United South of England Eleven

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. 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.

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.

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