1752 English cricket season

1752 English cricket season

1752 was the 56th English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played. Details have survived of ten important eleven-a-side matches but of no single wicket ones. The famous Dartford Cricket Club enjoyed a resurgence.

Impact of the Gregorian calendar

It was a very important year in dating terms. The Gregorian calendar, first devised in 1582, was finally adopted in Great Britain. An 11-day discrepancy between the Julian and Gregorian versions was corrected by having Wednesday, 2 September 1752 followed by Thursday, 14 September 1752. There was civil unrest among the population due to a widespread belief that people’s lives were literally being shortened by 11 days. For the purposes of cricket history, the calendar change has minimal impact because the cricket season never began before 25 March and so the year is always the same whether a Julian or Gregorian date is used, apart from a few "out of season" references that need to be noted accordingly. The only problem is that care has to be taken re any original sources that insisted on using the Julian date after the Gregorian Calendar was introduced. Indeed, there is an example of this below in the case of the Sussex Weekly Advertiser.

Important matches

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

date match title venue result source
17 June (W) Kent v Surrey [1] Chislehurst Common result unknown [2]
notes

This match was advertised on Tues 16 June in the Daily Advertiser by George Williams of the White Lion at Streatham who said he would provide the best of liquors and a cold collation; he humbly hoped the noblemen and gentlemen would do him the honour of regaling themselves! See the games on 3 and 21 August 1745 for earlier references to Mr Williams and his catering services. Williams played cricket himself and was captain of the Streatham club in 1745.

30 June (Tu) Bromley v London [1] Bromley Common match drawn [2]
notes

London scored 52 and 92; Bromley replied with 60 and were 52 for 5 when play ended, presumably because of rain. The precise venue was the White Hart field on Bromley Common. Stakes were £50 a side. Bromley had John Mansfield (Sevenoaks) and Howard (Kent) as given men.

15 July (W) London v Bromley [1] Artillery Ground result unknown [2]
notes

This was the return match postponed from Monday, 6 July due to wet weather.

20 July (M) Westminster v Addington [1] Tothill Fields, Westminster result unknown
notes

Westminster’s team included Stephen Dingate, William Anderson, Little Bennett, Tall Bennett, Perry and John Capon. The Addington team included John Mansfield, George Jackson, John Frame, Durling, Joe Harris and John Harris.

29 July (W) Dartford v England XI [1] Dartford Brent result unknown [2]
notes

Dartford’s team was pre-announced as William Hodsoll, John Bryant, Robert Eures and 8 others of "the parish of Dartford" against "any 11 men to be chosen and taken in any part of England". Dartford was a very strong team in the 1750s and this match is reminiscent of the Slindon challenges of a decade earlier.

29 July (W) London v Edmonton [1] Artillery Ground result unknown [2]
notes

The prize was 10 guineas.

3 August (M) Westminster v Addington [1] Tothill Fields, Westminster Westminster by 10 runs
notes

This may be a return to the match on Mon 20 July or it may be the same match having been postponed.

11 August (Tu) Dartford v England XI [1] Dartford Brent result unknown [3]
notes

The source says: "Dartford with 4 men allowed against 11 men to be picked out of All England, for £20 a side".

12 August (W) Addington v Dartford [1] Addington Hill result unknown
notes

This was another match announced by our "most humble servant" George Williams, who would again provide "the usual accommodation" and victuals.

28 September (Th) Deptford v Westminster [1] Upper Fountain, Deptford result unknown
notes

The Daily Advertiser on Saturday, 29 August (Julian) announced that this game would take place on Thursday, 14 September (i.e., day one itself of the Gregorian Calendar immediately following the last Julian date of Wednesday, 2 September). Tom Faulkner and one of the Harris brothers were to be given men on the Deptford side. On Thursday, 21 September (Gregorian), the Daily Advertiser announced postponement of the match to Thursday, 28 September and reported that John Bryant and "two from Chislehurst" would play for Deptford instead of Faulkner and Harris "who were not allowed to play".

29 September (F) Sussex v Surrey [4] Long Down Surrey won by c.80 runs [3]
notes

An interesting one in calendar terms as the report was in the Sussex Weekly Advertiser dated Thursday, 16 October (Julian date), which should officially have been dated Thursday, 5 October (Gregorian). The report says: "Last Friday se’enight the great Match at Cricket between Surrey and Sussex was finished, on Long Down, when Surrey beat by about four score Notches". The match took place on Friday, 29 September (Gregorian), not Friday, 10 October (Julian) as the source infers.

Single wicket

No surviving records have been found of single wicket matches in 1752.

Other events

On Thursday, 27 February (Julian), the Daily Advertiser reported that George Smith of the Artillery Ground had taken the late Duke of Somerset’s house at Marlborough and intended to open it as an inn. Smith offered the Artillery Ground and its dwelling house, etc. on lease for 7 years. Smith had evidently overcome his bankruptcy problems in 1748.[1]

On Saturday, 30 May (Julian), the Daily Advertiser carried a notice re the Artillery Ground that "gentlemen may be supplied with bats and balls" and that "the ground is kept in good order for play by your humble servant William Sharpe".[1]

The Daily Advertiser on Monday, 31 August (two days before the end of the Julian Calendar) announced a game on the same day between "Marybone (sic) Club" and 11 of London for a guinea a man: "to meet at Francis Ludgate’s, the Sun and Sportsman next the church. Wickets to be pitched at 1, and the match played out". Note that this "Marylebone Club" had no connection with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).[1]

On the same day, there was a match at Durdham Down near Bristol between 11 of Bristol and 11 of London for 20 guineas. This was announced in Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal on Saturday, 29 August (Julian).[1]

First mentions

Counties

    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 13 14 G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
          2. 1 2 3 4 5 ACS, Important Matches, p. 22.
          3. 1 2 ACS, Important Matches, p. 23.
          4. ↑ Timothy J McCann, Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century, Sussex Record Society, 2004

          Bibliography

          • ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
          • Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
          • McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
          • 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. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Cotterell.
          • Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
          • Maun, Ian (2011). From Commons to Lord's, Volume Two: 1751 to 1770. Martin Wilson. ISBN 978-0-9569066-0-1.
          • 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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