1798 English cricket season

1798 English cricket season

← 1797 1799 →

Matches involving town clubs became more commonplace in the 1798 English cricket season, and only a handful of county teams were active. Details of 20 matches are known, but few were important. ^{[note 1]}

Matches

The important matches in 1798 involved either or both of England and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). They played each twice on Lord's Old Ground (Lord's), and MCC won both times—by 17 runs in June, ^[5] and by 7 wickets in July. ^[6] England defeated Surrey three times, all of the matches played at Lord's—by 128 runs in June, ^[7] by an innings & 12 runs, ^[8] and by 13 runs, also in August. ^[9]

Other events

As in 1797, the Montpelier Cricket Club had a fairly strong team, especially with given men. They played two matches against MCC, winning by 55 runs at Lord's, ^[10] but losing by 175 runs in Montpelier Gardens. ^[11] Other town club matches, mostly recorded by Samuel Britcher, involved Croydon Cricket Club and Woolwich Cricket Club. ^[12]

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. 235.
6. Haygarth 1996, p. 238.
7. Haygarth 1996, p. 233.
8. Haygarth 1996, p. 243.
9. Haygarth 1996, p. 244.
10. Haygarth 1996, p. 232.
11. Haygarth 1996, p. 234.
12. Britcher 1798.

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.
• Britcher, Samuel (1798). A Complete List of all the Grand Matches of Cricket that have been Played (1790–1805; annual series). London: W. S. Blake. OCLC   83523010.
• Haygarth, Arthur (1996) [1862]. Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Kennington: Frederick Lillywhite. ISBN   978-19-00592-23-9.
• 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).