1763 English cricket season

Last updated November 25, 2025

1763 was the 67th English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played. Details have survived of two important eleven-a-side matches.^{[note 1]}

1763 was an important year for England and for the future of cricket as it marked the end of the Seven Years' War. French influence in India was reduced to a handful of trading posts and its hopes of an eastern Empire were no more, though Bonaparte certainly tried to revive those hopes. Great Britain expanded its interests in India and the era of the British Raj and the consequent hegemony of cricket in Indian sport began.^[3]

In the short term, economic hardship at home meant little for investment in cricket and there were only a couple of historically significant matches in 1763.^[3]

Wednesday, 30 July. The death of Mr Edmund Chapman of Chertsey in his 69th year, which means he was born in either 1694 or 1695. Chapman was an eminent master bricklayer and "accounted one of the most dexterous cricket players in England". There are no earlier references to Edmund Chapman who must have been active c.1715 to c.1740, presumably playing for Chertsey Cricket Club, or perhaps Croydon Cricket Club, and for Surrey as a county.^[4]

Matches

date	match title	venue	result	source
3 August (W)	Surrey v Middlesex	Ripley Green	Middlesex won "with great ease"	^[5]^[4]
notes	This was played for £200 and Middlesex won "with great ease"

22 & 23 August (M-Tu)	Middlesex v Surrey	Artillery Ground	Middlesex won	^[6]^[7]^[5]
notes	This was a return match announced in the report of the first. The report says Middlesex won "by a great majority". Another source records that, during play on the Monday, a spectator lost over £20 to a pickpocket. The Artillery Ground had by this time fallen into disrepute and it would not last much longer as a major venue.

Other events

First mention of cricket in Wales at Pembroke.

Notes

↑ 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

↑ ACS 1982, pp. 4–5.
↑ ACS 1981, pp. 1–40.
1 2 From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787
1 2 H. T. Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
1 2 ACS, Important Matches, p. 23.
↑ Buckley, FLPVC, p. 4.
↑ H. T. Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899

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. (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.