1738 English cricket season

1738 English cricket season

← 1737 1739 →

As in 1737, Kent was the strongest county team in the 1738 English cricket season. London Cricket Club is featured in most of the surviving match reports. Chislehurst Cricket Club and Horsmonden Cricket Club became prominent. The earliest reference to cricket in the county of Dorset has been found. Details of eight matches are known. ^{[note 1]}

Kent v London & Surrey

One match was played on Kennington Common in July. Kent "won easily" to repeat their successes in two 1737 matches against the same opponents. A return was planned at another venue, but probably didn't happen. ^{[5] [6] [7]}

Chislehurst v Horsmonden

A Chislehurst v Horsmonden match was played 11 July on Chislehurst Common for "a considerable sum of money". It is the first known reference to each of these teams who were prominent for a few seasons before and after 1740. Chislehurst won, and a return match took place 21 July in Horsmonden. This was won by Horsmonden "in one Hands (sic), all but 4 notches". The use of "hands" in this context means "innings", so Horsmonden achieved an innings victory, one of the earliest on record. ^[8]

Chislehurst v London

The teams met 12 July on Chislehurst Common in a game that "turned several times" until finally being won by London. A rematch was arranged a week hence at the Artillery Ground. ^[8] In that one, London scored less than 100 in their combined innings. Chislehurst had scored 73 in the first innings, and won "without much difficulty" by 5 wickets. ^{[9] [7]}

A third match was played in September at the Artillery Ground, and London won by an unknown margin. The newspaper report said nothing else about the game, but did say betting on London at the start of the second innings was "a guinea to a shilling". ^{[8] [7]}

London v Mitcham

Played 11 August at the Artillery Ground, Mitcham totalled 117/20 in their two innings, and London made 118/19 to win by one wicket. Strangely, given the distance involved, the only report of this match was in the Warwickshire & Staffordshire Journal dated Thursday, 17 August. ^{[10] [7]}

Other events

An advertisement in the Sherborne Mercury dated Tuesday, 9 May, is the earliest reference to cricket in Dorset. Twelve Dorchester men at Ridgway (sic) Races challenged twelve men from elsewhere to play them at cricket for the prize of twelve pairs of gloves valued at a shilling a pair. ^[11]

In September, there was an inter-parish match in Sussex between teams from Eastbourne and Battle. Lord John Sackville captained Eastbourne, who won by 4 wickets. ^[9]

Notes

1. Some eleven-a-side matches played from 1772 to 1863 have been rated "first-class" by certain sources. ^[1] However, the term only came into common use around 1864, when overarm bowling was legalised. It 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. ^[2] Matches of a similar standard since the beginning of the 1864 season are generally considered to have an unofficial first-class status. ^[3] Pre-1864 matches which are included in the ACS' "Important Match Guide" may generally be regarded as top-class or, at least, historically significant. ^[4] For further information, see First-class cricket.

References

1. "First-Class matches in England in 1772" . CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
2. Wisden (1948). Preston, Hubert (ed.). Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (85th ed.). London: Sporting Handbooks Ltd. p. 813. OCLC   851705816.
3. ACS 1982, pp. 4–5.
4. ACS 1981, pp. 1–40.
5. Waghorn 1899, p. 20.
6. Maun 2009, p. 91.
7. ACS 1981, p. 20.
8. Waghorn 1899, pp. 20–21.
9. Waghorn 1899, p. 21.
10. Buckley 1935, p. 15.
11. Major 2007, p. 116.

Bibliography

• ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709–1863. Nottingham: ACS. OCLC   85045528.
• ACS (1982). A Guide to First-class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS. OCLC   10586869.
• Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Birmingham: Cotterell & Co. OCLC   23450280.
• Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. London: HarperCollins. ISBN   978-00-07183-64-7 – via Internet Archive.
• Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Cambridge: Roger Heavens. ISBN   978-19-00592-52-9.
• Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, &c. From 1730–1773. Edinburgh: Blackwood. OCLC   1086375331.

Further reading

• Altham, H. S.; Swanton, E. W. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914) (5th ed.). London: George Allen & Unwin. OCLC   894274808.
• Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. London: Aurum Press. ISBN   978-18-54107-10-7 – via Internet Archive.
• Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. ISBN   978-04-13278-60-9.
• Wilson, Martin (2005). An Index to Waghorn. London: Bodyline Books (limited edition, by subscription only).