1740 English cricket season

1740 English cricket season

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Details have survived of eight eleven-a-side matches in the 1740 English cricket season. ^{[note 1]} London Cricket Club features in all of the surviving reports. Rain was a problem in July.

Matches

date	match title	venue	result	source
27 June (F)	Chislehurst v London	Chislehurst Common	London won	[3] [4]
notes	The report only states the venue and the winners.
2 July (W)	London v Chislehurst	Artillery Ground	result unknown	[3]
notes	The return match to the one above. The announcement advises: "All persons are desir'd to come in by the Iron Gates at the Pyed Horse-yard". The Pyed Horse was a pub adjoining the ground and its landlord (George Smith at the time) was usually the groundkeeper.
8 July (Tu)	Moulsey & Richmond v London	Moulsey Hurst	drawn (rain)	[3] [4]
notes	Scores are known: London 100 & 70-8; Moulsey & Richmond 86. Rain delayed the start till between three and four o’clock. It was decided to try again next week at the Artillery Ground.
16 July (W)	London v Moulsey & Richmond	Artillery Ground	London won by 73 runs	[5] [6] [4]
notes	Reported by the London & Country Journal dated Tuesday, 22 July.
28 July (M)	Kent v London	Sevenoaks Vine	drawn (rain)	[5] [4]
notes	Kent scored 71 & 130; London scored 98 and 30-3. Rain halted play "for some time". The report mentions the return match below.
4 August (M)	London v Kent	Artillery Ground	result unknown	[7]
notes	Referenced by the report of the match on Monday, 28 July.
8 September (M)	Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Hertfordshire v London	Uxbridge Moor	London won	[7]
notes	London won "with great difficulty". The report in the London Evening Post mentions arrangements for the return fixture below. This is the earliest mention of Uxbridge as a venue and the first time that Berkshire and Buckinghamshire are mentioned in county team terms, albeit parts of a combined team here. The first mention of Hertfordshire as a team is in 1732, though combined with Essex.
15 September (M)	London v Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Hertfordshire	Artillery Ground	result unknown	[7]
notes	Announced in the report of the previous match on Monday, 8 September.

Other events

Thomas Waymark, who had been employed by the 2nd Duke of Richmond as a groom, relocated to Bray, Berkshire where he was employed by the cricket enthusiast Mr Darville, and took part in matches organised by him. ^[8]

Wednesday, 30 July. In a letter from Goodwood House to his friend Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, the 2nd Duke of Richmond mentioned several local people including "John Newland, that you must remember". ^[5] This is the first mention in the sources of the Newland brothers who became famous as members of Slindon Cricket Club.

Notes

1. 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.

References

1. ACS 1982, pp. 4–5.
2. ACS 1981, pp. 1–40.
3. Maun, p. 98.
4. ACS, Important Matches, p. 20.
5. Maun, p. 99.
6. Buckley, p. 16.
7. Maun, p. 100.
8. Maun, pp. 100–101.

Bibliography

• ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709–1863. Nottingham: ACS.
• ACS (1982). A Guide to First-class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS.
• Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
• Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN   978 1 900592 52 9.

Further reading

• Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
• Ashley-Cooper, F. S. (1880). Kent Cricket Matches 1719–1796. Gibbs & Sons.
• Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
• Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
• Buckley, G. B. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Cotterell.
• McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
• Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
• Marshall, John (1961). The Duke who was Cricket. Muller.
• Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.
• 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.