1822 English cricket season

1822 English cricket season

← 1821 1823 →

1822 was the 36th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). John Willes brought the roundarm issue to a head and sacrificed his own career in the process. The outstanding batsman James Saunders made his known first-class debut. Details of nine matches are known. ^{[note 1]}

Honours

• Most runs ^{[note 2]} – E. H. Budd 354 (HS 87)
• Most wickets – John Sparks 27 (BB 5–?)

Events

• The roundarm issue came to a head in 1822 when, in the MCC v. Kent match at Lord's, John Willes of Kent opened the bowling and was no-balled for using a roundarm action, a style he had attempted to introduce since 1807. Willes promptly withdrew from the match and refused to play again in any important fixture.
• Roundarm was a natural reaction to the growing predominance of batsmen over the age-old underarm style of bowling. Its adherents argued that the legalisation of roundarm was essential to restore the balance between batting and bowling. However, high-scoring matches were still comparatively rare owing to vagaries in pitch conditions.
• 9 first-class matches were recorded in 1822:
  • 20–21 May — Cambridge University v Cambridge Town Club @ University Ground, Cambridge ^[3]
  • 10–11 June — MCC First XII v MCC Second XII @ Lord's Cricket Ground ^[4]
  • 24 June — MCC First XI v MCC Second XI @ Lord's Cricket Ground ^[5]
  • 27–28 June — Godalming v MCC @ The Burys, Godalming ^[6]
  • 1–2 July — MCC v Godalming @ Lord's Cricket Ground ^[7]
  • 8–10 July — Gentlemen v Players @ Lord's Cricket Ground ^[8]
  • 15–16 July — MCC v Kent @ Lord's Cricket Ground ^[9]
  • 25–27 July — Kent v MCC @ West Kent CC, Chislehurst ^[10]
  • 12–14 August — All-England v The Bs @ Lord's Cricket Ground ^[11]

Debutants

1822 debutants included:

• Horace Bates (Kent)
• John Bayley (Surrey/MCC)
• Robert Broadbridge (Sussex)
• Percyvall Dyke (Kent)
• John Evans (Kent)
• James Grinham (Sussex)
• James Jordan (Kent)
• Edward Knight (Hampshire)
• James Ladbroke (Sussex)
• W Peto (Surrey)
• James Saunders (Sussex)
• William Henry Sewell (MCC)

Notes

1. Some eleven-a-side matches played before 1864 have been rated "first-class" by certain sources, but there was no such standard at the time. The term came into common use from around 1864, when overarm bowling was legalised, and 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. However, matches of a similar standard since the beginning of the 1864 season are generally considered to have an unofficial first-class status. ^[1] Pre-1864 matches which are included in the ACS' "Important Match Guide" may generally be regarded as top-class or, at least, historically significant. ^[2] For further information, see First-class cricket.
2. Scorecards created in the first quarter of the 19th century are not necessarily accurate or complete; therefore any summary of runs, wickets or catches can only represent the known totals and computation of averages is ineffectual.

References

1. ACS 1982, pp. 4–5.
2. ACS 1981, pp. 1–40.
3. CricketArchive – match scorecard.
4. Haygarth, p.453.
5. Haygarth, p.454.
6. CricketArchive – match scorecard.
7. Haygarth, p.455.
8. Haygarth, p.456.
9. Haygarth, p.458.
10. Haygarth, p.460.
11. Haygarth, p.463.

Bibliography

• ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709–1863. Nottingham: ACS.
• ACS (1982). A Guide to First-class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS.
• Haygarth, Arthur (1862). Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Lillywhite.

Further reading

• Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
• Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
• Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
• Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.