This article is a work in progress. The 2018 version has been restored in the interests of WP:PRESERVE. The lead section may have to be amended over time, but the main improvement will be conversion of the match table to prose. Otherwise, some copyediting may help. The article is adequately sourced.
Details have survived of seven eleven-a-side matches in the 1737 English cricket season.[note 1]Frederick, Prince of Wales, seems to have been the sport's main patron this year while Kent, who twice defeated a combined London & Surrey team, seem to have been the strongest county.
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Scores are known: Kent 99 & 70-7 declared; Surrey 31 & 98. There was crowd trouble at the match. One report says: "the Mob outrageously threw Dirt, Dung, etc. on Account of the people's entering within the Line".[3] A week later, a man called John Smith died from complications of a wound caused when he was hit by one of the stones being thrown.[6] Another report says that "the Press (i.e., crowd pressure) was so great" that a woman suffered a broken leg "by the Crowd bearing upon her".[3] The Prince of Wales, sponsoring London & Surrey, gave her ten guineas compensation. Kent were sponsored by Lord John Philip Sackville.
Kent "maintained their honour, and beat their adversaries at one hands". The match was completed in a day. Cricket Scores records the fixture but has a non-specific and incorrect date in June.
The match was organised by Frederick, Prince of Wales (Surrey) and the 3rd Duke of Marlborough (London) for £500 a side. It was announced by the General Evening Post on Thursday, 21 July, but no report of the game has been found.
This is the earliest known organised match that was definitely played in the county of Essex, but see also 1724 in History of cricket to 1725. The report is in Read's Weekly Journal dated Saturday, 6 August.
Scores are known: Chertsey 45 & 66; London 81 & 31-5.
Cricket Scores has two reports of the same game, one of them having a date in June, but the Fresh Light date is correct as the report was taken from the Grub Street Journal dated Thursday, 8 September.[11]Cricket Scores reports that a Chertsey player broke a finger and this had a bearing on the result.
The match was "betwixt the men of Kent and the Gentlemen of London, within the Bills of Mortality".[12]
Single wicket
August. Two unnamed players, one from Wandsworth and one from Mitcham, described as "two of the most celebrated sportsmen in the game", played a match on Kennington Common. The Mitcham man was hit by the ball in his first innings and concussed for a time. He continued but was "beaten by a considerable number of notches".[13]
May. There was a tragic incident in a local match at Newick in Sussex when a player called John Boots was killed after he collided with his partner whilst going for a run. Both men were knocked down but got up again, only for Mr Boots to drop down dead as he was running to his wicket. This was recorded in a number of sources. Tim McCann found a reference in the West Sussex Records Office which named Mr Boots and said he was buried on Tues 31 May at Chailey. Chailey and Newick are neighbouring parishes just to the north of Lewes in East Sussex.[8][14]
Wednesday, 6 July. Stansted v Hertford is the earliest known match in Hertfordshire. Stansted won.[17]
Thursday, 14 July. Another minor "aristocrats only" game Kew Green. The captains were the Prince of Wales and the 3rd Duke of Marlborough. The Prince of Wales XI won.[16]
The General Evening Post on Tuesday, 2 August, announced a game at Kew Green to be played on Thursday, 4 August.[5][10]Frederick, Prince of Wales was due to play and lead a team of noblemen against the London Cricket Club, but it was probably members of the London Club rather than its professional players, so it would have been another minor match.[10]G. B. Buckley says it is doubtful if the match was ever played as Frederick's first child Princess Augusta (1737–1813) was born "on Aug. 3" (sic) and this occasioned "great rejoicings in London".[10] The Prince provided beer for the populace but "one lot of it was too bad to drink".[10] In fact, Augusta was born on Sunday, 31 July. She was the elder sister of George III and became Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttell. She was the mother of Princess Caroline of Brunswick who made the famously ill-fated marriage with the future George IV in 1795.
Friday, 12 August. Hertford v Brentwood played at Ware, Hertfordshire is the second known match in the county, only five weeks after the first. Brentwood won by 6 runs for a £200 prize.[18]
Notes
↑Some eleven-a-side matches played before 1864 have been rated "first-class" by certain sources, but there was no such standard at the time. The term came into common use from around 1864, when overarm bowling was legalised, and was formally defined as a standard by a meeting at Lord's, in May 1894, 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, but pre-1895 matches of the same standard have no official definition of status because the ruling is not retrospective. However, matches of a similar standard since the beginning of the 1864 season are generally considered to have an unofficial first-class status.[1] Pre-1864 matches which are included in the ACS' "Important Match Guide" may generally be regarded as top-class or, at least, historically significant.[2] For further information, see First-class cricket.
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