100 by their hosts to cover the costs and £5 each went to the nine professionals in the team, leaving £55 (which in 2013 would be about £3,300) of which the lion's share would go to the Graces with perhaps £30 to W. G. and £15 to Fred (i.e., about £900 and £450 respectively per match in 2013 terms).〔Rae, p.103.〕〔Williams, p.95.〕 Since W. G. averaged ten USEE appearances per season through the 1870s, he was potentially receiving £10,000 per season in 2013 terms. This was not the end of it because he claimed appearance fees whenever he guested for another team, rightly adjudging himself to be the main attraction who was bringing in the crowds;〔 and he claimed what he termed his "expenses" whenever he took part in a first-class match.〔 By the standards of the time, cricket was a lucrative business for the Graces, especially considering that they held amateur status.〔 The peak of the Graces' involvement was 1873 when W. G. made 16 appearances, which was considerable in terms of the travelling involved and given his commitments to Gloucestershire, MCC and elsewhere. James Lillywhite was the team secretary at this time, in succession to Willsher, but W. G. and Fred effectively took over. Fred did most of the spadework, hardly ever missing a match and effectively running the team which he captained in W. G.'s absence. Indeed, it was on occasion billed as "G. F. Grace's United South of England XI".〔Rae, p.133.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United South of England Eleven」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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