1735 English cricket season

The 1735 cricket season was the 138th in England since the earliest known definite reference to cricket in January 1597 (i.e., Old Style – 1598 New Style). Details have survived of twelve important matches and one notable single wicket match.

Kent patron Edwin Stead, believed to have become a bankrupt, died aged 33 or 34 in London on 28 August. The leadership of Kent cricket passed to the Sackvilles of Knole House, Sevenoaks. The county teams of which records exist in 1735 were Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex while London and Croydon remained the predominant town clubs.

Important matches

The following matches are classified as important:[fc 1]

date match title venue result source
27 May (Tu) Croydon v London Duppas Hill, Croydon London won [1][2]
notes

G. B. Buckley found four different notices of this match in the Whitehall Evening Post (WEP), the London Evening Post, the Weekly Register and the Grub Street Journal. The WEP called the game "Surrey v London" but the others all agreed it was "Croydon v London". The day of the match was Whit Tuesday. The Weekly Register (Saturday, 31 May) reported that "London beat Croydon with very great ease" on Wednesday, 28 May, and Ian Maun has recorded this as a second match,[3] but it is almost certainly the same one, as Buckley recorded it,[1] the Weekly Register getting the date wrong.

7 June (S) Surrey v London Moulsey Hurst London by 9 wkts [4][5]
notes

Scores are known: Surrey 54 & 44; London 61 & 38-1. Also known are some of the players: Cook, Ellis, Dunn and Wheatley of London; and at least two players called Wood played for Surrey. Mr Ellis could not play because of an injured finger and he was London’s "best bowler". Cook of Brentford ("reckoned one of the best bowlers in England") was brought in to bowl instead of him. The Surrey players called Wood evidently came from Woodcot; one of them was injured during the game. After London lost one wicket in their second innings, the target was reached by Mr Wheatley, the distiller, and Mr Dunn. Never before have so many players’ names been given in a match report.

11 June (W) Greenwich v Westminster Blackheath result unknown [1]
notes

The stake was £500. Expected to attend were the Prince of Wales, the Earl of Middlesex and Lord John Philip Sackville.

18 June (W) Surrey v London 1. Kennington Common
2. Artillery Ground
drawn [6][5][2]
notes

Originally arranged to be played on Kennington Common, as reported by the General Evening Post (GEP) on Thursday 12 June, the venue was altered to the Artillery Ground as reported in the London Evening Post (LEP) on Saturday, 14 June. The GEP report says that Mr Jervoise of Croydon selected "11 men out of Croydon and that neighbourhood in Surrey". It goes on to report that "the three or four bunglers who played on the Surrey side at Moulsey Hurst last Saturday (7th inst.) do not play". London batting first lost their first wicket at 22-1 and this was considered an achievement by the LEP whose report says: "the Londoners got 22 notches before ever a man was out".

The team scores are known: London 67 & 72; Surrey 97 & 33-7. The totals were, thus, 139 and 130–7 but Maun, miscalculating, says they were "London 149; Surrey 140–8".[7]

H. T. Waghorn says the report's use of the word "innings" was the earliest he had noticed.[8]

12 July (S) London & Middlesex v Kent Moulsey Hurst Kent by 4 wkts [9][10][2]
notes

The scores are in Waghorn: London 95 & 41; Kent 80 & 57-6. The London & Middlesex team consisted of eight players of the London club and three of Middlesex, including Cook of Brentford who was reckoned to be "one of the best bowlers in England". Kent's patron was the Earl of Middlesex, who was the eldest son of the 1st Duke of Dorset. Their opponents were backed by the Prince of Wales. The match was staged for £1,000 a side.

The report confirmed that a second match would be played in two weeks on Bromley Common (see below). The General Evening Post reported that the London team was imbalanced by inclusion of the three Middlesex men and lost the match for that reason. The Prince of Wales was reported as saying that his team in the return match would therefore be an all-London XI. As G. B. Buckley says, this was "an early appreciation of teamwork".[11]

18 July (F) Surrey v London Kennington Common London won [11][2]
notes

The London Daily Post on Saturday, 19 July, reported that London beat Surrey "with ease".

29 July (Tu) Kent v London Bromley Common Kent by 10 wkts [12][2]
notes

This was the return match to that on 12 July above. The Prince of Wales decided to select eleven London players, hence the change of team name. Scores were recorded as: London 73 & 32; Kent 97 & 9-0. The report states that a large crowd attended and "a great deal of mischief was done". It seems that horses panicked and riders were thrown while some members of the crowd were "rode over". One man was "carried off for dead" as "HRH" passed by at the entrance to the Common.

13 August (W) Sussex v Kent Lewes (precise venue not specified) Sussex won [13][2]
notes

The source for this match is a letter from John Whaley to Horace Walpole dated Wednesday, 13 August. He says the Sussex team "seem as much pleased as if they had got an Election". He also reported that "we have been at supper with them all" until one o'clock in the morning.

16 August (S) Westminster v London Tothill Fields Westminster won by 3 runs [11]
notes

The report in the General Evening Post says simply that Westminster won "by 3 notches" and that a return would be held on Thursday, 28 August.

c.20 August (W) Kent v Sussex Vine Cricket Ground, Sevenoaks Kent won [14][2]
notes

The London Evening Post speculated that "the Conqueror" (i.e., a decider) between the Kent and Sussex teams, led by Lord John Philip Sackville and Lord Gage respectively, would be played in a few days, but there is no record of a further match.

28 August (Th) London v Westminster Artillery Ground result unknown [11]
notes

The return match to that on 16 August.

23 September (Tu) Surrey v London Kennington Common result unknown [15]
notes

To be played "for a considerable sum".

Single wicket matches

Monday, 11 August. The General Evening Post on Thursday, 7 August, announced a single wicket match the following Monday on Kennington Common involving seven players of the London Club. The game would be three against four with Mr Wakeland, Mr Dunn and Mr Pool against Mr Marshall, Mr Ellis and two others. Dunn and Ellis have been mentioned previously.[11]

Other events

Thursday, 28 August. The death of Edwin Stead was reported in the Grub Street Journal dated Thursday, 4 September. He was a noted patron of the game from the mid-1720s and may have been a good player too. He was a Maidstone man who undoubtedly did much to promote the game in Kent. A compulsive gambler, it seems he died in reduced circumstances. One account stated that he died "near Charing Cross" and another that he died "in Scotland Yard".[16]

First mentions

Counties

Clubs and teams

Players

Venues

Footnotes

  1. First-class cricket was officially defined in May 1894 by a meeting at Lord's 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. Pre-1895 matches of the same standard have no official definition of status because the ruling is not retrospective and the important matches designation, as applied to a given match, is based on the views of one or more substantial historical sources. For further information, see First-class cricket, Forms of cricket and History of cricket.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Buckley, FL18C, p. 10.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ACS, Important Matches, p. 20.
  3. Maun, p. 67.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Waghorn, Cricket Scores, pp. 8–9.
  5. 1 2 Wilson, p. 45.
  6. Waghorn, Cricket Scores, pp. 9–10.
  7. Maun, p. 69.
  8. Waghorn, Cricket Scores, p. 10 (footnote).
  9. 1 2 Waghorn, Cricket Scores, pp. 10–11.
  10. Buckley, FL18C, pp. 10–11.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Buckley, FL18C, p. 11.
  12. Waghorn, Cricket Scores, pp. 11–12.
  13. McCann, p. 15.
  14. McCann, pp. 15–16.
  15. Maun, p. 75.
  16. Buckley, FL18C, p. 12.

Bibliography

Additional reading

External links

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