1766 English cricket season

1766 English cricket season

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1766 was the 70th English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played. Details have survived of three important eleven-a-side matches. ^{[note 1]}

On Thursday, 6 February, Robert Bartholomew died. ^[3] He had played for Surrey in the 1750s and may have been related to the Bartholomews who played for Chertsey in the 1770s. He was the master of the Angel Inn at Islington and also of White Conduit House.

Perhaps another nail in the coffin of the Artillery Ground when its latest keeper Mr Read died on Thursday, 25 September. ^[3] Like George Smith before him, he was also the landlord of the "Pyed Horse Inn".

Matches

date	match title	venue	result	source
c.19 June (Th)	Sussex v Hampshire [4]	Racedown, Hampshire [5]	Hampshire won	[6]
notes	This is the earliest reference to Hampshire as an individual county team. Whether the Hambledon Club was involved is unrecorded. Some historians believe it was at about this time that the club, as distinct from a parish organisation, was founded. After the first innings the odds were 40 to 1 against Hampshire. Another source has recorded Tues 17 June as the date and has surmised that Goodwood was the venue but all that can be said for certain is that the Hampshire team won. [7]
29 September (M)	Bourne v Dartford [8]	Bishopsbourne Paddock	result unknown	[6]
notes	No details are known of the game apart from a mention in the Kentish Weekly Post.
8 October (W)	Chertsey v Hambledon [8]	Dartford Brent	result unknown	[6]
notes	The choice of Dartford Brent as the venue for the Chertsey v Hambledon match seems strange as it was neutral.

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. Buckley, FLPVC, p. 4.
4. H. T. Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899
5. London Evening Post (London, England), 8 May 1766 – 10 May 1766 (issue 6011), p 2, col 1; "On Thursday the 19th, will be played a Grand Subscription Cricket Match, play'd on the Race Down, between the Counties of Hampshire and Sussex. The Wickets to be pitched by Ten o'Clock."
6. ACS, Important Matches, p. 23.
7. Ashley Mote, The Glory Days of Cricket, Robson, 1997
8. Cricket Quarterly edited by Rowland Bowen

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.
• Haygarth, Arthur (1862). Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Lillywhite.
• McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
• 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.

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.
• 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.