1745 English cricket season
1745 was the 49th English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played. Details have survived of 22 important eleven-a-side and one single wicket match. The Jacobite Rebellion began in August but had little if any impact on cricket in south-east England, the season being nearly over when the battle at Prestonpans took place on 21 September.
Important matches
The following matches are classified as important:[note 1]
date | match title | venue | result | source |
---|---|---|---|---|
6 May (M) | London v Addington | Kennington Common | result unknown | [1][2] |
notes |
Reported in the Penny London Post dated Monday, 6 May. Stakes were one guinea a man and the wickets were to be pitched by 1 pm. | |||
23 May (Th) | Addington v London | Addington Hills | Addington won | [2][3] |
notes |
No details are known except the result. | |||
24 May (F) | Bromley v London | Bromley Common | Bromley won | [2][3] |
notes |
The precise venue was "behind the Bell Inn". | |||
27 May (M) | London v Addington | Artillery Ground | London won | [2][3] |
notes |
The return game to the one on 23 May. The matches were probably arranged as a pair in advance. | |||
10 June (M) | London v Bromley | Artillery Ground | London won by 10 runs | [2][3] |
notes |
The return game to the one on 24 May. It was originally arranged for Monday, 3 June but was rained off. London scored 23 and 75; Bromley scored 52 and 36. | |||
17 June (M) | London v Bromley | Artillery Ground | London won by 7 wkts | [2][3] |
notes |
Probably arranged after 10 June as a "decider". The prize was 200 guineas. Bromley scored 65 and 29; London scored 48 and then "got the match and had only three hands out". | |||
26 June (W) | Long Robin's XI v Richard Newland's XI | Artillery Ground | Long Robin's XI won by "over 70 runs" | [2][3] |
notes |
The teams are known but no details of the scores. Long Robin's XI: Robert Colchin, Tom Faulkner, James Bryant, Joseph Harris, Broad, Hodge, Val Romney, George Jackson, Robert Lascoe, John Harris, John Bowra. Richard Newland's XI: Richard Newland, John Bryant, Norton, Jacob Mann, Little Bennett, Martin, Howlett, Tall Bennett, William Anderson, Norris, Howard. The match was "arranged by the noblemen and gentlemen of the London Club". Wickets were pitched at noon but play did not commence until one o’clock. | |||
5 July (F) | Long Robin's XI v Richard Newland's XI | Artillery Ground | Long Robin's XI won by 5 wkts | [2][3] |
notes |
Effectively the same fixture as the previous one but it was advertised rather wordily as Sevenoaks, Bromley & Addington versus Slindon, Horsmonden, Chislehurst & London. As before, the match was "arranged by the noblemen and gentlemen of the London Club". | |||
12 July (F) | Kent v All England | Bromley Common | Kent won | [2][3] |
notes |
Played for a thousand guineas. | |||
13 July (S) | Trial Match | Artillery Ground | result unknown | [2][3] |
notes |
Advertised simply as "a trial match, those cricketers participating who were down to play in the Kent v All England match on the following Monday". | |||
15 & 16 July (M-Tu) | All England v Kent | Artillery Ground | All England won by 119 runs | [2][3] |
notes |
Played for a thousand guineas. Richard Newland made 88 for All-England but it is not known if this was in one innings or if it was his match total. It was certainly a very high score either way given pitch conditions at the time. | |||
22 July (M) | Addington & Lingfield v Surrey | Artillery Ground | result unknown | [2][3] |
notes |
John Bryant and Little Bennett played for Surrey as given men. | |||
23 July (Tu) | Croydon v Lambeth | Kennington Common | result unknown | [3] |
notes |
Played for "a great sum". It was on Tuesday, 23 July that Charles Edward Stuart and his companions landed on Eriskay in the Hebrides with the intention of raising an army to overthrow the House of Hanover. | |||
24 July (W) | Kingston v Lambeth | Kennington Common | result unknown | [3] |
notes |
Played for "a large sum". | |||
3 August (S) | Addington v Lingfield | Addington Hills | result unknown | [3] |
notes |
No details of the match are known but a report states that "there was a cold Collation and the best of Liquours at George Williams’ Red Cap Tent". | |||
7 August (W) | London v Kingston | Artillery Ground | result unknown | [2][3] |
notes |
No details reported. | |||
12 August (M) | London v Addington | Artillery Ground | result unknown | [2][3] |
notes |
The report simply says that this was third match played this season between Addington and London. | |||
19 August (M) | Surrey v Sussex | Artillery Ground | Surrey won "by several notches" | [2][4] |
notes |
Reported in the St James Evening Post on the same and the next day. Richard Newland played for Sussex. It was on Monday, 19 August that Charles Edward Stuart raised his standard at Glenfinnan to formally begin the ‘45 Rebellion. | |||
21 August (W) | Surrey v Sussex | Moulsey Hurst | result unknown | [2][4] |
notes |
The Daily Advertiser on Wednesday, 21 August announced: "The Streatham Captain (i.e., George Williams), with his Flying Squadron of Red Caps, will attend at his grand Tent, to entertain Gentlemen with a cold Collation, the best French Wines, and other Liquours". | |||
26 August (M) | Sussex v Surrey | Bury Hill, Arundel | Surrey won? | [2][4] |
notes |
Bury Hill was also called Berry Hill. It would seem that Surrey won the game in view of a comment made by Lord John Philip Sackville in a letter dated Saturday, 14 September to the Duke of Richmond, Sussex's patron: "I wish you had let Ridgeway play instead of your stopper behind it might have turned the match in our favour". | |||
16 September (M) | Addington & Lingfield v Surrey | Artillery Ground | result unknown | [2][4] |
notes |
John Bryant and Little Bennett played for Surrey as given men. On Saturday, 21 September, the first battle of the ‘45 Rebellion was fought at Prestonpans in Lothian. The Jacobite army defeated the only government force in Scotland. It is believed about 2,500 soldiers fought on each side. The government commander, General Sir John Cope (1690–1760), had been left by the foreign wars with an inexperienced force. The Jacobites attacked at dawn by staging a "Highland charge" and the Hanoverian troops broke at once and fled. Over 300 deaths were recorded. | |||
28 September (S) | Hills of Kent v Dales of Kent | Artillery Ground | result unknown | [2][4] |
notes |
This match was originally arranged for Monday, 23 September and it was stated to have been the third between these sides, each having previously won once. In one report, the venue was given as Mr Smith's, a reference to George Smith who was the keeper of the Artillery Ground. | |||
Single wicket
Monday, 24 June. A game between two "threes" in the Artillery Ground. The teams were William Hodsoll (Dartford), Val Romney (Sevenoaks) and Richard Newland (Slindon) versus Robert Colchin, John Bryant (both of Bromley) and J. Harris (Addington). It is not known which of John or Joe Harris was playing. Hodsoll's side won by 7 runs.[3]
Other events
Friday, 10 May. The Ipswich Journal reported that: "All lovers of Cricket are hereby desired to meet at Gray's Coffee House (in Norwich) on Friday 17th inst. at 6 pm to settle rules for that manly diversion". The meeting may have been to discuss the (new?) version of the Laws of Cricket which had been published the previous year. The report is the earliest known mention of cricket in the county of Norfolk.[1][5][6]
Friday, 26 July. A ladies match took place on Gosden Common, near Guildford, between "XI Maids of Bramley" and "XI Maids of Hambledon". They all dressed in white but the Hambledon lasses wore red ribbons on their heads and the Bramley lasses wore blue. This is Hambledon near Godalming in Surrey, incidentally. Bramley is another Surrey village, also close to Godalming.[3][7] A further report says the ladies played a return match at Hambledon, Surrey on Tues 6 August.[8]
First mentions
Counties
Clubs and teams
Players
Venues
Notes
- ↑ 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 2 3 Buckley, FLPVC, p. 1.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ACS, Important Matches, p. 21.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Ashley-Cooper, At the Sign of the Wicket, 29 March 1900, p. 36.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ashley-Cooper, At the Sign of the Wicket, 29 March 1900, p. 37.
- ↑ Bowen, p. 264.
- ↑ Maun, p. 152.
- ↑ Waghorn, Cricket Scores, p. 36.
- ↑ Buckley, FL18C, p. 20.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
External links
- 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.