1759 English cricket season

1759 English cricket season

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Three Dartford v England matches were played in the 1759 English cricket season, but there were no notable single wicket matches. ^{[note 1]}

Dartford v England

Three matches between Dartford and England were played in September from the 5th to the 12th. The first two were on Dartford Brent, the third on Laleham Burway. ^[5] In all three matches, Dartford had Tom Faulkner and Gascoigne of London as given men. Dartford won the first match, and England the second, both by unknown margins. The deciding match was scheduled for Wednesday, 12 September, according to an announcement in the Whitehall Evening Post the previous day. Dartford won that by 3 wickets. ^[6]

Arthur Haygarth refers to this "tri-series" on page 2 of Scores & Biographies, but only to the two games won by Dartford. He appears to believe that only those two games were played. He found the names of the players in Bell's Life, dated 23 November 1845, but no scores. ^[7] Bell's Life stated that the matches took place in 1765, and Haygarth says another account has 1762, but it is evident that G. B. Buckley has got the dates (and the sequence) right as above. ^{[6] [8]}

Dartford’s team, evidently unchanged in all three games, was: Tom Faulkner, Gascoigne (both London, given men), John Frame, John Bell (wk), Potter (long stop), Thomas Brandon, Thomas Bell, Goldstone, Killick, Stevens, Wakelin.

England, also apparently unchanged, was: Burchwood (Kent), John Edmeads (Surrey), Gill (Buckinghamshire, wk), Thomas Woods (Surrey, long stop), Stephen Harding (Surrey), John Haynes (Surrey), Durling (Kent), Saunders (Berkshire), Allen (Middlesex), Nyland (Sussex), Cheeseman (Sussex).

The main bowlers were stated to be Faulkner and Frame for Dartford; and Burchwood and Edmeads for England. John Edmeads was still playing for Chertsey and Surrey in the 1770s. Gill of Buckinghamshire is the wicket-keeper in the scorecarded Hampshire v England match of June 1772. ^[7]

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 1935, p. 38.
7. Haygarth 1996, p. 2.
8. Maun 2011, p. 98.

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.
• Haygarth, Arthur (1996) [1862]. Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Kennington: Frederick Lillywhite. ISBN   978-19-00592-23-9.
• Maun, Ian (2011). From Commons to Lord's, Volume Two: 1751 to 1770. Leicester: Martin Wilson. ISBN   978-09-56906-60-1.

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).