1753 English cricket season

Last updated November 23, 2025

Details have survived of three eleven-a-side matches in the 1753 English cricket season, and one notable single wicket match.^{[note 1]}

Matches

date	match title	venue	result	source
6 & 7 August (M-Tu)	Dover v Dartford ^[4]	Dover	Dover won by 7 runs	^[5]
notes	Dover scored 57 and 83; Dartford scored 95 and 38. This is the first significant mention of Dover in cricket history. Dartford remained a premier club through the 1750s so presumably this was a shock result.

7 & 8 August (Tu-W)	Hambledon v Surrey	Broadhalfpenny Down	Hambledon won by 113 runs	^[6]
notes	Hambledon scored 202 and 105; Surrey scored 131 and 63. This is the first mention of cricket being played on Broadhalfpenny (discovered in the Salisbury Journal in 2011). John Lucas, of Portsmouth, scored 82 in Hambledon's first innings.

15 August (W)	Two Elevens ^[4]	Artillery Ground	result unknown	^[5]
notes	This was a benefit match for Mr Anderson of the Dial in Long Alley, Moorfields. There was a well-known player called William Anderson, first mentioned in 1745, so possibly this was he. The two elevens were made up of various players from the general London area with "the best bowlers to be parted".

30 August (Th)	London v Marylebone ^[4]	Artillery Ground	result unknown	^[5]
notes	Marylebone (no connection with MCC) had Tall Bennett and William King as given men.

Monday, 10 September. Two of London were to play Tom Faulkner and Joe Harris for £20 at the Artillery Ground.^[4]

↑ 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.

↑ ACS 1982, pp. 4–5.
↑ ACS 1981, pp. 1–40. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFACS1981 (help)
↑ Hugh Barty-King, Quilt Winders and Pod Shavers: the history of cricket bat and ball manufacture, MacDonald and James, 1979
1 2 3 4 G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
1 2 3 ACS, Important Matches, p. 23.
↑ Maun, p. 38.

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.
McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
Maun, Ian (2011). From Commons to Lord's, Volume Two: 1751 to 1770. Martin Wilson. ISBN 978-0-9569066-0-1.
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.