1763 English cricket season

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The 1763 English cricket season was an important year for the future of cricket as it marked the end of the Seven Years' War. This meant that French influence in India was reduced to a handful of trading posts and its hopes of an eastern Empire were no more, though Bonaparte certainly tried to revive those hopes. Great Britain expanded its interests in India and the era of the British Raj and the consequent hegemony of cricket in Indian sport began.

In the short term, economic hardship at home meant little for investment in cricket and we have only a couple of matches in 1763.

Wednesday 30 July. WDC records the death of Mr Edmund Chapman of Chertsey in his 69th year, which means he was born in either 1694 or 1695. Chapman was an eminent master bricklayer and "accounted one of the most dextrous cricket players in England". We have no earlier references to Edmund Chapman who must have been active c.1715 to c.1740, presumably playing for Chertsey, or perhaps Croydon, and for Surrey as a county.

[edit] Historical background

The Seven Years' War was formally ended by the Treaty of Paris in February. The Earl of Bute signed on behalf of Great Britain.

Great Britain expanded its North American Empire to its greatest-ever extent as a result of this treaty. France ceded all its possessions in Canada and all its territory east of the Mississippi, apart from the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. In addition, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain. In historical terms, this was very important as it ensured that English ideals and customs would prevail in the USA and Canada while those countries developed during the next two centuries.

But of more immediate importance was the fact that the Seven Years War exhausted the British and French treasuries and this became the proximate cause of the two great revolutions to follow. Great Britain mistakenly tried to recover its costs at the expense of American colonists and this caused the American Revolution. France by supporting the Americans completely bankrupted itself in the process and this created the revolutionary situation of 1789.

[edit] Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Source	Result
3 August (W)	Surrey v Middlesex	Ripley Green	WDC	Middlesex won "with great ease"
This was played for £200 and Middlesex won "with great ease"
22 & 23 August (M-Tu)	Middlesex v Surrey	Artillery Ground	WDC	Middlesex won
This was a return match announced in the report of the first. WDC records this and says the match was not reported, but the result is in WCS by the same author! WCS says Middlesex won “by a great majority”. FLPV records that a spectator during play on the Monday lost over £20 to a pickpocket! The Artillery Ground had by this time fallen into disrepute and it would not last much longer as a major venue.