1754 English cricket season

1754 English cricket season

1754 was the 58th English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played. Details have survived of four important eleven-a-side and two single wicket matches. Dartford was the pre-eminent club. The Leeds Intelligencer, forerunner of the Yorkshire Post, began publication; it has always been a noted source for cricket in Yorkshire.

Important matches

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

date match title venue result source
1 July (M) London v Dartford Artillery Ground Dartford won by 3 wkts [1][2]
notes

London made 78 and 50; Dartford replied with 55 and 74/7. The Daily Advertiser on Friday, 28 June, announced: "Wickets pitched at Twelve, and to begin play at One".

22 July (M) Surrey v Sussex [3] Guildford result unknown [2]
notes

The match was advertised as: "Guildford, Ripley, Thursley and the lower part of Surrey against Bolney, Brighton and the eastern part of Sussex". The stake was 20 guineas a side.

24 August (S) Woolwich v Dartford Barrack Field, Woolwich Dartford won [1]
notes

(see below)

26 August (M) Dartford v Woolwich Dartford Brent Woolwich won [1]
notes

Both the above two games were mentioned in the same report by Read's Weekly Journal dated Saturday, 31 August: "Dartford won away & lost at home against Woolwich on Sat. & Mon., 24 & 26 Aug. respectively".

Single wicket

The Daily Advertiser on Friday, 28 June, announced for the same day a two-a-side game "behind George Taylor’s at Deptford". The players were Tom Faulkner and Joe Harris v John Capon and Perry.[1]

Tuesday, 24 September. A single wicket game at Brompton in Kent between the well-known Thomas Brandon of Dartford and a player called Parr of Chatham. The stakes were five guineas each and Brandon won by 47 runs.[4]

Other events

21–22 June (F–S). Midhurst & Petworth v Slindon on Bowling Green, Lavington Common.[5] The former apparently won by eight wickets and the match seems to mark the swansong of Slindon as a great team as they are not mentioned in the sources thereafter. Sussex cricket as a whole went into decline for many years and, although a number of inter-parish games are recorded over the next decade or so, it is not until 1766 that Sussex county cricket teams again take part in important matches. This temporary demise of Sussex is probably explained by the death of the 2nd Duke of Richmond in 1750. He was the greatest patron of Sussex cricket, and of Slindon in particular. His co-patron and good friend Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet, had died in 1744.

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 Buckley, FLPVC, p. 2.
          2. 1 2 ACS, Important Matches, p. 23.
          3. ↑ G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
          4. ↑ H T Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899
          5. ↑ 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. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Cotterell.
          • 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.
          • 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.
          • 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.
          • Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.
          • 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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