1736 English cricket season

1736 English cricket season

1736 was the 40th English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played. Details have survived of eighteen important matches and two notable single wicket matches.

One of the single wicket matches resulted in a tie, the earliest known instance of this result in cricket history. Chertsey Cricket Club and its Laleham Burway venue are found in the sources for the first time.

Important matches

The following matches are classified as important:[note 1]

date match title venue result source
13 May (Th) London v Mitcham Kennington Common result unknown [1][2]
notes

Recorded in Buckley's FL18C in conjunction with the London v Mitcham games on about Tuesday, 22 June and on Thursday, 2 September.

22 June (Tu) London v Mitcham Kennington Common London won [1][2]
notes

Recorded by FL18C in conjunction with the London v Mitcham game on Thursday, 13 May.

before July Croydon v Chertsey Duppas Hill, Croydon Croydon won [1][2]
notes

See notes in next entry.

before July Chertsey v Croydon Laleham Burway Chertsey won [1][2]
notes

The above two games were played before July. Knowledge of them is from the announcement in Read’s Weekly Journal dated Saturday, 3 July, about a deciding game on Richmond Green to be played on Monday, 5 July (see below). In each of the first two matches, the home team won "by a great number of runs". The match at Laleham Burway is the first important one known to have been played there.

5 July (M) Croydon v Chertsey Richmond Green drawn [1][3][2]
notes

Scores are known: Chertsey 88 & 55; Croydon 58 & 25-9. Croydon with one wicket standing still needed 61 to win when the clock struck eight and the game was drawn. Chertsey could claim a moral victory but the result remained a draw. Played for £50. The report in Read's Weekly Journal dated Saturday, 3 July, says this was "a new match to decide which are best", the two teams having met twice before: Croydon won at Duppas Hill and Chertsey won at Laleham Burway (see above).

9 July (F) Streatham v London White Lion Fields, Streatham result unknown [1]
notes

This is the only reference to a Streatham team in surviving sources and so the status of the match is uncertain. Generally, however, matches involving London against teams representing other boroughs are regarded as important.

14 July (W) London v Surrey Artillery Ground London won by 30 runs [1][2]
notes

The report in the General Evening Post next day states that "London beat Surrey by 30 notches and had three men to go in"; there may have been a declaration of sorts in the second innings.

19 July (M) Chertsey v London Laleham Burway London won [4]
notes

The newspaper report says that very large bets were laid on the match and that the Chertsey team, beaten on this occasion, was the same eleven as played against Croydon at Richmond Green on 5 July.

29 July (Th) London v Chertsey Artillery Ground Chertsey won by 8 wickets [5]
notes

The first game on Monday, 19 July was reported as "the hard match" and London won "by a very few notches". Scores are known from the second game: London 48 & 60; Chertsey 97 & 12-2. Chertsey's team was said to be the same one that played Croydon on Richmond Green (see above).

11 August (W) Surrey v London Barnes Common Surrey won by 19 runs [6]
notes

The report in the Whitehall Evening Post on Saturday, 14 August refers to Surrey as "Barnes, Fulham and Richmond". It goes on to say that the return on Tuesday, 17 August would be played in the fields behind Powis House. It extends the hope that "the company will keep a good ring which was very much wanted at Barnes Common".

16 August (M) Middlesex v Surrey Chelsea Common Middlesex won by 9 runs [7]
notes

Played for 50 guineas a side as reported in the General Evening Post on Tuesday, 17 August.

17 August (Tu) London v Surrey Lamb's Conduit Field London won by 86 runs [7][2]
notes

The Daily Gazetteer on Wednesday, 18 August states that London beat Surrey by "upwards of 90 notches". The Whitehall Evening Post next day gives the scores and repeats the report of the previous match by first referring to Surrey as "Barnes, Fulham and Richmond"; but it then talks about "the Surrey men". London scored 55 and 75; Surrey scored 31 and 13 to give London the game by 86 runs. Two London batsmen in the second innings had a partnership of 51, which was a considerable achievement at the time given the usual condition of the pitches.

21 August (S) Surrey v Middlesex Moulsey Hurst Surrey won by 5 runs [8][7]
notes

The source says "there were about £100 to £60 for the (sic) Middlesex".

2 September (Th) London v Mitcham Kennington Common result unknown [7][2]
notes

Recorded in conjunction with the London v Mitcham game on Thursday, 13 May.

11 September (S) Surrey v Middlesex Moulsey Hurst Surrey won by 2 runs [7][2]
notes

Reported a week later on Saturday, 18 September by the Whitehall Evening Post. The match was for 50 guineas a side.

20 September (M) Surrey v Kent Kennington Common Surrey won by 2 wickets [9][10][2]
notes

Scores are known: Kent 41 & 53; Surrey 71 & 24-8. During this match, an incident occurred in the crowd. Three soldiers apprehended a deserter but the crowd turned on them, rescued the deserter and "after a severe discipline let them go about their business"!

FL18C added to this by quoting the General Evening Post on Saturday, 18 September. This report said the Kent team consisted of "the same that beat Middlesex last year on Moulsey Hurst and Bromley Common". Buckley gives examples of when this report was variously quoted by other publications, including Waghorn's Dawn of Cricket, and dated wrongly. The content is itself incorrect as the teams played by Kent in the two matches were London & Middlesex at Moulsey Hurst and the London club at Bromley Common.

22 September (W) Middlesex v Surrey Lamb's Conduit Field result unknown [10][2]
notes

Announced the previous day in the London Evening Post.

4 October (M) Kent v Surrey Coxheath Common drawn (rain) [11][12][2]
notes

First innings scores were level when the rain began, though Kent still had five wickets in hand. The correct date was given by F. S. Ashley-Cooper in his Kent Cricket Matches after Cricket Scores had vaguely placed the date in September and confirmed by Maun.

Single wicket

Thursday, 24 June. A match on Kennington Common in which London's Wakeland, the distiller, and George Oldner played together against two "famous" Richmond players who were "esteemed the best two in England". Unfortunately, the esteemed pair are not named, though one of them suffered serious facial injuries in the game when the ball came off his bat and hit his nose. The report rails against "human brutes" who insisted he should play on despite his injuries.[13]

Wednesday, 1 September. A "threes" match between London and Surrey (i.e., three players from Barnes, Fulham and Richmond) ended in cricket's earliest known tie. Different versions of the scores have been reported but the teams totalled 23 runs from their two innings. In one version, London scored 4 and 19 against Surrey's 18 and 5; in the other, London scored 5 and 18 against Surrey's 17 and 6.[7][14][15]

First mentions

Counties

  • none

Clubs and teams

Players

Venues

Notes

  1. ↑ First-class cricket was officially defined in May 1894 by a meeting at Lord's of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the county clubs which were then competing in the County Championship. The ruling was effective from the beginning of the 1895 season. Pre-1895 matches of the same standard have no official definition of status because the ruling is not retrospective and the important matches designation, as applied to a given match, is based on the views of one or more substantial historical sources. For further information, see First-class cricket, Forms of cricket and History of cricket.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Buckley, FL18C, p. 12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ACS, Important Matches, p. 20.
  3. ↑ Waghorn, Cricket Scores, p. 14.
  4. ↑ Waghorn, Cricket Scores, pp. 14–15.
  5. 1 2 Waghorn, Cricket Scores, p. 13.
  6. ↑ Buckley, FL18C, p. 12–13.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Buckley, FL18C, p. 13.
  8. ↑ Waghorn, Cricket Scores, p. 16.
  9. ↑ Waghorn, Cricket Scores, pp. 16–17.
  10. 1 2 Buckley, FL18C, p. 14.
  11. ↑ Waghorn, Cricket Scores, p. 17.
  12. ↑ Maun, p. 83.
  13. ↑ Waghorn, Cricket Scores, pp. 13–14.
  14. ↑ Bowen, p. 263.
  15. ↑ Maun, p. 81.

Bibliography

  • ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
  • Ashley-Cooper, F. S. (1880). Kent Cricket Matches 1719–1796. Gibbs & Sons.
  • Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
  • Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
  • McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
  • Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978 1 900592 52 9.
  • Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773). Blackwood.
  • Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.
  • Wilson, Martin (2005). An Index to Waghorn. Bodyline.

Further reading

  • Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
  • Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
  • Buckley, G. B. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Cotterell.
  • Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
  • Marshall, John (1961). The Duke who was Cricket. Muller.
  • Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.
  • Leach, John (2008). "Classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825". Stumpsite. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011.
  • Leach, John (2007). "From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787". Stumpsite. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011.
  • Collins, A. R. (2016). "Historical Calendar". Dr A. R. Collins.
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