1757 English cricket season

1757 English cricket season

1757 was the 61st English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played. Details have survived of two important eleven-a-side matches and of no single wicket ones.

A match in September between Wirksworth and Sheffield at Brampton Moor, near Chesterfield, is the earliest reference to cricket in Derbyshire. Although cricket is known to have been played in Sheffield since 1751, this may be the earliest indication of the Sheffield Cricket Club from which Yorkshire County Cricket Club eventually evolved.[1]

The following reference is contained in William White’s History & General Directory of the Borough of Sheffield (1833). In his introductory history, Mr White says: In 1757 we find the Town Trustees attempting the abolition of brutal sports by paying 14s6d to the cricket players on Shrove Tuesday "to entertain the populace and prevent the infamous practice of throwing at cocks". He does not give the primary source from which he himself derived the information but it would likely be in parish or town records of some kind which may or may not still exist. There is a reference to the same in Waghorn who quotes his source as the much later Records of the Burgery of Sheffield (1897) by Jno. D Leader (p. 382) which dates the contract as 6 February 1757 (which may have been a Julian date as 6 February 1757 in the Gregorian Calendar was a Sunday).[2]

Important matches

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

date match title venue result source
25 & 26 July (M-Tu) London v Surrey Artillery Ground Surrey won by 50 runs [3][4][5][6]
notes

There would seem to have been a declaration here. Surrey batted first and scored 84 to which London replied with 89. Surrey batted until close of play when they were apparently 126/4. It seems that London batted when play restarted on Tuesday morning and scored 71. The primary source concludes: "so that Surrey beat London by 50 notches and had six wickets to knock down".

There are conflicting versions because the London Chronicle on Tuesday, 26 July, reported the close of play score on Monday as "(Surrey) had three hands put out but had got 117 notches ahead". That would make the close of play score 122/3 so it seems they received a slightly premature report, as confirmed in another source.

26 August (F) Chertsey v Hampton Moulsey Hurst Chertsey won [3]
notes

Reported in the General Evening Post next day.

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. ↑ Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
  2. ↑ H. T. Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
  3. 1 2 G. B. Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
  4. ↑ Buckley, Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket, p. 3. Cotterell, 1937
  5. ↑ H. T. Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899
  6. ↑ ACS, Important Matches, p. 23. Nottingham: ACS.
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