1734 English cricket season

The 1734 English cricket season was the 38th cricket season since the earliest recorded eleven-aside match was played. Details have survived of seven matches.

Four counties (Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex) and two clubs (Croydon and London) took part in all the known games. Records have been found of the earliest known match at the Vine Cricket Ground in Sevenoaks.

Recorded matches

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

Date	Teams	Venue	Result	Source
12 June	Kent v London	Dartford Brent	London won	[3]
	London beat Kent "though there was 6 to 4 laid against London in the middle of the game".
19 June	London v Kent	Artillery Ground	London won by an innings & 25 runs	[3]
	Team scores are known: Kent 31 & 51; London 107.
25 July	Croydon v London	Duppas Hill, Croydon	Croydon won	[4]
	No details are given of this game except the winners. The report includes a pre-announcement of the following game.
1 August	London v Croydon	Artillery Ground	London won	[3]
	Reported in the Grub Street Journal of 8 August.
26 August	Surrey v London	Kennington Common	unknown	[3]
	Pre-announced in the London Evening Post of 22 August: "the wickets to be pitched precisely between 12 and 1 o'clock".
6 September	Kent v Sussex	Sevenoaks Vine	Kent won	[5]
	Lord Middlesex (1710–1769) and his brother Lord John Philip Sackville (1713–1765) played for Kent with Sir William Gage for Sussex. The first known match at Sevenoaks Vine.
11 September	Sussex v Kent	Lewes	unknown	[5][6]
	The report of the previous game states that "the same Gentlemen were to play on the Downs near Lewes in Sussex".[5]

Other events

A match between London and Sevenoaks arranged for 8 July on Kennington Common, was not played due to the non-appearance of the Sevenoaks team. The Whitehall Evening Post reported that according to the Articles of Agreement their deposit money was forfeited.[3] Articles of Agreement are first known to have been drawn up in 1727.

London issued a challenge "to play with any eleven men in England, with this exception only, that they will not admit of one from Croydon".[5] No surviving post-match report has been found and so there is no evidence that the game took place. There was a dispute between London and Croydon after the latter apparently failed to attend an arranged match between the two clubs. London were especially aggrieved that Croydon did this after "having been regaled with a good dinner".[7]

The St James Evening Post reported two injuries in a private match at the Artillery Ground: "...a stander-by had the misfortune to have his knee-pan put out by a blow from the ball, and another was much bruised in the face by a like accident".[3]

First mentions

Players

Venues

Vine Cricket Ground, Sevenoaks[5]

References

ACS, p.20.
Other matches in England 1734, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
Buckley, p.9.
Waghorn, p.6.
Waghorn, p.7.
McCann, p.15.
Maun, pp.65–66.

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.
Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978 1 900592 52 9.
Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773). Blackwood.