Please note that the 2018 version of this article has been restored in the interests of WP:PRESERVE. The main improvement needed is conversion of the match table to prose.
Details have survived of six eleven-a-side matches in the 1750 English cricket season, and four notable single wicket matches.[note 1]Kent and Surrey played three inter-county matches.
In At the Sign of the Wicket, F. S. Ashley-Cooper gives the opinion that the Hambledon Club was founded in or about 1750, but there is no evidence to support this view and the club's origin is unknown. As the team was playing top-class cricket in the 1756 season (i.e., its earliest recorded matches), it seems likely that a local club of some kind was founded much earlier than 1750 as it must have risen to a position of prominence in Hampshire before being able to take on the likes of Dartford from 1756. It is possible, as with many later county clubs, that a parish club was in existence for a long time and was then subject to substantial reorganisation after its team became famous. This might explain the many "origins" of the Hambledon Club up to about the 1767 season.
Matches
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A return match. Kent scored 53 and 55; Surrey replied with 80 and 29–1 to win with some ease. The teams were unchanged from the first match but again no individual scores are known.
Dartford scored 46 and 34; Addington replied with 39 and 35. William Hodsoll and the two Bryants all played for Dartford as given men. According to the London Evening Post on Thursday, 19 July, Dartford lost five second innings wickets in five successive deliveries by a mixture of caught and bowled, but they still made enough to win. The source says: "It is remarkable Dartford had five men bowled and caught out in five succeeding bowls the last hands".[7]
Surrey scored 55 and 42; Kent replied with 63 and 35–9 to win a very tight contest. A deciding match and again it was won by the team batting second. Five runs were still needed when the penultimate wicket fell. The teams were unchanged from the two previous matches but again there are no individual scores. The London Club ruled beforehand that players must reside in the county they play for. The Frames still lived at Warlingham in 1750, though John Frame was latterly associated with Dartford.
Friday, 14 September. The second match ended in a tie, both sides totalling nine. As single-wicket rules applied, all batsmen were out. It is known they were all bowled (but not who by) except for Dingate who was caught in the 2nd innings, Thomas Bell who was run out in the 2nd innings and Joe Harris who was caught in the 2nd innings (apparently while trying to hit the winning run).[6]
Monday, 17 September. The third and deciding game of "fives" was won by Tom Faulkner’s side by an innings and one run. Dingate’s team scored 10 and 18 but Faulkner’s scored 29. The individual figures in the recorded score of Dingate’s second innings add up to 20 but 18 was definitely the correct total so one or more of the individual scores was wrong.[6]
Wednesday, 8 August. Death, at Godalming, of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond (1701–1750), who was arguably the greatest of the game’s early patrons, particularly of the Slindon Cricket Club and of Sussex cricket in general. His death was followed by an immediate slump in Sussex cricket and it is not until 1766 that a recovery can be discerned.[10]
Notes
↑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.
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