1733 English cricket season

The 1733 English cricket season was the 37th cricket season since the earliest recorded eleven-aside match was played. Details have survived of 12 matches. Two local matches played in Hampshire are the earliest known to have been played in the county.

1733 English cricket season

Recorded matches

Records have survived of twelve matches:[1][2]

Date Teams Venue Result Source
22 May Greenwich v London Blackheath London won by 15 runs [3]
London scored 112 in the first innings after going in first. No other totals were mentioned.
28 May London v Greenwich Artillery Ground London won by 18 runs [3]
Re-match first announced in the report of the previous game.
26 June Fulham v Chelsea Parsons Green Fulham won by 3 runs [3]
Played for a prize of thirty guineas. Little is known about either of these teams, which have few mentions in the surviving records. The match was reported in a newspaper, Berington's Evening Post.
5 July London v Kent Artillery Ground Kent won by 60 runs [4][5]
Advertised for a stake of one guinea each man with wickets to be pitched at one o’clock and the spectators to keep outside the line round the ground. "If any persons get on the Walls, they will be prosecuted as the Law directs; and the Company are desired to come through the Py'd Horse Yard, Chiswell Street".
11 July Surrey v Middlesex Moulsey Hurst Middlesex won by 3 runs [6]
The report says the teams "were very hard matched". The Prince of Wales gave each player a guinea after the game.
1 August Middlesex & Surrey v Kent Moulsey Hurst Middlesex & Surrey won [7]
Arranged immediately after the match on or about Wed 11 July by Frederick, Prince of Wales and Edwin Stead. The Prince of Wales awarded a silver cup to the winners of this match, the first known instance of a cup being played for in a cricket match.
20 August Ealing & Acton v London Ealing Common unknown [3]
The terms of the match were "for £50, play or pay". This is the only mention of Ealing & Acton and of Ealing Common in the surviving records.
31 August Frederick, Prince of Wales' XI v Lord Gage's XI Moulsey Hurst unknown [8]
The announcement in the St James Evening Post (25 to 28 August) states:

"On Friday next a great Match at Cricket will be play’d on Molesey Hurst; by 11 of the best Players in the County on each Side, for a Wager of 100 Guineas between His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the Right Honorable, the Lord Gage".

Waghorn reported this in Dawn of Cricket as taking place on 7 September, and he recorded the county as Suffolk. Lord Gage was the former Sir William Gage. The Prince of Wales was by now completely taken with cricket and had become a great patron of the sport.

10 September Surrey v Kent Kennington Common unknown [9][10]

The same game is dated 20 September in Dawn of Cricket. The game reported in Kent Cricket Matches is correctly dated 10 September. Kent Cricket Matches and Dawn of Cricket both report word for word a condition about roping the enclosure.

12 September London v Kent Artillery Ground Kent won by 3 wickets [3]
This is the earliest known result where the win was by a certain number of wickets. London scored 65 & 35; Kent scored 71 "and the second hands of the Kentish men won the wager and had three men to spare".
19 September Croydon v London Duppas Hill, Croydon drawn [11]
Team scores are known: Croydon 95 & 76; London 89 & 41/5 – Time expired and the match was drawn. Croydon had three given men and it was reported that the betting reached record levels. The Croydon team was called "the country men". The report says a rematch would take place at the Artillery Ground "on Wednesday next".
26 September London v Croydon Artillery Ground drawn due to rain [12]
Re-match of the previous game. London had a lead of 8 runs when play was abandoned because of rain, but it is not known what stage the game had reached. Reported in the Whitehall Evening Post dated 29 September.

Other events

The earliest known match in Hampshire took place at Stubbington, near Portsmouth on 22 May, when a team of bachelors were beaten "most shamefully" by a team of married men. A return match took place at Titchfield on 29 May with the same result. The reports for both matches were found in the American Weekly Mercury, a Philadelphia newspaper, dated 20 to 27 September 1733.[13]

First mentions

Counties

Clubs and teams
  • Ealing & Acton[3]
  • Frederick, Prince of Wales' XI[8]
  • Middlesex & Surrey[7]

Venues

References
  1. ACS, p.20.
  2. Other matches in England 1733, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  3. Buckley, p.8.
  4. Waghorn 1906, p.11.
  5. Buckley, p.238.
  6. Waghorn 1899, pp.4–5.
  7. Waghorn 1899, pp.5–6.
  8. McCann, p.14.
  9. Maun, p.61.
  10. Ashley-Cooper.
  11. Waghorn 1899, p.6.
  12. Buckley, p.9.
  13. Maun, p. 59.

Bibliography
  • ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
  • F. S. Ashley-Cooper (1929) Kent Cricket Matches 1719-1880, Gibbs & Sons.
  • Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
  • Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773). Blackwood.
  • Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.

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 (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978 1 900592 52 9.
  • Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.
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