1770 English cricket season

1770 English cricket season

← 1769 1771 →

Hambledon continued to be successful in the 1770 English cricket season, but only a handful of matches are in the records. ^{[note 1]}

Matches

Brentford & Richmond v Essex

5 June on Richmond Green. ^[5]

Result unknown. Announced in the Whitehall Evening Post on Thursday, 7 June but no match details were reported. ^[5]

London & Middlesex v Surrey

20 & 21 August on the Artillery Ground. ^[6]

Result and other details unknown. ^[7]

Chertsey v Hampton

11 September on Moulsey Hurst.

Result unknown. ^[8]

Hambledon v Caterham

4 & 5 October on Broadhalfpenny Down. ^[6]

Hambledon won by 57 runs. ^[9]

Hambledon scored 104 and 105; Caterham replied with 74 and 78. No other details are known. The scores were recorded by Sussex lawyer John Baker, who was a spectator, in his diary. ^[9]

Other events

Tuesday, 26 June. The Middlesex Journal on Thursday, 29 June reported the death of a Mr Johnson, who was a goldsmith at London Wall. His death was "occasioned by a blow which he received from a cricket ball on Thurs 21 June near Islington". ^[5]

There was a notice in the General Evening Post dated Tuesday, 7 August that "His Majesty (i.e., George III) has given a silver cup to be played for at cricket on the 20th inst. on Richmond Green, on account of the Princes having been much pleased with a Cricket match there on Mon. last". ^[8] No details of either match have been found.

In the year of the so-called "Boston Massacre", which occurred on Monday, 5 March, there was a report in the Middlesex Journal on Thursday, 16 August that: "about three days before the meeting of Parliament, a grand Cricket Match will be played by 11 of the Ministry against 11 of the Patriots, when great sport is expected". ^[5]

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. Buckley 1935, p. 53.
6. ACS 1981, p. 24.
7. Maun 2011, p. 214.
8. Buckley 1937, p. 5.
9. Maun 2011, pp. 216–217.

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.
• 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.