1764 English cricket season

1764 English cricket season

1764 was the 68th English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played. Details have survived of seven important eleven-a-side matches. Chertsey and Hambledon, by now the leading teams in cricket, played each other three times.

A number of notable players are mentioned in sources for the first time, including three of the greatest 18th century players: Richard Nyren, John Small and Lumpy Stevens. The 1764 season marks the beginning of the "Hambledon Era" in earnest and it is believed to be about this time that the Hambledon Club was founded. The team must have continued to make a name for itself ever since the tri-series v Dartford Cricket Club in 1756, but there can be no doubt that the records of many matches have been lost.

Important matches

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

date match title venue result source
23 August (Th) Norfolk v Suffolk Bury St Edmunds Race Course Norfolk won [1]
notes

This was reported in the Gazetteer & London Daily Advertiser on Tues 28 August.

28 August (Tu) Romford v Dartford Romford Race Course result unknown [1]
notes

This was announced in the Chelmsford Chronicle on Fri 24 August. Dartford was a leading club; they travelled to play an Essex team on presumably level terms, and this suggests that playing standards in Essex were good at this time.

10 & 11 September (M-Tu) Chertsey v Hambledon Laleham Burway Hambledon won by 4 wkts [2][3]
notes

The team scores were: Chertsey 48 and 127; Hambledon 76 and 100-6. The stakes were £20 a side.

The Hambledon team is believed to have been: Richard Nyren (captain), John Small, Peter Stewart, William Hogsflesh, William Barber, John Bayton, Osmond, John Woolgar, Edward Woolgar, Thomas Ridge and Squire Thomas Land. Hambledon at this time was sometimes referred to as "Squire Land’s Club". Chertsey is believed to have had three given men from Dartford, perhaps including John Frame. Thomas "Daddy" White and Edward "Lumpy" Stevens may have played for Chertsey. John Edmeads and Thomas Baldwin certainly did for they shared a partnership of 40.[4]

At the end of Monday’s play, Chertsey had scored 115 in their second innings (wickets unknown) and so led by 87. They added 12 in the morning and Hambledon needed exactly 100 to win. They scored them after being 4-3! [3]

Ashley Mote remarks that Richard Nyren travelled to this match leaving a six-months pregnant wife at home (at least, it is assumed she stayed at home!) for the author of The Cricketers of My Time, John Nyren, was born in December.[4]

10 September (M) Suffolk v Norfolk Scole Common Suffolk won [2][5]
notes
12 September (W) Suffolk v Norfolk Scole Common Suffolk won [2][5]
notes

The source reports these together and says Suffolk won (both?) "with the greatest of ease".

17 & 18 September (M-Tu) Hambledon v Chertsey Broadhalfpenny Down? Chertsey won by 2 wkts [2][1]
notes

The return match to the one a week earlier and it was probably at Hambledon but this is not certain. There are references in the Whitehall Evening Post and the St James Chronicle both before and after the game.

21 September (F) Arundel v East Sussex Henfield Common Arundel won by 2 wkts [6]
notes

Reported in the Sussex Weekly Advertiser on Monday, 24 September.

24 September (M) Chertsey v Hambledon venue unknown result unknown [2][1]
notes

The two clubs apparently agreed to stage a decider but it is not known if it ever took place.

Other events

    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 G. B. Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
          2. 1 2 3 4 5 ACS, Important Matches, p. 23.
          3. 1 2 H. T. Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899
          4. 1 2 Ashley Mote, The Glory Days of Cricket, Robson, 1997
          5. 1 2 H. T. Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
          6. ↑ Buckley, FLPVC, p. 4.

          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.
          • Mote, Ashley (1997). The Glory Days of Cricket. Robson.
          • 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.
          • Haygarth, Arthur (1862). Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Lillywhite.
          • McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
          • 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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