1756 English cricket season

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The 1756 English cricket season marks the beginning of the Hambledon era. The Hambledon team, then probably run by a parish organisation rather than the famous club which is believed to have been formed in about 1765, made its fist recorded appearances in three matches against Dartford.

There is no doubt that the Seven Years War had an impact on cricket; there is clearly a reduction in the number of major matches during its span. Many players will have joined the forces and the patrons will have been reluctant to invest in games fielding weak teams; in any case, they would need to save their money in wartime. It is also very likely that cricket’s first bowling revolution occurred in the next ten years or so as bowlers were certainly pitching the ball by 1770, but there are no surviving reports to describe the reception that pitching had when it was tried and implemented.

1 Matches
2 Other events
3 Main Sources
4 Additional References

[edit] Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Source	Result
date unknown	Dartford v Hambledon	venue unknown	WDC	result unknown
18 August (W)	Hambledon v Dartford	Broadhalfpenny Down	WDC	result unknown
30 August (M)	Dartford v Hambledon	Artillery Ground	WDC	result unknown
These three Dartford v Hambledon games are the earliest definite references to matches involving a Hambledon team. The one on Broadhalfpenny is known about because of the famous advert in the Reading Mercury concerning a dog called Rover whose owner lost him at the match. He was offering five shillings for Rover’s return but we don’t know if the poor dog was ever found again. It should be said that the advert does not conclusively prove that Hambledon was playing Dartford that day, but in the light of subsequent reports it seems a more than reasonable assumption. We know nothing of the "first match" except that the last of the three on Monday 30 August was billed as "the deciding match between the two elevens" and played for £50 a side. Furthermore, in the Public Advertiser announcement which Mr Waghorn recorded re the game below on Mon 6 September, Dartford is said to have beat Hampshire (sic) 3 matches successively. Ashley Mote in GDC has not recognised the "first match". He lists only the games on Broadhalfpenny and the Artillery Ground but there seems little doubt from the evidence that three matches did take place. John Goulstone in HMM does recognise three matches but he says that one of them was played on Dartford Brent. In fact, there is no evidence at all of when or where the assumed "first match" was played. Mr Goulstone then says that Hambledon and Dartford had won one each before Dartford won the decider at the Artillery Ground. The only indication we have of results is that Dartford won all three as recorded by Mr Waghorn (and repeated by Mr Goulstone himself in another place). Although the third match at the Artillery Ground may have been designated the deciding match, it was not literally so and would have been a decider only if honours had been even after the first two. The primary source clearly states that Dartford won three matches successively. We have no definite knowledge of Hambledon cricket before 1756 but the team must have gained repute already to be capable of attempting three matches against Dartford, which had been a famous club since the 1720s if not earlier. Hambledon had presumably earned recognition as the best parish team in Hampshire, but no reports of their local matches have been found. We do not know when the Hambledon Club was founded and it seems likely that some kind of parish organisation was operating in 1756, although there may well have been a patron involved.
6 September (M)	London v Dartford	Artillery Ground	WDC	result unknown
Played for £50 a side. London had John Bryant, Joe Harris, Durling and (George?) Smith playing for them.
9 September (Th)	Dartford v London	Dartford Brent	WDC	result unknown
In the announcement for the game on Mon 6 September, it says "the second match will be played on Dartford Brim (sic) by the same gentlemen".

[edit] Other events

In WDC, Mr Waghorn records a pre-announcement that a "fives" game involving a Hambledon side would be played on Sat 28 August at the Artillery Ground. The Hambledon players are unnamed but their opponents were a strong team: Tom Faulkner, Joe Harris, John Frame, John Bell and Durling. No details of the result were recorded. Stakes were £20 a side. This may have been a curtain raiser for the main event on Monday 30 August.

English cricket teams in the 18th century

English cricket venues in the 18th century

English cricket seasons to 1815

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to 1815 • 1816-1863 • 1864-1889 • 1890-1918 • 1919-1945 • 1946-1968 • 1969-2000 • from 2001

[edit] Main Sources

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians - various publications
At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742 - 1751 by F S Ashley-Cooper in Cricket Magazine (1900) (ASW)
Cricket Scores 1730 - 1773 by H T Waghorn (WCS)
Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket by G B Buckley (FL18)
Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket by G B Buckley (FLPV)
Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century by Timothy J McCann (TJM)
The Dawn of Cricket by H T Waghorn (WDC)