1729 English cricket season

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The oldest cricket bat still in existence dates from 1729. Note the shape, which is more like that of a modern-day hockey stick than a modern-day cricket bat. It is kept in the Sandham Room in the Member's Pavilion at the Oval in London.

There is a bat in The Oval pavilion which belonged to John Chitty of Knaphill, Surrey. Dated 1729, it is the oldest known bat. It looks more like a field hockey stick than a modern cricket bat but its curvature was to enable the batsman to play a ball that was always rolled, as in bowls, never pitched. Pitching began about 35-40 years later and the straight bats we use nowadays were created in response to the pitched delivery.

The earliest reference to cricket at Oxford University seems to have made by Dr Samuel Johnson, no less. He was there for one year and says he played cricket there.

A local game in Gloucester on Monday 22 September is the earliest known reference to cricket in Gloucestershire.

[edit] Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Source	Result
5 Aug (Tu)	London v Dartford	Kennington Common	FL18	Dartford won
28 Aug (Th)	Mr Edward Stead’s XI v Sir William Gage’s XI	Penshurst Park	WDC	Sir William Gage’s XI won by innings?
? Sept	Sussex, Surrey & Hampshire v Kent	Lewes	WDC	result unknown

Mr Buckley recorded the date of London v Dartford as Tuesday 8 August but it is believed 3 August is correct.

Stead v Gage was also titled Kent (Stead) v Surrey, Sussex & Hampshire (Gage). It was 11 a side and played for 100 guineas with "some thousands" watching. It seems to have been the first known innings victory as Gage got (within three) in one hand, as the former did in two hands, so the Kentish men (i.e., Stead’s team) threw it up. It is said that a groom of the Duke of Richmond signalised himself by extraordinary agility and dexterity (presumably this was Thomas Waymark).

This is the first time that Sussex and Hampshire are used in a team name, though not individually.

A report dated 13 September says that: the great match played at Penshurst will be played again in Sussex.