1800 English cricket season

1800 English cricket season

← 1799 1801 →

Mezzotint by Dunkarton & Ward after W. R. Bigg, The Soldier's Widow, dated 1800. Note the two cricket bats on the left.

1800 was the 14th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It is one of the more difficult seasons to analyse because of several matches involving prominent town clubs like Rochester, Woolwich, Homerton, Richmond, Storrington, Montpelier and Thames Ditton. Details of 20 matches are known. ^{[note 1]}

Honours

• Most runs ^[5] – William Barton 226 (HS 51)
• Most wickets ^[5] – John Ward 47 (BB 7–?)

Events

• Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) made revisions to the Laws of Cricket which were republished in their entirety. ^[6]
• Robert Robinson is believed to have been the first batsman to try to introduce leg guards but his experiment was unsuccessful. ^[7]
• John Ward had an outstanding debut season by scoring 213 runs, taking 47 wickets and holding 9 catches. He was the leading bowler, second highest run-scorer and one of the best fielders.
• William Beldham with 11 ct, 1 st was the leading fielder in 1800, just ahead of Thomas Ray who took 11 ct. Nottingham wicket-keeper Joseph Dennis made an impression with 3 ct, 7 st. John Ward took 9 catches in addition to his 47 wickets.
• Two matches between northern teams were significant in terms of the spread of cricket throughout England. Nottingham v Sheffield was the first known 11-a-side game involving a Yorkshire county team. In the Leicester v Nottingham match, Leicester was dismissed for 15 and 8, an aggregate of 23 which Rowland Bowen described as "probably the lowest recorded aggregate for both innings in an important match". ^[7]
• Cricket may have been feeling the impact of Great Britain's war against the Napoleonic Empire through a loss of investment which was reducing the number of first-class matches with only 7 recognised in 1800.

Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Result
19–21 May (M–W)	R Whitehead's XI v J Gibbons' XI [8] [9]	Lord's Old Ground	Whitehead's XI won by 52 runs
11–13 June (W–F)	All-England v Surrey [10] [11]	Lord's Old Ground	Surrey won by 3 wkts
16–17 June (M–Tu)	All-England XIV v Surrey [10] [12]	Lord's Old Ground	All-England won by 13 wkts
14–15 July (M–Tu)	All-England v Woolwich & Homerton [13] [14]	Lord's Old Ground	W&H won by 7 wkts
25–26 Aug (M–Tu)	Leicester v Nottingham [15] [16]	Leicester	Nottingham won by innings & 38 runs
28–29 Aug (Th–S)	All-England XIV v Surrey XII [17] [18]	Lord's Old Ground	All-England won by 51 runs
29 Sept (Tu)	Nottingham v Sheffield [19] [20]	Mansfield	Nottingham won by 123 runs

Other matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Result
26 May (M)	Woolwich v Four Parishes [21]	Barrack Field, Woolwich	drawn
28–29 May (W–Th)	MCC v Woolwich [22] [23]	Lord's Old Ground	Woolwich won by innings & 94 runs
10 June (Tu)	Thames Ditton v London [24]	Thames Ditton	London won by innings & 14 runs
23–24 June (M–Tu)	Woolwich v MCC [25] [26]	Barrack Field, Woolwich	Woolwich won by 123 runs
25 June (W)	Homerton v Montpelier [27]	unknown	Montpelier won by innings & 5 runs
26 June (Th)	Montpelier v Richmond [28] [29]	Aram's New Ground, Montpelier Gardens	Montpelier won by 52 runs
30 June (M)	Lord F Beauclerk's XI v Sir H W Marten's XI [27]	Barrack Field, Woolwich	Beauclerk's XI won by 60 runs
2–3 July (W–Th)	Richmond v Montpelier [30] [31]	Richmond Green	Richmond won by 69 runs
7–9 July (M–W)	MCC v Rochester [13] [32]	Lord's Old Ground	Rochester won by 11 runs
21–23 July (M–W)	Rochester v MCC [33] [34]	Marsh's, Rochester	Rochester won by 3 wkts
24–25 July (Th–F)	Woolwich v Montpelier [35] [36]	Barrack Field, Woolwich	Woolwich won by 8 wkts
8–9 Sept (Tu–W)	Storrington v Sussex [37] [38]	Storrington	Storrington won by 19 runs

Debutants

Chitty

First name and dates unknown, Chitty played for the Surrey XII against the England XIV at Lord's Old Ground on 28 and 29 August. This was his only known match. On the scorecard, he is listed twelfth in the Surrey team batting order. He was dismissed for 0 in the first innings, bowled out by Lord Frederick Beauclerk, and was not out 0 in the second innings. He took one catch in the England first innings to dismiss Charles Reed. ^[17]

Waller

First name and dates unknown, Waller was associated with Surrey from 1800 to 1803. He is known to have played in six matches. Two of these are retrospectively recognised as first-class, the other four being odds matches. Waller scored eighteen first-class runs with a highest of seven and took two catches. ^[39]

Others

• William Ayling (Kent)
• George Beldham (Surrey)
• Hon. Thomas Coventry (MCC; amateur)
• Joseph Dennis (Nottingham Cricket Club)
• William Jefferies (Nottingham)
• James Lawrell (MCC; amateur)
• John Ward (Kent)
• Thomas Warsop (Nottingham)
• Captain James Weller (Surrey; amateur)

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. Note that scorecards created in the 18th century are not necessarily accurate or complete; therefore any summary of runs, wickets or catches can only represent the known totals and the missing data prevents computation of averages
6. Haygarth, pages 266–267.
7. Bowen, page 268.
8. Haygarth, page 267.
9. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
10. Haygarth, page 269.
11. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
12. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
13. Haygarth, page 274.
14. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
15. Haygarth, page 278.
16. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
17. Haygarth, page 279.
18. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
19. Haygarth, page 282.
20. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
21. Waghorn, page 162.
22. Haygarth, page 268.
23. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
24. Waghorn, page 163.
25. Haygarth, page 270.
26. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
27. Haygarth, page 271.
28. Buckley, page 195.
29. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
30. Buckley, page 196.
31. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
32. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
33. Haygarth, page 275.
34. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
35. Waghorn, page 166–167.
36. CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
37. Haygarth, page 273.
38. McCann, page 193.
39. Waller. CricketArchive profile.

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.
• Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. ISBN   978-04-13278-60-9.
• 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.
• Britcher, Samuel (1800). 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).