1796 English cricket season

In the 1796 English cricket season, the Montpelier town club became prominent and played a number of matches over the next few seasons against MCC. The club’s venue was George Aram’s New Ground in Montpelier Gardens, Walworth, Surrey.

Generally speaking, it was at this time that matches involving town clubs like Montpelier, Kennington, Highgate, Rochester, Woolwich, Homerton, Richmond, Storrington and Thames Ditton began to achieve prominence in the old books. Although some good players were undoubtedly involved, the teams tended to lack overall strength and capability. Montpelier tended to be the exception as it had quite a strong side around 1796-1800.

Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Source	Result
9–11 May (M-Tu)	MCC v Middlesex	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB196	Middlesex won by 3 wkts

16–17 May (M-Tu)	Middlesex v Kent	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB197	Kent won by 51 runs

27–28 May (F-S)	Earl of Winchilsea v Bligh (10 a side) #	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB197	Winchilsea's XI won by 65 runs

30–31 May (M-Tu)	MCC v Middlesex	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB198	MCC won by 141 runs

6–7 June (M-Tu)	MCC v Middlesex	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB199	Middlesex won by 8 runs

13–15 June (M-W)	MCC v Kent	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB199	Kent won by 4 runs

20–22 June (M-W)	Middlesex v Kent	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB200	Middlesex won by 3 wkts

24–25 June (F-S)	Thursday/Montpelier v MCC	Montpelier Gardens	SB201	MCC won by 63 runs
Montpelier Gardens was in Walworth, London. The actual venue is George Aram’s New Ground in Montpelier Gardens. NB: Walworth is in Surrey, not Middlesex.
28–30 June (Tu-Th)	All-England v Surrey	Stoke Down	SB201	All-England won by 3 wkts

4–5 July (M-Tu)	Bullingdon v MCC #	Bullingdon	SB202	MCC won by 199 runs

6 July (W)	Thursday Club v Montpelier ^	Lord’s (Dorset Square)	WDC	Thursday Club won by 8 wkts
It seems this match was not completed until Friday 12 August and so its conclusion must have preceded the game in SB206.
11–12 July (M-Tu)	MCC v Bullingdon #	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB203	MCC won by innings & 137 runs

13–15 July (W-F)	MCC v Thursday/Montpelier	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB204	MCC won by 6 wkts

19–22 July (Tu-F)	Earl of Winchilsea v A Smith	Perriam Down	SB204	Winchilsea's XI won by 10 runs

25 July (M)	Montpelier v Thursday Club #	Montpelier Gardens	WDC	Thursday Club won by innings & 19 runs

10 August (W)	Middlesex v Kennington #	Lord's (Dorset Square)	WDC	Middlesex won by 2 wkts

12-13 Aug (F-S)	Middlesex v Mont & Kenn Clubs ^	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB206	Middlesex won by 3 wkts
Mont & Kenn = the combined Montpelier and Kennington Clubs. It seems this match started after the one postponed from Wed 6 July was completed.
15 Aug (M)	Montpelier v Highgate ^#	Montpelier Gardens	brit	Montpelier won by 6 runs
WDC also records this match but has it dated 1 August. Britcher’s date is accepted as the closer source. ^# These games in the main sources and in the ACS list are not important matches, including Earl of Winchilsea v Bligh on 27 May (SB197) which was ten-a side with weak teams.
15-16 Aug (M-Tu)	Middlesex v Surrey	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB208	Surrey won by 8 wkts
WDC has this game dated 1–2 August and the ACS Guide includes both entries. The above is believed correct.
22-23 Aug (M-Tu)	All-England v Surrey	Dandelion Paddock	SB208	Surrey won by innings & 6 runs

24-26 Aug (W-F)	All-England v Surrey	Dandelion Paddock	SB209	All-England won by 5 wkts

26-27 Aug (F-S)	Mont & Kenn v Middlesex ^	Montpelier Gardens	SB210	drawn
^ It was at this time that matches involving local clubs like Montpelier, Kennington, Highgate, Rochester, Woolwich, Homerton, Richmond, Storrington and Thames Ditton begin to achieve prominence in the old books. The match given in WDC as J Small v T Walker at the Dandelion Paddock on 7 - 10 Sept is in fact a wrongly dated duplicate of the Mann v Leigh game in S&B on the same days in 1795 (see above).

First mentions

Thomas Assheton Smith II
John Tanner (Middlesex; amateur) – played 53 matches to 1826
Thomas Burgoyne (Middlesex; amateur) – played 24 matches to 1816
Sir Henry Martin (MCC; amateur) – played 15 matches to 1813
George Booth (Middlesex) – played 13 matches to 1804
Col. / Gen. Denzil Onslow (MCC; amateur) – played 9 matches to 1807
Captain Codrington (MCC; amateur) – played 7 matches to 1797
Robert Ayling (cricketer) (Kent) – played 2 matches to 1796
George Ring (Kent) – played 2 matches to 1796
Hon. & Rev. William Capel (MCC; amateur) – played 3 matches to 1808

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.

John Tufton was the leading runscorer with 306 and another amateur, Edward Bligh, came second with 270

Then came the professionals led by Robert Robinson with 250 and Thomas Ray with 248. Other leading batsmen were John Hammond 228; Lord Frederick Beauclerk 208; Andrew Freemantle 206; Earl of Winchilsea 197; George Louch 177

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.

Lord Frederick Beauclerk led the bowlers in 1796 with 42 wickets. Thomas Boxall was the second-highest wicket-taker with 38

Other leading bowlers were Thomas Lord 30 wickets; John Wells 21; Tom Walker 18; William Bullen 15; Sylvester 10

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.

Henry Tufton with 13 ct and 13 st was the outstanding performer in the field, beating John Hammond who had 8 ct, 9 st. Another good keeper was Charles Warren with 2 ct, 10 st.

Thomas Ray and Lord Frederick Beauclerk took the most catches with 16 apiece. Tom Walker took 10 ct, 1 st; Thomas Boxall 9 ct; William Beldham 8 ct, 1 st; John Pilcher 8 ct

References

Bibliography

Ashley-Cooper, F. S. (1924). Hambledon Cricket Chronicle 1772–1796. Jenkins.
Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
Haygarth, Arthur (1862). Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Lillywhite.
Mote, Ashley (1997). The Glory Days of Cricket. Robson.
Nyren, John (1998). Ashley Mote, ed. The Cricketers of my Time. Robson.
Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.
Wilson, Martin (2005). An Index to Waghorn. Bodyline.

Additional reading

ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
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.
Britcher, Samuel, A list of all the principal Matches of Cricket that have been played (1790 to 1805), annual series
Buckley, G. B. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Cotterell.
McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.

External links

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