1754 English cricket season

1754 English cricket season

← 1753 1755 →

Details have survived of four eleven-a-side matches in the 1754 English cricket season, and two notable single wicket matches. ^{[note 1]} Dartford was the pre-eminent club. The Leeds Intelligencer, forerunner of the Yorkshire Post, began publication; it has always been a noted source for cricket in Yorkshire.

Eleven-a-side matches

London v Dartford

1 July, Artillery Ground. ^[5]

The Daily Advertiser on Friday, 28 June, announced: "Wickets pitched at Twelve, and to begin play at One". London made 78 and 50; Dartford replied with 55 and 74/7. Dartford won by 3 wickets. ^[6]

Surrey v Sussex

22 July, Guildford. ^[5]

The match was advertised as: "Guildford, Ripley, Thursley and the lower part of Surrey against Bolney, Brighton and the eastern part of Sussex". The stake was 20 guineas a side. Result unknown. ^[7]

Woolwich v Dartford

24 August, Barrack Field, Woolwich.

Dartford won. ^[6]

Dartford v Woolwich

26 August, Dartford Brent.

Woolwich won. ^[6]

Both of the Dartford v Woolwich games were mentioned in the same report by Read's Weekly Journal dated Saturday, 31 August: "Dartford won away & lost at home against Woolwich on Sat. & Mon., 24 & 26 Aug. respectively". ^[6]

Single wicket

The Daily Advertiser on Friday, 28 June, announced for the same day a two-a-side game "behind George Taylor’s at Deptford". The players were Tom Faulkner and Joe Harris v John Capon and Perry. ^[6]

Tuesday, 24 September. A single wicket game at Brompton in Kent between the well-known Thomas Brandon of Dartford and a player called Parr of Chatham. The stakes were five guineas each and Brandon won by 47 runs. ^[8]

Other events

21–22 June (F–S). Midhurst & Petworth v Slindon on Bowling Green, Lavington Common. ^[9] The former apparently won by eight wickets and the match seems to mark the swansong of Slindon as a great team as they are not mentioned in the sources thereafter. Sussex cricket as a whole went into decline for many years and, although a number of inter-parish games are recorded over the next decade or so, it is not until 1766 that Sussex county cricket teams again take part in important matches. This temporary demise of Sussex is probably explained by the death of the 2nd Duke of Richmond in 1750. He was the greatest patron of Sussex cricket, and of Slindon in particular. His co-patron and good friend Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet, had died in 1744. ^[10]

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. ACS 1981, p. 23.
6. Buckley 1937, p. 2.
7. Buckley 1935, p. 33.
8. Waghorn 1899, p. 53.
9. McCann 2004, p. 48.
10. George Edward Cokayne Complete Baronetage, Volume 1 1900

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.
• Buckley, G. B. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Birmingham: Cotterell & Co. OCLC   23469107.
• McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century (PDF). Vol. 88. Lewes: West Sussex Record Office. ISBN   978-08-54450-55-8.
• 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.
• Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. London: HarperCollins. ISBN   978-00-07183-64-7 – via Internet Archive.
• Wilson, Martin (2005). An Index to Waghorn. London: Bodyline Books (limited edition, by subscription only).