1782 English cricket season

1782 English cricket season

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Having abandoned Broadhalfpenny Down, the Hambledon Club moved to Windmill Down as their new home venue ahead of the 1782 English cricket season. The great fast bowler David Harris made his first known appearance in an important match. Details of 13 matches are known. ^{[note 1]}

County matches

Kent v Hampshire

3 to 5 July on Sevenoaks Vine.

Kent won by 4 wickets. ^[5]

This game saw the first appearances in major matches by David Harris for Hampshire, and "Little" Joey Ring for Kent. ^[5]

Hampshire v Kent

11 to 13, and 15 July on Itchin Stoke Down.

Kent won by 142 runs. ^[6]

The game was finished on Monday, 15 July owing to bad weather. Play on the Saturday had been washed out. ^[6]

England v Hampshire

25 and 26 July on Bishopsbourne Paddock.

Hampshire won by 9 runs. ^[6]

Hampshire v England

8 to 10 August on Windmill Down.

England won by 147 runs. ^[7]

This is the first recorded match which the Hambledon Club organised on Windmill Down. ^[7]

Hampshire v Sussex

5 September on Windmill Down.

Result unknown. ^[8]

This was advertised in the Hampshire Chronicle on Monday, 26 August with a further notice in the Hambledon Club minutes on the day of the game. ^[8]

Single wicket

Six of Hambledon played against Six of Kent between 28 and 30 August on Moulsey Hurst. Hambledon won by 47 runs. Haygarth questioned why the Duke of Dorset played for Hambledon against his own county. His rival, Sir Horatio Mann, did play for Kent, however. ^[9]

White Conduit Club

White Conduit Club (WCC) was probably formed in 1782. ^[10] Its name related to White Conduit House, a leisure retreat in Islington, then remote from London. Part of the surrounding White Conduit Fields had been a cricket venue since the early 18th century. Pelham Warner said WCC was an "offshoot" from a social club called Je ne sais quoi, which was based in the West End of London. ^[10]

Other events

Hampshire played Alresford & Odiham twice, but no details are known. Hampshire was named in the Hampshire Chronicle advert as "the County of Southampton". ^[11]

Tuesday, 18 June. The Hampshire Chronicle reported the first meeting on Windmill Down, referring to the ground as "a field called the New Broad Halfpenny adjoining to the Town of Hambledon". ^[12]

Monday, 1 July. The Salisbury Journal recorded Richard Nyren as returning thanks to the public "for the many favours he has received during the last 20 years". ^[11]

Odiham and Farnham played each other twice in August, each team winning once. ^[13]

Maidenhead defeated Chertsey by 6 wickets in September. ^[14]

Odiham defeated "the Berkshire Club" on Odiham Down in October. ^[14]

The 1781 fall-out between the Leicester and Nottingham clubs had dragged on, and was still unresolved by the end of the 1782 season. ^[15]

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 important or, at least, historically significant. ^[4] For further information, see First-class cricket.

References

1. "FC 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. Haygarth 1996, p. 51.
6. Haygarth 1996, p. 53.
7. Haygarth 1996, p. 54.
8. McCann 2004, p. 107.
9. Haygarth 1996, p. 55.
10. Warner 1946, p. 17.
11. Buckley 1935, p. 96.
12. Buckley 1935, p. 94.
13. Waghorn 2005, p. 55.
14. Waghorn 2005, p. 56.
15. Buckley 1935, pp. 94–95.

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 FC 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.
• McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century (PDF). Vol. 88. Lewes: West Sussex Record Office. ISBN   978-08-54450-55-8.
• Waghorn, H. T. (2005) [1906]. The Dawn of Cricket. London: J. W. McKenzie. ISBN   978-09-47821-17-3.
• Warner, Pelham (1946). Lords: 1787–1945. London: Harrap. OCLC   877106024.

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).