1742 English cricket season

1742 English cricket season

1742 was the 46th English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played. Details have survived of ten important matches. They include the two famous London versus Slindon matches in September.

Important matches

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

date match title venue result source
14 June (M) London v Bromley Artillery Ground match tied [1][2][3]
notes

This is the second known instance in eleven-a-side cricket of a tied match, following the Surrey v London game at Richmond Green on Wednesday, 22 July 1741.

7 July (W) London v Richmond Artillery Ground result unknown [1][2]
notes

This was "played for a considerable sum". Wickets were pitched at one o’clock.

26 July (M) London v Croydon Artillery Ground result unknown [1][2][3]
notes

This was "played for a considerable sum". Wickets were pitched at one o’clock.

2 August (M) Kent & Surrey v London Duppas Hill, Croydon result unknown [4]
notes

The counties team is described as "the Gentlemen of Kent and Surry and the Sussex Man from Slending". It is possible but by no means certain that Richard Newland was the "given man". A large sum of money was at stake with play due to begin at noon. The announcement says "the booths (retail) are to be set back and the ground to be roped round (i.e., forming a boundary)".

9 August (M) London v Bromley Artillery Ground result unknown [1][2][3]
notes

This was "played for a considerable sum". Wickets were pitched at twelve o’clock. Waghorn's source remarked that this was a return to the "tie game" on 14 June "which gave so much satisfaction to the spectators".[3]

16 August (M) London v Croydon Artillery Ground result unknown [1][2][3][4]
notes

It is known that two Kent players and "the noted bowler from Slendon" assisted Croydon; while two Surrey players were "given men" to London. Played for a "considerable sum of money" with the ground to be roped round. Possibly a replay of the game on Monday, 2 August (see above) but with perhaps a greater Croydon involvement.

23 August (M) Surrey v Rest of England Moulsey Hurst Surrey won [1][5]
notes

The original notice describes Surrey's opponents as "London, Westminster, Middlesex, Southwark and Part of Kent". Ashley-Cooper mentioned that the Moulsey Hurst ground was in 1900 held by the Hurst Park Racing Club.

2 September (Th) London v Surrey Artillery Ground result unknown [1][5][3]
notes

It is known that a Kent player from Bromley assisted London as a given man. The match was originally scheduled for 6 September and was rearranged because of the visit of Slindon to London on that date.

6 September (M) London v Slindon Artillery Ground London won [1][5][4]
notes

"London won with great difficulty. The wickets were pitched at twelve o’clock on the forfeit of 100 guineas. During the last innings of the match, the betting was as much as 20 to 1 in favour of Slindon so much praise must be given to London for winning. Before the match, the Slindon men had played forty-three games and lost but one. Several wagers were laid that one Slindon batsman, almost certainly Richard Newland, would obtain forty runs from his own bat – a feat he failed to perform. Had the match not been completed on the Monday, play would have resumed on the Wednesday".[5]

10 September (F) London v Slindon Artillery Ground London won by 184 runs [1][5][6]
notes

"The wickets were pitched at eleven o’clock on the forfeit of 100 guineas. This match was to have been played on Wed 8 September, but was postponed to above date on account of rain. At the conclusion of the above match Slindon offered to play another match against London either at Guildford or on the South Downs for £100, but the challenge was not accepted".[5]

There has been confusion about the dates of the two London v Slindon matches and the margin of victory in the second, due to one source’s misinterpretation of ambiguous reports in the London Evening Post dated 9 to 11 September.[7][8] Elsewhere, the references to the second match confirm that 6th and 10th are the correct dates for the two matches. The Daily Advertiser of Saturday, 11 September 1742, reports the margin in the second match as 184 notches and says it was played yesterday.[9] According to Maun's source, the game was due to commence on Wednesday, 8 September, "but was postponed (to the 10th) on account of rain".[10]

Other events

A schoolteacher in New Romney made the earliest known use of the word "cricketer" when completing a diary entry. He bestowed the accolade upon one William Pullen of Cranbrook but it was in connection with Pullen's death. He had just been hanged on Penenden Heath near Maidstone for stealing a sheep and five bushels of wheat.

Thursday, 27 May. The poet Thomas Gray (1716–71) wrote a letter to Mr Richard West and said: "There is my Lords ** and ***, they are Statesmen; Do not you remember them dirty boys playing at cricket"? The two "noble lords" are believed to have been the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Sandwich.

First mentions

Clubs and teams

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 ACS, Important Matches, p. 21.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ashley-Cooper, At the Sign of the Wicket, 25 January 1900, p. 5.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Waghorn, Dawn of Cricket, p. 12.
  4. 1 2 3 4 McCann, p. 22.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ashley-Cooper, At the Sign of the Wicket, 25 January 1900, p. 6.
  6. ↑ McCann, pp. 23–24.
  7. ↑ Waghorn, Cricket Scores, pp. 28–29.
  8. ↑ Wilson, p. 45.
  9. ↑ McCann, p. 24.
  10. ↑ Maun, p. 114.

Bibliography

  • ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
  • Ashley-Cooper, F. S. (1900). At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742–1751. Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game. London: Cricket Magazine. OCLC 28863559.
  • 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.
  • Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
  • Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
  • 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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