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The Hambledon Club was a social club that is famous for its organisation of 18th century cricket matches. By the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England.
John Small was an English professional cricketer who played from about 1756 to 1798, one of the longest careers on record. Born at Empshott, Hampshire, he is generally regarded as the greatest batsman of the 18th century and acknowledged as having been the first to master the use of the modern straight bat which was introduced in the 1760s. He scored the earliest known century in important cricket. He died at Petersfield, where he was in residence for most of his life and where he established businesses.
Broadhalfpenny Down is a historic cricket ground in Hambledon, Hampshire. It is known as the "Cradle of Cricket" because it was the home venue in the 18th century of the Hambledon Club, but cricket predated the club and ground by at least two centuries. The club is in the parish of Hambledon close to the neighbouring parish of Clanfield. The club took the name of the neighbouring rural village of Hambledon, about 2.7 miles away by road.
Edward "Lumpy" Stevens was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from around 1756 to 1789. He was an outstanding bowler who is generally regarded as the first great bowler in the game's history. He was universally known by his nickname and was always called "Lumpy" in contemporary scorecards and reports.
Thomas Brett was one of cricket's earliest well-known fast bowlers and a leading player for Hampshire when its team was organised by the Hambledon Club in the 1770s. Noted for his pace and his accuracy, Brett was a leading wicket-taker in the 1770s and was lauded by John Nyren in The Cricketers of my Time. Writing half a century later, Nyren described Brett as "beyond all comparison, the fastest as well as straitest bowler that ever was known".
Richard "Dick" Nyren (c. 1734–1797) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket during the 1760s and 1770s in the heyday of the Hambledon Club. A genuine all-rounder and the earliest known left-hander of note, Nyren was the captain of Hampshire when its team included players like John Small, Thomas Brett and Tom Sueter. Although the records of many matches in which he almost certainly played have been lost, he made 51 known appearances between 1764 and 1784. He was known as the team's "general" on the field and, for a time, acted as the club secretary as well as taking care of matchday catering for many years.
Thomas Walker was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire in the days of the Hambledon Club and later for Surrey. He was famous for his brilliant defensive batting. He is also credited with introducing, roundarm bowling, the predecessor of modern overarm bowling.
Joseph Miller was a noted English cricketer who is generally considered to have been one of the greatest batsmen of the 18th century. He is mostly associated with Kent but also made appearances for All-England and Surrey. First recorded in the 1769 season, Miller made 65 known appearances from then to 1783. He was unquestionably an outstanding batsman and perhaps second only to John Small in the 18th century.
William "The Yold" Yalden was an English cricketer and, with Tom Sueter, one of the earliest known wicketkeeper/batsmen. Yalden played mainly for Chertsey and Surrey though he was also a regular, sometimes as captain, in England XI teams, particularly in matches against Hampshire. His career began in the 1760s and he is known to have played until 1785.
Lamborn was a significant English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club in the 18th century and is recognised as one of the greatest innovators in the history of bowling.
Thomas Sueter was an English cricketer who represented Hampshire as a member of the Hambledon Club.
Edward Aburrow, known as Curry Aburrow, was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire county cricket teams organised by the Hambledon Club in the 18th century. He was born at Slindon near Arundel in Sussex in 1747.
John Small was an English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club. He is also associated with Hampshire, Marylebone Cricket Club, Kent and Surrey.
Hampshire county cricket teams have been traced back to the 18th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that. Given that the first definite mention of cricket anywhere in the world is dated c.1550 in Guildford, in neighbouring Surrey, it is almost certain that the game had reached Hampshire by the 16th century.
Addington Cricket Club fielded one of the strongest cricket teams in England from about the 1743 season to the 1752 season although the village of Addington is a very small place in Surrey about three miles south-east of Croydon. The team was of county strength and featured the noted players Tom Faulkner, Joe Harris, John Harris, George Jackson and Durling. The team immediately accepted the Slindon Challenge, in 1744, to play against any parish in England. The only other club to accept was Robert Colchin's Bromley.
Windmill Down is a rural location near the town of Hambledon in Hampshire. From 1782 to 1795, it was the home of the Hambledon Club as a noted cricket venue.
Thomas Scott was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire at the time of the Hambledon Club. He was a specialist batsman who may have been a regular opener, but it is not known if he was right or left-handed.
The Cricketers of My Time is a memoir of cricket, nominally written by the former Hambledon cricketer John Nyren about the players of the late 18th century, most of whom he knew personally. Nyren, who had no recognised literary skill, collaborated with the eminent Shakespearean scholar Charles Cowden Clarke to produce his work. It is believed that Cowden Clarke recorded Nyren's verbal reminiscences and so "ghosted" the text.
In cricket in the early 1760s, there was a transition from the sport's "pioneering phase" to its "pre-modern phase" when bowlers began to bowl pitched deliveries by pitching the ball towards the wicket instead of rolling or skimming it along the ground as they had previously done. The essential bowling action was still underarm but the introduction of a ball travelling through the air coupled with a bounce was a key point of evolution in the sport's history, especially as it was the catalyst for the invention of the straight bat, which replaced the old "hockey stick" design. It was the first of three keypoint evolutions in bowling: the others were the introduction of the roundarm style in the 1820s and overarm in the 1860s.
References
- ↑ Ashley-Cooper, p.185-186.
- 1 2 Ashley Mote, The Glory Days of Cricket, Robson, 1997
- ↑ Timothy J McCann, Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century, Sussex Record Society, 2004
