1761 English cricket season

1761 English cricket season

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Details have survived of four eleven-a-side matches in the 1761 English cricket season. ^{[note 1]} The famous Chertsey Cricket Club was active but overall there was again a scarcity of games, probably because of the war situation.

Matches

date	match title	venue	result	source
27 June (S)	Essex v Kent [3]	Billericay	result unknown	[4]
notes	This was announced in the Ipswich Journal of the previous Saturday, 20 June, as: 11 men of Kent v. the best 11 of Essex. The precise venue was The Crown in Billericay.
1 July (W)	Chertsey v Dartford [3]	Laleham Burway	result unknown	[4]
notes	Played for 20 guineas a side. Chertsey had three given men: William Piper, Charles Sears and Thomas Woods. The latter is interesting given the confusion over players called Wood or Woods in the 1770s; there was a Surrey player at that time who was variously called John Wood or Thomas Wood. The Whitehall Evening Post on Saturday 27 June said: Great sport is expected as they are accounted as good 22 men as any in England.
31 August (M)	Richmond v Chertsey [5]	Richmond Green	result unknown	[4]
notes	Played for £20 a side.
28 September (M)	Chertsey v Hampton [3]	Laleham Burway	result unknown	[4]
notes	Announced in the Whitehall Evening Post on Sat 26 September. Hampton had Charles Sears, John Haynes and Shock White as given men. [3] The enigmatic Shock White, who was a Brentford man, is not to be confused with Thomas White of Reigate.

Other events

Thursday, 2 July. The Whitehall Evening Post reported the death of Mr George Smith on Monday, 29 June at The Castle in Marlborough. ^[3] He was formerly the keeper of the Artillery Ground and the landlord of the adjoining Pyed Horse in Chiswell Street.

Tuesday, 7 July. The Leeds Intelligencer (now the Yorkshire Post) announced a game to be played at Chapeltown the following Thursday (9 July) and this is the first game known of in the Leeds area. Sheffield had been a known centre of Yorkshire cricket since 1751.

Saturday, 18 July. The General Evening Post reported that part of the walls of Bunhill Fields Burial Ground and the Artillery Ground will shortly be taken down to widen that part of the City Road. ^[3] See also 28 August 1776.

Thursday, 3 September. The General Evening Post announced an odds game in Essex with 22 of the county to play the Dartford XI. This is the first known instance of 22 playing against 11. Dartford were to have Tom Faulkner and Durling as given men. ^[6]

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. G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
4. ACS, Important Matches, p. 23.
5. H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
6. Buckley, FLPVC, p. 3.

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.
• Buckley, G. B. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Cotterell.
• Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.
• Wilson, Martin (2005). An Index to Waghorn. Bodyline.

Further reading

• Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
• Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
• Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
• Haygarth, Arthur (1862). Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Lillywhite.
• McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
• Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
• Maun, Ian (2011). From Commons to Lord's, Volume Two: 1751 to 1770. Martin Wilson. ISBN   978-0-9569066-0-1.
• Mote, Ashley (1997). The Glory Days of Cricket. Robson.
• Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.
• Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773). Blackwood.