1799 English cricket season

1799 English cricket season

← 1798 1800 →

1799 was the 13th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Surrey again defeated All-England three times. As in the previous year, the number of matches may have declined due to the impact of the Napoleonic War. Fewer were reported but there was loose censorship in place. Details of ten matches are known. ^{[note 1]}

A cricket club was formed at Seringapatam in south India after the successful British siege.

Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Results	Notes
10–11 June (M-Tu)	MCC v Thursday Club ^	Lord's (Dorset Square) [5]	Thursday Club won by 54 runs
17–18 June (M-Tu)	Montpelier v Richmond & Brentford #	Montpelier Gardens [6]	Montpelier won by 91 runs
24–26 June (M-W)	MCC v Thursday Club ^	Lord's (Dorset Square) [7]	MCC won by 41 runs
^ The two MCC games against its own Thursday Club are important matches as the majority of players on each side are recognised. The Thursday Club was effectively Middlesex.
27–28 June (Th-F)	Richmond & Brentford v Montpelier #	Richmond Green [7]	Montpelier won by 148 runs
# The Montpelier v Richmond and Brentford games in S&B (p. 253-255) were important matches despite some "unknowns" in the Richmond & Brentford sides and the results went convincingly in favour of Montpelier. The match status dilemma is almost solved by MCC games against similar sides since 1797. Thus, if a good quality town club with given men or at any rate a full team of recognised players competes against a good quality MCC side (or against All-England or a recognised county team), that is an important match. If it is a case of two such town clubs playing each other without a good number of noted given men, the game is probably not important.
30 July - 1 Aug (Tu-Th)	All-England v Surrey	Lord's (Dorset Square) [8]	Surrey won by 8 wkts
1-3 Aug (Th-S)	R Whitehead v Lord Yarmouth	Lord's (Dorset Square) [8]	Yarmouth's XI won by 4 wkts
Evidently the Whitehead v Yarmouth game was arranged ad hoc on 1 Aug as the All-England v Surrey game finished on the same day (most of the players took part in both games)
13-16 Aug (Tu-F)	All-England v Surrey	Lord's (Dorset Square) [9]	Surrey won by 143 runs
16-17 Aug (F-S)	All-England v Surrey	Lord's (Dorset Square) [10]	Surrey won by innings & 117 runs
Another case of an extra game starting immediately that the first one finished. There is some doubt about the exact date of the second game which ACS have on the 15th as S&B states that the first game carried over to the 16th.
16-17 Sept (M-Tu)	Waltham & Herts v Middlesex	Waltham Abbey [11]	drawn
23-24 Sept (M-Tu)	Middlesex v Waltham & Herts	Lord's (Dorset Square) [12]	Middlesex won by 3 runs
In both these two games, Waltham & Herts was a minor team. Herts played several games in late C18 but needed given men.

First mentions

Counties

• Devon

Players

• Hockley (Surrey cricketer) (Surrey/Hampshire) – played 8 matches from 1799 to 1805
• Woodroffe (Surrey cricketer) (MCC and Surrey; amateur) – played 4 matches in 1799 & 1800
• Stephen Lushington (cricketer) (Surrey; amateur) – played 3 matches in 1799

Leading batsmen

Note that many scorecards in the 18th century are unknown or have missing details and so it is impossible to provide a complete analysis of batting performances: e.g., the missing not outs prevent computation of batting averages. The "runs scored" are in fact the runs known.

With few matches being played, only six batsmen exceeded 150 runs:

Tom Walker – 239

Jack Small – 235

John Wells – 231

Robert Robinson – 227

John Hammond – 192

William Beldham – 179

Leading bowlers

Note that the wickets credited to an 18th-century bowler were only those where he bowled the batsman out. The bowler was not credited with the wickets of batsmen who were caught out, even if it was "caught and bowled". In addition, the runs conceded by each bowler were not recorded so no analyses or averages can be computed.

The leading wicket-taker was Thomas Lord with 16

Other top bowlers were John Wells 15; Thomas Boxall 13; Charles Cumberland 11; John Hammond 9

Leading fielders

Note that many scorecards in the 18th century are unknown or have missing details and so the totals are of the known catches and stumpings only. Stumpings were not always recorded as such and sometimes the name of the wicket-keeper was not given. Generally, a catch was given the same status as "bowled" with credit being awarded to the fielder only and not the bowler. There is never a record of "caught and bowled": the bowler would be credited with the catch, not with the wicket.

John Wells with 10 ct, 5 st was the leading performer in the field

Thomas Ray took 10 ct and other good fielders were Charles Warren 2 ct, 6 st; John Hammond 4 ct, 3 st; Thomas Burgoyne 7 ct; William Barton 7 ct

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. Haygarth 1996, p. 252.
6. Haygarth 1996, p. 253.
7. Haygarth 1996, p. 254.
8. Haygarth 1996, p. 259.
9. Haygarth 1996, p. 262.
10. Haygarth 1996, p. 263.
11. Waghorn 2005.
12. Buckley 1935.

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.
• Haygarth, Arthur (1996) [1862]. Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Kennington: Frederick Lillywhite. ISBN   978-19-00592-23-9.
• 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.
• Britcher, Samuel (1799). A Complete List of all the Grand Matches of Cricket that have been Played (1790–1805; annual series). London: W. S. Blake. OCLC   83523010.
• 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).